M&S Revive, High Street

Visited on the 26th January 2013, for afternoon tea.

As usual, the Saturday human traffic not only dominated both the pavement and road (much to the annoyance of buses), but filled most of Exeter's many street cafes.

Sadly for us, this meant that today our rest-stop in Tea on the Green was not meant to be, though the waiter politely informed us that we could wait outside in the cold and watch other people gorge themselves on delicious food and hot drinks until a table became free. Given that there was already a small crowd of hungry customers loitering outside the window, we decided to try our luck elsewhere.

Tired and cold, we somehow found ourselves in the corporate dullness of M&S Revive. The main reason for this choice was a gift card of unknown value that we had in our possession, so we were overjoyed to discover that it was worth the impressive sum of £30. An amount of feast-worthy proportions.

Revive- top floor

Feeling frivolous with our new-found wealth, we escalated excitedly to the third floor. Oh, the luxury we could afford! We were so caught up in the moment we hadn't even considered going to the food hall and spending it all on wine!

We arrived, and I scanned the hot food signs for the vegan option. I had a hankering for a toasted houmous sandwich (like the one I had dreamt of while on the way to Tea on the Green), and after all, we were in Marks and Spencer - suppliers of quality world food - and I was ready to scoff their vegan delights. So I was disappointed to discover that the dairy-free options were all meat-based, and the veggie options consisted of a toasted cheese sandwich, or another type of toasted cheese sandwich.

Resigned to my lacto-fate, I reluctantly plumped for a toasted cheese sandwich. But cows cheese had been flavour of the day, so I had to have the alternative toasted cheese sandwich instead- the mozzarella, tomato and rocket focaccia.

Now, I'm not very familiar with focaccia breads, but I'm pretty sure that traditionally it isn't microwaved. It arrived soft and warm, with the texture of cheap brioche and fused quite convincingly to the napkin. I had expected it to be more like a panini, with a crispy crust and maybe some sesame seeds, but either I have been mis-educated in bread, or they'd served me one of their kitchen sponges by mistake. The tomatoes were strong and chewy, almost like they were sun-dried (but I suspect industrially dried for preservation and semi-rehydrated by the cheese), and the limp looking rocket salad appeared to have been thrown at the plate from across the room.

Taste-wise the quality was just about there, but the cold, hard truth was that we were in a department store, with a waitress expectantly waiting to clear our table for the next customers. No music, no atmosphere, and the rows of men's pants just a couple of metres behind us.

My meal and orange juice deprived us of around £5.70 (with a total spend of £9.85 for both of us). Despite this, we left the shop with a lowly 15p remaining on our £30 card. I think I will get much more enjoyment out of my new knickers.