Café Marina

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• What are these?

• Average price 2 courses: £8

• High point: Marina welcoming you like a long-lost relative
• Low point: Space is scarce
• Food served: Mon-Sun 8am-6pm
• Open since: 2002
• Also offers: Vegetarian options (at least 25% of menu), Childrens portions, Take away

The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 is now in the shops.

This review is from the 2007 edition.

Even cold and blustery days yield to the warm welcome awaiting all and sundry inside Café Marina. Like the best sort of Italian hostess, owner Marina Crolla (of the Valvona & Crolla family) wants to make even a simple lunch special. She proudly offers a daily changing abundance of specials: panini for a quick pit-stop, pasta that sticks to your ribs and frittata for the wheat-intolerant. All the ingredients come from Valvona & Crolla - whose commitment to finding the best organic and seasonal Italian produce is well known - and are stirred up into something wonderful by Marina and her Sicilian chef Concetta Meile. Sadly, seating is limited and, since competition for the tables is high, there isn't time to linger. However, Marina's commitment to making your meal as perfect as possible makes up for this. With plans to introduce BYOB in the summer evenings and a larger range of cakes, the café will be even more hospitable. And if tables are full, many dishes can be taken away. But be fast, as the most popular items are snapped up quickly.