I had planned a peaceful pub Sunday lunch, but when my daughter announced she had to immediately return something to a shop, and that it simply couldn’t wait, I resigned myself to crowds, car parks and a shopping centre lunch instead.
The goods returned, and feeling hungry, we decided to stop off at the centre’s M&S Cafe. Its Mother’s Day afternoon tea had proved more than impressive earlier this year and the £10 deal is available all year.
I was surprised to see the range of dishes you can get here, it’s really much more than you’d typically expect from a store cafe (but I guess this is an M&S Cafe after all).
There are brunch options including the big breakfast, or the big veggie breakfast, a bacon or sausage ciabatta, an omelette bun and tortilla with salad.
In the ‘Meals and Jackets’ section, there are potatoes with various fillings, grazing platters, a chicken burger and beer battered fish and chips.
Appetites raised by traipsing around the shopping centre, we chose the latter two.
Ordering is so simple from the touchscreens at the entrance to the cafe. It’s helpful to be able to scroll through the screens to see what takes your fancy before ordering. From there you take a tracker which lets staff know where you are sitting when they bring your order out. It’s all very efficient and our drinks and desserts (we were thinking ahead) arrived in no time at all.
My hungry daughter would probably have taken the head off her mini Colin The Caterpillar had the main meals also then not arrived so swiftly after just another 10 minutes.
Delivered to the table with a smile, we were given cutlery, sauces and salt and pepper from our very pleasant waiter. It’s better service than you get at most pubs, where often you’re left to fend for yourself and see whose spare salt shaker you can grab.
The food itself was pub standard too. My daughter’s ciabatta bun was a little too hard, but she managed to chomp her way through it. No complaints with the rest of it.
With our desserts already on the table, we didn’t even have to wait for our pudding and both were as tasty as they looked. Plus we’d already paid the bill, which came in at around £28 for the lot, so we could just get up and leave when ready.
They don’t sell booze, so that might score it lower than a pub in some people’s minds, but you can’t get an iced latte at most pubs, or a rhubarb and raspberry frappe, or a cookies and cream milkshake.
And they certainly don’t sell caterpillar cakes. Who could ever be disappointed with a meal out that ends with a mini Colin?