ONE BANK STREET CAFE, 1 BANK STREET
Oh how I love these concise titles: One Bank Street. This is a
very good cafe. It sits up a small flight of steps, above the
Coach & Horses Inn, and could be easily missed. Don't miss it.
It's exceedingly bright and airy inside, with works of art on
the old stone walls. The sort of homemade soups you are likely
to encounter are 'Vegetable and Bean', 'Sweet Potato and
Coconut', and all that sort of thing. [Closed on Sundays and
Mondays.]
RAINBOW SNACK BAR, 14 GREAT KING STREET
Within the plain unassuming innards of the Rainbow Snack Bar elderly ladies quietly shuffle back
and forth between the kitchen and tables bearing great steaming bowls of
soup. There is no rush, there is no stress, all there is is a
peacefulness whose dreamy depths are only broken by the sound of
enthusiastic slurping. In this tired but homely 1960s interior they have something like four different soups on
each day, ranging from 'Ham and Lentil' to 'Scotch Broth', 'Mushroom'
and 'Chicken and Rice' (the latter bringing back memories of Ayr!). They
might sound like uninspiring traditional varieties, but you just canny
beat a huge cauldron-like bowl of 'Ham and Lentil' to warm your very
bones. A tremendous place caught in a tantalising timewarp.