Beanstalk Cafe

Great eggs bennie… and at a reasonable price… java is ok, but depends on who is sucking the bean.

Beanstalk has a pretty amazing selection of hot and cold foods for lunch. Trick is to get in early, that is between 12 and 1 pm, or there won’t be much left.
There’s a selection of hot food, from curries to continental dishes like a Tuscany chicken served with steamed rice. No fuss fusion here, the salad bar or rather chiller, groans under the weight of the large trays of food. You’ll find a good mix of food nationalities here; Mexican corn fritters with a Thai inspired coconut dressing for example. Or a chicken and pumpkin salad with a curry like dressing. Even the baguettes aren’t free from fusion– do try the Peking duck baguette.
I’ve noticed by the time I get down to the café, a lot of the sandwiches are gone, or maybe they just have little and focus more on the salad and hot food ranges. Not complaining about that, as the serving sizes are huge and worth the tenner you paid.
Service is warm and friendly every time I’m there, and prompt too. Even when the crowds ten to fifteen deep.
The café also serves breakfast and is open early.

Thankfully most businesses have come a long way from the old fashioned cafeteria at the base of the building. However I am often reminded that office building cafes can have exude a sense of conveyer belt automation around lunchtime that is reminiscent of a bi-​gone era. This isn’t a criticism, merely a fact of life for cafes that have to serve a mob of hungry office workers who have very limited time to waste.
Keeping the above in mind the food here at lunchtime is not bad. It’s nothing to write home to nona about with an enclosed secret recipe you had to pry from the chef’s fingers with a bottle of wine, but it’s not bad. There are always lunch specials and having been to boarding school when I was younger the food lives up to my nostalgic memory of bulk produced food.
The staff are friendly and mean very well, alas, they too are victims to the time/​service/​capacity predicament that occurs both in manufacturing businesses and worker bee cafes alike. You can always count on them for a smile but sometimes the speed of service is limited by the low staff to table ratio that seems to constantly haunt this quaint little café.
If you can, avoid the peak periods and you will find reasonable fare for a reasonable rate, just try not to go after everyone has taken all of the food :-/