The London Particular, New Cross

Is New Cross, my 'hood, finally becoming trendy? Along a stretch of shabby looking houses, rough-looking pubs and of course our favourite nightclub, The Venue, outside of which there is a booze-fuelled chavtastic fight every weekend, a little coffee shop popped up. I gawped at it on its day of opening when I hurried past, my sights set on a bubble tea but I vowed to return to check it out. Billed as a 'bowl food cafe', it's so named after the blend of coffee they use.

On a Saturday afternoon at 1pm, it was busy; all the seats outside were taken, and the solo large communal table indoors had a spare couple of places for me and my friends. Delicious-looking cakes line the windows, and the weekend brunch menu proudly declares all its food as home made, aside from the bread. Coffee, though it took half an hour to arrive, was smooth, rich and well made.

After huge deliberation, I decided upon a bacon, halloumi and fresh tomato sandwich, with roasted garlic mayonnaise, and a side salad. This beast turned up, without the salad which appeared a few minutes later when I enquired after it. I was worried the bacon and halloumi combination would be too salty, but the tang of the tomato balanced it nicely. The mayonnaise gave a wimpish hint of garlic. Salad was of the chickpea, squash, rocket and cauliflower variety, nicely dressed with lemon.

All in all, a very good lunch. I was confused by their pricing though; the sandwich came in at a very reasonable £5, but because the sausage sandwich came with a side salad (priced altogether at £6), I assumed the bacon and halloumi would too. I was wrong, and I was charged an extra £3 for it. I ended up spending a tenner on my lunch, which caused me to raise (alright, arch) my eyebrow.

The service may be slow, but I'll forgive them that as they have only just opened. With more careful ordering, I will definitely be back; it's high time New Cross had a decent cafe.

The London Particular

339 New Cross Road
London SE14 6LA