La Cucina is brilliant. I'm literally lost for words when trying to describe some of their food - it's too good to reduce with cliche; the appropriate superlatives escape me.
Let's just say that I am perfectly capable of making poached eggs on toast and yet there is just something about how LC does it that makes me a true devotee.
Although, that's not what got me hooked. THAT pleasure went to their Thai chicken salad box. It's food that's got flavour - real flavour, not added in by salt, sauces or cheese! And don't get me started on their delicious potato salad...
Basically, you walk in and are met with an array of fresh, colourful, wonderful food, which distracts you from the chalk-filled blackboard menu walls - there are over 50 choices of filling, neatly organised into 'brief affairs', 'happy marriages' and so on.
My current addiction is their vanilla lattes (I'm not sure what they're doing differently but it's a.may.zing!), and it's very hard to resist their home-made cakes, muffins, brownies and other treats.
It's a homely little place that feels lived in but also has a cafe feel. Regulars can often be overheard chatting with the girls who run it and cookbooks fill the wee stand by the couches in the window section.
The only thing that even remotely detracts from it is that the service is sometimes a little slow; but this is mostly due to how busy it can be and that a lot of things are cooked fresh on the premises.
It's a wee haven and now I've got a hankering for poached eggs on that wonderful thick-cut home-made wholemeal toast... read more