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.
£5.70?? F**k me with a marrow!!!!
ReplyDeleteIf we'd got a table in Tea on the Green, we'd have no change from a twenty. But at least it would be home-made and tasty. It's devastating having a princely voucher to spend completely on lunch, and nothing inspiring to spend it on.
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