Word of Mouth

This review appears in the The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 – in the shops now or buy online.

Here is an unusual hybrid between a café and a restaurant. Open all day for breakfast, coffees and takeaway sandwiches, it also serves hot lunches and substantial dinners. The tables are packed tightly together, and a good sized corner of the room behind the counter is kitted out as a full kitchen. The staff cook everything from panini to deep-fried calamari here, and have no secrets from the diners. Starters from a generous mezze menu include fat and satin soft gigantes – butter beans with carrot, tomato and parsley sauce. The mezze also star in a special deal, which makes the most of the casual set up – five mezze plus fries for £15 to hoard for yourself or to graze with a friend. The menu features some Greek favourites, such as moussaka cooked with a particularly pleasing contrast between the edges of the starchy, saucy and meaty layers. Other dishes come from other Mediterranean areas, so expect ideas such as chicken with potato gnocchi and seared salmon with green beans, olives, anchovies and tomatoes. The passion for home baking is such that pudding parties are sometimes held, and even the everyday cake selection is a wide one.

• High point: A café-cum-restaurant, making it a flexible friend
• Low point: The buzz tends to ebb and flow over the course of the week