Of all London’s famous public spaces, Trafalgar Square is easily the most versatile.
Think about it. Covent Garden does the street performance thing (but not gardens), while nearby Leicester Square hosts screaming Twilight fans and the occasional funfair. Southbank takes care of the arty-farty installations and Hyde Park is all about charging you £50 to watch a concert you can’t really hear that well.
But Trafalgar Square laughs in the face of all that.
It’s got opera, plinths, flash mobs and lions you can climb on. Trafalgar Square says “Sod being a one trick pony. I’m a whole field of ponies“. Then it kicks back, lights a cigar and says “Don’t believe me? Watch this” and gets Jesus to re-enact his resurrection live on Good Friday. As you do.
Of course you have. Who hasn’t seen the eggs? The bloody eggs are all people have been going on about for the last month, and if by some miracle you haven’t hunted them down yet, then this weekend they’re all gathering in a big omelette-y pile in Covent Garden for Easter.
You can even go online and bid to have one in your house.
But if you do, choose carefully. Because like everything in this world, there are good eggs, and there are bad eggs.
Over on Bedford Street in the West End yesterday, there was a serious problem.
That problem was in Tesco, and it had a tail.
Several hundred really quite mucky tails, in fact, if the sign on the door was anything to go by:
The sign on the door at Tesco in Covent Garden yesterday (now taken down)
Around the sign stood a group of baffled, slightly disgusted workers on their lunch break; their faces desperately trying to recall the last time they got food from the supermarket, and whether it had any unexpected “pepper” garnish.
One of those people was a particularly disappointed man; his face showing signs of exertion from so spectacularly missing the point.
“But when is it going to open again?” he asked me, searching my vaguely amused face for the answer. “It says when it closed and what’s wrong, but not when it will re-open!”
Mice aside, it’s clear that the workers of Covent Garden are facing a dilemma. It’s like the song said, “Now that we found mice, what are we gonna do…for luun-ch?”
Well, fear not. Je suis on hand with three ideas for places near Covent Garden where you can get food and – most importantly in your hour of blessed office freedom – a side of friendly conversation from the staff on your lunch break.
Burritos. ‘Nuff said. Don’t be put off by the queue which often reaches out the door – it goes down quickly and these babies are worth the wait. Benito’s Hat is closer on New Row, and the staff are friendly there too, but to be honest it rates lower in my Burrito League. Yes, I’ve got a league. No, you can’t see it.
I know what you’re thinking, EAT? Really? There are fifty million branches of EAT around London (official figure), so you’d be forgiven for passing this one off as just another bloody generic food chain. But the one on Bedford Street is worth a visit purely because I reckon it has the friendliest staff in the entire world. Smiley, happy, chatty and always on hand with a quip about the weather, and a fork for when you get bored of spearing your vegetable dumplings with chopsticks.
There’s always a queue out the door during lunchtime at this place, even though there are about five other places alongside that serve the exact same thing. And do you know why there’s a queue out the door? Because it’s staffed by nice, polite, friendly people who make a blummin’ brilliant toasted ciabatta sandwich (and other stuff), and you get free soup with it. I’ve yet to pin down the slightly ambiguous flavour of the soup, but it’s the thought that counts.
So there you have it. Three places to get food while you’re waiting for the country’s biggest supermarket chain to sort out its hygiene. Enjoy.
