Bill's

After 5 + City Pig’s summary      

Snapshot
Cuisine/Speciality:	Cafe/Brassiere
Price:	£16 each for a main meal, soft drink and service charge.
Healthy:	·         Healthy scale 3/5           A lot of comfort food on the menu but vegetable and salad             sides  available.
Tasty:	·         3.5/5 – Food ·         4.5/5 – Service ·         3/5 – Comfort of dining in ·         3/5 - Value ·         3.5/5 – Overall rating
Occasion:	·         Casual brunch/lunch/afternoon tea/coffee break/dinner
Address:	9 White Lion Street, London N1 9PD. Nearest tube station               is Angel.
Opening times	·        Monday to Saturday: 8am to 11pm ·        Sunday: 9am to 10:30pm
Eat in/Takeaway:	Eat-in
Recommended dishes & drinks	·         Fish and chips ·         Great selection of desserts. ·         Cinnamon doughnuts with chocolate sauce and            strawberries are a winner.
Vegetarian dishes	Suitable for Vegetarians.
Loyalty card	No.
Website	http://www.bills-website.co.uk/

After 5 + City Pig’s analysis

Bill’s is a place to come if you fancy modern and classic European dishes. It is like a café but offers more than coffee and tea. It has a menu jam packed with a lot of dishes ranging from fish and chips, burgers and fries, classic fish pies and specials like BBQ ribs. For brunch, there is the classic English breakfast and pancakes. Then for teatime, there are scones, lamingtons and Eton Mess.

Bill’s have been sprucing up all over town and it is not hard to see why with their friendly service and attentive service and a menu that has a great comfort food to see us through these cold spells.

I experienced fantastic customer service, such as asking if I wanted table water, asking if we needed more napkins because we chose a messy ribs dish. Offering to take a photo is just another example of attentive service which even posh restaurants fail to deliver.

It is colourful inside with walls lined with jams and tins stocked with Bill’s own produce.

It is a feel good place to bring friends to have a lazy brunch and lunch. There is also absolutely no need to feel you have to wear anything special here as it is very casual not like many artisan boutique breakfast bars.

Classic dishes like fish and chips are a no-nonsense choice. Portions are generous and you will be very full. There is a large selection of desserts to tempt those with bigger appetites and you really should leave some room. The cinnamon doughnuts for example, are a real delight, hot, light and puffy.
I recommend coming here in the weekends for brunch, to line those stomachs and warm yourself up with plenty of coffee.

Coffee presented to me.

Coffee pattern I created.

Salvation Jane - Cafe

City Pig’s summary

Snapshot
Cuisine:	Cafe
Price:	£15 Approximate cost for lunch and drink (one main dish and a soft drink.)
Healthy:	·         A variety of dishes have vegetables. ·         Beware of the cakes.
Tasty:	·         2.5/5 – Food (main dishes) (Desserts and coffees 3/5) ·         3/5 – Service ·         3/5 – Overall rating
Occasion:	·         Eat in. ·         Take-away. ·         Coffee catch ups or business meetings
Address:	Unit 2, 1 Oliver’s Yard, 55 City Rd, EC1Y1HQ (near Old Street tube station).
Opening times	Monday to Friday – 7:30am-3pm Saturday to Sunday – 9am-3:30pm
Eat in/Takeaway:	Eat-in and take-aways.
Recommended dishes & drinks	Cheesecake Latte
Vegetarian dishes	Yes
Loyalty card	No.
Website	http://www.salvationjanecafe.co.uk/
Notes	Another Aussie style café – similar to its sister restaurant Lantana. Amazing cakes and coffees that keeps this place going.

City Pig’s analysis

After, having been to Lantana, I thought why not try the sister café Salvation Jane. It is near Old Street station and is a good sized café compared to the small Lantana café.

This is an Aussie style café that brings one of the best coffees and cakes to the City. Take-away baguettes and sandwiches are at the front. The menu for sit down is much more expensive than one may expect.

A range of food can be found here, ranging from Thai fish cakes to risottos to salads.

I noticed how small the dishes were and was not impressed seeing the cost for a main was around £9. My colleagues and I had ordered Thai fishcakes, Duck noodle salad and the risotto.

All were relatively small and we all even had room for dessert.

The desserts were amazing, the cheesecake was divine. Everything about it was perfect. It was smooth and light. The lemon polenta cake was also very refreshing and went well with my latte.

The service was efficient and polite. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience as it was spacious here too.

However, the mains could be tastier and the price is too steep in comparison to the portion size. I much preferred the coffee and cakes and think an afternoon coffee break here would be ideal.

Lantana - cafe

After 5 + City Pig’s Summary

Snapshot
Cuisine:	Café - European
Price:	Average spend £14 per person (Main meal and drink)
Healthy:	Relatively healthy in comparison to the traditional fry ups.
Tasty:	4/5 – Food 3/5 – Service 2.5/5 – Comfort of dining in 4/5 – Overall rating
Address:	13 Charlotte Place Fitzrovia W1T1SN
Opening times	Monday to Friday – 8am to 6pm Saturday and Sunday – 9am to 5pm
Eat in/Takeaway:	Eat-in and take-aways.
Recommended dishes & drinks	French toast and latte.
Vegetarian dishes	Yes
Loyalty card	No
Website	http://www.lantanacafe.co.uk/
Notes	A chilled out place to catch some brunch. No bookings though.

After 5 + City Pig’s analysis

Lantana located near Goodge Street is a café that brings an interesting brunch menu.

It is a small café, neatly tucked into Charlotte place.

The brunch menu offers a mix of sweet and savoury dishes. The classic dishes such as sausage and beans have an added twist with other ingredients that changes the traditional dishes to something unique.

I opted for the French toast with berries, honey ricotta and toasted almonds. I initially fancied the “Maple French toast with crisp bacon, grilled bananas and candied pecans” which I found on the internet. However, I was informed this was the old menu that had not been updated.

When the French toast arrived, I was not disappointed that this new combination also worked well.

The French toast was cooked to perfection. The berries gave it an extra acidic bite and the ricotta helped bind it together like cream. After a while, it can be a bit dry which is where the maple syrup would have helped. Nonetheless, I was very satisfied and was it quite filling.

City Pig’s pal opted for the savoury dish of ham hock and beans. This was a very hearty and comfort dish. The beans were soft and covered with a tomato spice, and with two poached eggs and toast.

I personally preferred the French toast, as the flavours were definitely very moreish.

The latte I ordered, was just beautiful with the flower pattern on top. The taste was rich and very beany as I would expect from the Australian style coffee.

I came here at the weekend and it was already busy at 1pm. It was interesting to see a range of people in here from young families to twenty to thirty year olds catching up with friends in here.

There are some newspapers and magazines free to read if one is here alone. Lantana is quite small though and not the most comfortable place as seats is quite hard. For larger groups it may be more comfortable at Salvation Jane.

The sister newly opened restaurant in Old Street (Salvation Jane) is much bigger and comfortable. (Salvation Jane review will feature soon by City Pig.)

A café that brings new twists to traditional brunch menus.

Summary of Citypig’s meal with pal:

o   Sanpelle  Can                    £1.70

o   Latte                                   £2.50

o   French Toast                     £9.00

o   Ham hock and beans       £10.50

12.5% S.C                             £2.96

Total                                       £26.66