Hurried lunch with the boyf near his snazzy building whilst I am on the job hunt? Why not! Forgoing Starbucks due to my general dislike of the chain, we opted for Philpotts. It never seemed to be open when we were both frequent users of the gym (ahem, this time last year for me..) it appears to do a storming trade during lunch time, so why be open out of the hours 11 - 3?
The layout of the room is very easy to navigate, with only two tills taking payments, skipping over the issue often found at eateries such as Katsouri's, when you're not quite sure where you can order and then pay, usually leading to a lot of huffing and puffing. I decided not to eat, foolishly, because I had some soup in the fridge waiting to be eaten up. The boyf took no pity on me and tucked into a jacket potato with beans&cheese, cheese first as offered, while I worked my way through a yoghurt with forest fruits and granola. If I worked in an office near a Philpotts, you wouldn't be able to get me out of it. The forest fruits were lovely and sweet, the sandwiches were more than tempting, and the salad bar was a great sight, even better was the small queue forming along the counter. The jacket potato skin was, sadly, a bit hard to cut through using the plastic knife & fork and the set up of the hot food could be offputting for many; meat and potatoes sitting under heat lamps. It didn't put me off considering the doors had probably only been open for about 30 minutes.
Philpotts, please get more seating. I know you're working the niche of the working lunch but watching people standing up and eating was (almost) enough for me to offer my seat to everyone who passed. Oh, and I love the crisp display. read more