Sourced Market is great, and a real godsend to those who want a more continental-style food experience in St. Pancras. Anyone who thinks decadence is dead in KX has not visited Sourced recently. They cater to almost every desire, serving delicious hot pies, soups, sandwiches and coffee on one side and amazing charcuterie, cheese, beer and wine on the other. When I want to "show off" the area to those passing through for lunch, I invariably take them here. Also, the staff are terrific (with one or two noticeable exceptions). They are friendly, helpful and often quite knowledgeable about what's on the menu/under the counter. The coffee is, hands down, the best I have come across in the St. Pancras/King's Cross neighbourhood. Though the whole area is a bit sparse on the coffee side. That might change as KX continues its inevitable path to gentrification (along with rising rents and a higher wanker quotient--honestly, I preferred the prostitutes and heroin addicts to the shiny-skinny-suits, urban Amish, faux-furs, and kamikaze bicycle fanatics).
There are only two down-sides to Sourced. The first is the seating arrangements. Unlike every other business in St. Pancras, there is no inside seating at all. Which means in the winter, you are essentially eating outside in the cold. Not fun. Why not install some low-level heating either free-standing or under the tables? When even the employees are so quilted and bemuffled that you can't distinguish their gender, let alone understand what they're saying to you, you know temperature is a problem that's discouraging customers.
The second concern is the prices. For a place that offers no table service, and indeed, no _walls_, the cost of a bottled beer is quite high, and for a glass of wine, it's downright extortionate. Honestly, I feel not so much like I am buying a drink as I have been taken captive by the staff and am paying a ransom for my release. It's one thing to pay £7 for a glass of wine in a decent restaurant, but to drink it at a bare table on a children's high stool in the middle of a cold rail station? Ridiculous, especially when the bottle right behind you on the shelf is selling for £13. Ditto the deli counter--those pigs must be eating truffles and sh*tting foie gras for what 250g. of their rarefied flesh costs.
But, gods help me, I still can't stay away from the manchego and chorizo. I think I might have a problem, one that only grows with each bite of hazel-nut-hand-fed serrano. read more