Café Gourmand, Hale

Hale isn't exactly short of smart places to enjoy good food, so any additions to the collection need to be very sure they can tick all the right boxes - location, atmosphere, menu choice and price.

Café Gourmand is a new kid on the block, so your two little birds popped along to check it all out.

The location is spot on, within a very short walk of the train station and even closer to the car park behind Barclays Bank.

In terms of atmoshere, well, it's a café.  There's no getting away from this fact.  It's busy, not buzzy.  There is little room between tables and the space downstairs is almost wholly swallowed by the very large patisserie counter (more of which later!)  However, if you want fine dining or a jolly old pizza place - then go elsewhere.  What Cafe Gourmand promises, and on the whole delivers, is the French attitude to high street dining - good food, well cooked.

The menu is pretty extensive, with a daily specials menu as well as the a la carte options.  While BB and LB made their choice, a dish of endmame beans in a sweet chilli dressing was popped down in front of us as a complementary 'amuse bouche'.  How very Hale. 

LB opted for Thai Fish Cakes and a side of Potato Wedges (naughty!) and BB dithered between Soup of the Day and a filled Baguette, finally opting for both, with the clever 'Soup and Half a Sandwich' option.

The fish cakes were clearly home made and hand shaped.  Packed with fish and flavour, avoid if chilli isn't your thing! Chili is clearly LB's thing, as she cleared her plate.

BB's Soup of the Day choice was Celery & Cream Cheese, accompanied by a Caesar Salad Baguette.  The soup was fabulous, the filling of the Baguette was perfect, but the bread part was disappointing.  For a café that claims to model itself on the French take on café fare, this was a bit of a shocker.  The  baguette was dense and bland and pretty tasteless to be honest.  I ended up peeling it apart and transferring the filling to the rather more delicious (dark and soft and chewy and mmmm...) rye bread that accompanied the soup.

Now - back to the Patisserie counter.  It's impossible to go within 10 meters of this and not start to salivate.  It's simply packed with the most delicious looking cakes, tarts and puddings.  The only thing that differentiates them from the ones to be found in a real French patisserie is their size.  They're enormous!  Your Little Birds, ever conscious of their waistlines, opted for a Strawberry Tart to share.

Died. And. Gone. To. Heaven.

There are no words to describe the reality...but here I go: sweet, sharp strawberries topping a creme patissiere (a wonderfully deep one!), all packed into a light and crisp pastry case Mary Berry herself would be proud of.  No soggy bottoms here.

Overall, Café Gourmand offers a very competitive alternative to the usual suspects of Hale's dining choices.  In terms of value for money, it scores serious points.  The menu is extensive, the options varied, the quality good and the portion sizes generous. The atmosphere is as you'd expect from a café, it's neither a place to linger for hours chatting the day away, or a fast food joint.  The service is brisk, requests are dealt with quickly and there's always a smile. 

BB and LB will return - those Strawberry Tarts are screaming our names.  As is the Chocolate Tart. Oh, and the Lemon Merangue is begging futher investigation.  The Brownies looked good too...