This is not a destination cafe. It is a standard museum/gallery cafe. Admittedly,the standard of those has skyrocketed,so now a selection of herbal teas,massive meringues and pots of grenola and fruit layered Greek yogurt are the bog-standard.
So, athough there was a decent selection of appetising-looking food,my mackerel salad was tasty,and the service was good, it's nowt special considering its competition.Not crap by any means,but rather meh.
All the savoury food was plastic-wrapped in a self-service chiller,so you'd might as well walk across the road to Pret (more choice,more tables).
My lemon and orange cake was dry and mostly tasted of icing. A lemon and an orange can only have had a very passing acquaintance with it - wafted over the top of it maybe,or juggled by someone standing nearby.
Despite the efforts of some of 'London's top architects' this basement cafe alas feels like what it is - a cramped,noisy basement. For me, the Portrait Cafe would do an alright job at being somewhere in a gallery to stop for a desperately needed cuppa, or to have a cramped, depressing lunch during a downpour on holiday (if I couldn't be arsed to cross the road). But it's far too noisy to be able to enjoy a conversation,about,say,portraits.
As it's one of our national institutions, I expected more from the NPG. read more