Chic all-dayer Aubaine takes advantage of French café culture’s hold over romance-starved Anglo-Saxons. Baskets of pain de campagne, subtly distressed wooden furniture & soft, flattering lighting would be enough to impress most people, even without the menu of breads, patisserie & viennoiserie, macarons, mille-feuilles and financiers… it’s enough to make you want to cough up six quid for a cup of Mariage Frères tea. But this mini chain of urbane cafés isn’t just good for a caffeine & sugar fix: breakfast & brunch gives way to a menu of fashionable Med-influenced fare, for example roast sea bass with Kalamata olives and lemon oil, lobster spaghetti or Superfood salad with quinoa, beetroot & roast butternut squash. They’re licensed too &, surprisingly, have some global wines slotted in amongst the French contingent.
Image credit: Tom Griffiths