Burnt Oak is not noted for its fine dining opportunities. The cafes on Watling Avenue and Burnt Oak Broadway are alright in their own way. (I will spare you the sordid details of every cup of tea I've ever drunk in one or other of them - since I am not standing for election there is no call for such shameless name-dropping.) But none of them provides the decent coffee and pastry that I have come to expect almost as a human right.
Imagine my delight, then, when as I bustled up the road to Edgware Hospital this morning for my free cholesterol check, I saw a new cafe called "Lalgerois". It boasted "pastries, paninis, coffee, wedding cakes". Behind that eccentric spelling - it should be "l'algerois", non? - I thought, might nestle a north African eatery. I was right!
After a 14-hour fast (I think, the longest I have ever gone without something passing my lips), my appointment with the phlebotomist over, I went in there and fell on a tasty apricot danish and very acceptable cup of strong coffee.
Just opposite Lloyds Motor Spares, Lalgerois has a pleasant salon with tables inside and outside, a really impressive display of cakes, a charming lady serving, and the sound of French hip-hop drifting not too obtrusively from the kitchen.
Added to the shisha garden that has rather incongruously opened in the car-park of the Lansdowne pub, perhaps the northern end of the Edgware Road like the southern will soon have its own "Arab quarter". (Apologies to any Iranians reading, who generally, not always for good reasons, hate for their culture to be mistaken for Arabic.)
I, for one, would be most happy for that.
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2 comments:
Cappucinos in Burnt Oak. Arggghhh !!!! This is my worst nightmare. Vicki M scourge of Tories and BNP nutters everywhere is really a yuppee !!!!!
Now it is clear that you need an education in the superb culinary history of Burnt Oak. I spent my breaks during my school years spent at Orange Hill School in Burnt Oak whiling away my time in cafes such as the Betta Cafe opposite the station, famed for it's service lift to the kitchens. A finer cup of tea could be found nowhere.
Then there was the chinese restaurant on the High Street. This was the sight of many birthday and family events for the Tichborne family and was widely acknowledged as the best chinese in the area late 60's and early 70's.
Then there was the chippy in Deansbrook. To this day one of the finer chippies. The cafe down the road also does a fine bacon sarnie at a very reasonable price.
When I lived in Mollison Way I was a regular customer of the Indian Restaurant, which was second to none.
Then there was the Tonibell Ice cream parlour opposite the station.
Finally a special mention of what used to be the finest kebab house in the world. The Istanbul express. Also sadly gone.
Vicki, careful what you wish for. Today its cappucinos in Burnt Oak, tomorrow it will be Conservatives !
Have I told you about my shares in Caffe Nero? (Not really.)
It's my only weakness, m'lud.
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