A first museum meal of the new year and as with all new-year resolutions, time for something annoyingly healthy to offset the excesses of the past month.
As such, and as I was in the area, off to the Wellcome Collection to try and get a bite to eat there. It’s a difficult one to eat in though, as on several occasions I have been in to see exhibits, or use the library, and the cafe is packed.
This time, just enough space tables and a shortage of queues to take the gamble that at least one table would be free by the time I am paying for my food. It’s a cafeteria type service, where you collect food and take it to the table.
Lunch today was a spinach quiche and a lentil/beetroot salad. And obvs, a coffee.
It turned out to be a cold quiche, which isn’t a huge problem but I prefer them hot. Then again that would have worked against the salad, which was not bad at all. Actually, I’ve made a mental note to make it at home.
Huge chunks of beetroot in a sea of lentils, and small amount of feta cheese. The small amount of cheese not doing much to sate my passion for sharp cheeses, and with the soft flavours of the rest of the plate, maybe more cheese would have sharpened it up a bit.
It was an odd meal. Pleasant, enjoyable, nice. But oddly unfulfilling. Maybe I ordered a salad when I probably wanted a hot stew. Needed something more filling and warm.
A cold quiche and salad on a cold day, is very healthy, very new-year’s-healthy-resolution, very honourable. It left me feeling that I had eaten something good, and wholesome and morally superior to the greasy spoon I might have otherwise succumbed to. Very intellectually filling.
It’s a place to visit for healthy options.
I was however surprised when picking up the receipt, to notice that the cafe is run by the same organisation who run venues in a number of museums. Venues that have generally appalled me. How odd that they can offer good food in one place, but not the others.
Cost: £8.65 for quiche, salad and coffee
Stars: 4 out of 5
Date: 9th January 2015
Summary: Decent enough wholesome food in a large cafe space, which is sufficiently popular to require three visits in the past week before I found an empty table.
