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| The Table, Southwark SE1 |
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| La Marzocco espresso machine, The Table SE1 |
The Table makes one of the best cups of coffee in SE1. It also serves up unfailingly delicious food from breakfast to well past sundown. In the year and a half I spent working in Southwark, The Table became my go-to spot for a hangover cure (bacon sandwich on sourdough), morning snack (giant dark chocolate and raspberry muffins), tea with PRs, or a cardboard box of delights from the salad counter. In the evenings church candles flicker, jazz quartets play, and the menu morphs from salads and sandwiches to seasonal dishes like slow-braised guinea fowl with wilted spinach.
The Table is on the ground floor of an architect's office and is co-owned by several partners from the firm. It shows. Everything is clean, modern and spirit-level-straight lines. The glass windows run from floor to ceiling, seating is at communal oak benches or stools at the counter. Giant glass vases filled with lilies are the only decoration.
The menus are constantly changing but there are some hardy annuals:
The char-grilled bacon baguette (salvation of many a hungover SE1 worker bee)
Sweet, crunchy granola made with Regent's Park honey and topped with luscious yogurt
The Midnight Cuban - a floury bun stuffed with pulled pork, ham, pickles, Swiss cheese and mustard...
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| The Midnight Cuban, The Table SE1 |
Special mention must also go to the cakes - there's always a rustic beauty perched on the cake stand by the till to tempt you - think lemon drizzle layer cake, dark chocolate and berry torte or apple and date olive oil cake...
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| Apple and date cake, The Table SE1 |
The Table isn't cheap. A takeaway box of quiche and salad will set you back £8 or £9 and a bacon sarnie is currently £4. But while it's pricey, justify it thus - for a few £s more than at the Pret opposite you can transform your lunch from 'feh' to fantastic.
I've just left my job at The Ministry of Magazines TM in Southwark to become a freelance writer. And while this is very exciting, and the fulfilment of a lifelong dream - I don't half miss The Table. If you happen to be passing, you couldn't pop in and grab me a Midnight Cuban and a latte, could you?
The Table cafe, 83 Southwark Street, London SE1 0HX
Thetablecafe.com
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8 comments:
Good luck with the freelancing, Mrs. x
Wow - that looks awesome. I used to love the chef's tweets but it looks like he's left now.
I went to The Table yonks ago to give someone a KitchenAid they'd won in a raffle. My experience is clouded by a taxi driver refusing to take me from london bridge ("you can walk it, love") and then having the carry a 13kg machine down that road. Oof. Looks like they warrant another visit though!
I didn't know you'd left! Good luck with it all, am sure I'll see you somewhere food-related soon. xx
Kavey - thanks!
Saffron - thanks, all very recent - been freelance for exactly 6 days and counting.
Lizzie - definitely worth a repeat visit sans KitchenAid, I think it's still head chef Shaun Alpine-Crabtree doing most of The Table's tweeting.
Why waste your life queuing at Monmouth Coffee? Pop along to The Table instead, definitely worth it.
Good luck with the freelancing.
I stay nearby! I pass by so often but never even walked in. Not cheap I say, but that pulled pork does look tempting.
Good luck with the freelancing, that's a really brave and inspiring move. I hope I have the guts to do something I really love and to work on my own when I graduate.
(oh and saw you in the stylist list. congrats!)
Congratulations on appearing in Stylist list - well done.
Peanuts, Shu Han, Mrs Pepperpot - thanks, I am completely thrilled (and shocked!) about the Stylist list.
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