Cafe 88 Goes Large... cooking does not get fresher than this

If there is one man that loves fresh ingredients then that man is Masterchef’s very own daddy of desserts, Gregg Wallace. Be it fish, fruit, meat or vegetables, barely an episode of the hit BBC show goes by when ‘ingredients expert’ Gregg isn’t hammering home the importance of using fresh ingredients.

On that basis, one place that Gregg would surely love is Café 88. Perfectly located behind the grandeur of Selfridges on Wigmore Street and occupying an imposing corner site, the place always appears busy, with a glamorous mix of smart locals and wealthy tourists permanently glued to its outside seating.

Choosing to sit inside on this particular occasion, it’s a case of going up to the large glass counter to order, and whilst there is an impressive range of tasty looking treats on show to tempt you for afters, I managed to resist and came away having merely ordered a Malbi Chicken sandwich and chips.

All of the food is made to order so there are a couple of minutes to wait but with impressive art works, which change regularly, hanging from the high-ceilings, and a copy of the Daily Telegraph usually doing the rounds, there is always something to look at whilst the action is taking place in the kitchen area.

It’s most definitely worth the wait however, as the soft, crusty white 'sandwich' arrives, packed with grilled chicken breast in a black pepper marinade, cheese, lettuce, mayonnaise, pickles, corn and soy that combine to make one awesome lunch, which the above photo will confirm, is in fact a baguette.

If this baguette, which is served warm isn’t enough then there is also a delicious fresh side salad, which uses gloriously red cherry tomatoes, an interesting mix of salad leaves and perhaps rather unusually mushroom, arranged into an attractive dish in its own right and drizzled in a superb balsamic dressing.

Everything tastes not only like it has just been made for you, which of course it has, but almost that it has just been grown for you too, or in the case of the bread, certainly freshly baked. At £4.95 when you eat in that’s not bad at all, and in fact if I worked locally I would be in here every day for certain.

Choosing to take the fusion approach once again, I washed the whole lot down with a cup of English breakfast tea with milk and two sugars. The side order of chips isn’t shown on the large white menu boards but with a golden colour and a soft potato centre they certainly should be, for all to enjoy.

Another cup of tea and a wedge of Victoria sponge round of an extremely relaxing and delicious meal. Two fox’s glacier mints arrive with the bill, ensuring that you are able to leave the premises with breath almost as fresh as the ingredients that have just gone into making your lunch.

For somewhere just off Oxford Street, Café 88 is a real find, an independent café serving fresh food at fabulous prices. So long as that stays the same, then as Arnie would put it… I’ll be back!

The Club Sandwich (Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Chicken... & Egg)

Finding myself alone on Marylebone High Street, having just been quoted £200 plus VAT for the mending of my badly frayed suit trousers, and with my stomach rumbling for food I thought that I deserved what I like to term ‘a light lunch’, ignoring the many fashionable chains and choosing to head to Bonne Bouche.

Not wanting to draw attention to the fact that I was eating alone, I quickly made for the back of the restaurant – which seems to be somewhat of a recurring theme in these reviews – and sat down at a nice quiet table for four.

Within seconds of putting my coat on the back of the chair the waitress, one of three that would eventually end up serving me, was over to take my drinks order, which after toying with the idea of a coke, decided that if I am forced to eat alone then at least I shall look English about it, and duly ordered a pot of English breakfast tea.

The menu was typical of so many West London cafés and as a distinguished connoisseur of such eateries, I ordered the Bonne Bouche Club Sandwich at a cool £6.95, which sees an egg added to the traditional combination of bacon, lettuce, tomato and chicken. An excellent addition if ever I did see one.

If the pot of tea arrived in two minutes then the food must definitely have arrived within five, and the bill following soon after that, in this expertly run establishment. Black pepper was offered and fittingly accepted before things got ‘a bit saucy’ in the form of a good healthy dose of Heinz tomato sauce to suitably cover the French fries.

All the sandwiches come with chips and a side salad, which included raw carrot, cucumber and mozzarella in a light French dressing, to go with the fries and go against my English tea, of which I was now on my second teacup.

The sandwiches were skilfully held together by the help of a cocktail stick and were far too big to eat whole leaving me with an instant dilemma, do I cut them and run the risk of valuable filling escaping out of the side or do I eat them in stages? Choosing the latter, I went through the layers one by one, noting the egg to be the winning filling.

Apart from the chicken mayo tasting as though it had come straight out of a drum marked ‘chicken mayo’, which it probably had the meal was faultless, and needless to say was cleared away as I was still chewing the last mouthful. Quickly finishing my second and final cup of tea, I paid the £8.45 bill and made my exit.

By now the place was filling up with what appeared to be regulars given the banter coming from the counter and adjoining kitchen, leaving me to wonder if one day perhaps even I could be held in the same regard. On the basis of this sitting I would certainly be happy to go back, so who knows!