Barrister-turned-cook Frances Hilliard and her wine-buff husband Spenser set up this quirky ‘gastro-café’ in 2006 as an alternative to the City’s ‘greasy spoons’, and it’s still a little beacon in
EC4. The lunch menu offers home-cooked, canteen-style food of a high order, ranging from roasted vegetable and goats’ cheese lasagne to Ortiz tuna and cannellini bean salad. Alternatively, fill up
with sandwiches built from top-drawer ingredients – perhaps Tuscan sausage with roasted cherry tomato and baby chard or hoummos with tomato and rocket on olive bread. Fancy something sweet? Try a
slice of flourless chocolate cake or Victoria sponge with a cup of Union coffee (you can also pre-order whole cakes for birthdays and the like). There are plenty of chilled wines in the cabinet and
a splendid selection by the glass – all chosen by Spenser himself.