Photo courtesy of ashburnhamtriangle.com

Plumtree cafe has been tempting me for a long time now, but for some reason I haven't been in. But, stuck for a spot of lunch on Saturday, with a hungry man at home I decided to see what they had to offer in terms of take away.

First impressions were that it was very pleasant, and teeming with toddlers! I'm genuinely glad that spaces like this exist for mums with young children, but with the Saturday morning headache of the currently childless I was glad that I didn't need to try and get a table.

Service was not the fastest but they were heaving and it was delivered with a smile, so I didn't really mind. It was also a little pricey (I thought) for what could easily turn out to be average fare, or small portions. Thankfully I was wrong on both those counts.

It was when I got home that I discovered the real reason that Plumtree Cafe was so busy. My goodness their food was good. Having worked in central London for about 6 years now, I've had many, many, chicken mozarella and pesto paninnis for lunch...but this was by far the best.

Fresh pesto, chicken that tasted as if it had been pinched from a roast your grandmother cooked, and remarkably flavoursome (not rubbery) mozzarella.

I got a salmon sandwich for the other half, foolishly thinking that this would be a delicate finger sandwich style affair, thus I could appear extravagant yet also watch his waistline...but oh how wrong I was. This was a doorstop of mammoth proportions! Yet the bread was still light and fluffy and the salmon and cream cheese generous.