Station House Cafe
The Station House Cafe is a community cafe run by FoodCycle. It’s on Stapleton Hall Road in Haringey and is run in conjunction with Mind, using their premises.
I’ve been meaning to go ever since it opened, as I am often in the neighbourhood, but finally ended up going just a week before their first anniversary!
The cafe is open for Friday lunch and I went along with my friend Vanessa. To my pleasant surprise, we also bumped into my lovely friends Peter and Mary there as well – although it shouldn’t be too surprising as I seem to bump into them everywhere!
A three course menu with a choice of starter and dessert and a cup of tea or coffee was available for £4. There was a choice of carrot soup or curried cauliflower soup for starters. Vanessa chose carrot and I went for the cauliflower:
The cauliflower soup was tasty, and nicely spiced. Vanessa enjoyed the carrot soup too.
The main was a pasta bake with leek and brussels sprouts. This was possibly the weakest point of the meal for me as I’m not the biggest fan of brussels sprouts (except done like this).
Dessert was a choice of apple compote and yoghurt, or banana cake. I chose the apple compote but unfortunately they’d run out so we both had the banana cake:
The community feel of the cafe was really lovely and we enjoyed our meal (brussels sprouts notwithstanding).
FoodCycle has most of its food donated by local retailers. This food would normally go to waste, so it’s a really good way of using it up. The cafe benefits the community by being a place where people can go for a cheap, nutritious meal as well as being a nice place to meet people. All of the food is cooked by volunteers, who have the chance to learn skills and gain experience. There’s another cafe in Bromley-by-Bow – if you are near either of them I suggest taking the time to visit.
What a great concept. I hope the idea spreads to other parts of the city and the cafes are well supported.
Pauline
October 30, 2011 at 7:22 pm
I loved the good meal that I went to, and am meaning to go and visit the cafes, once I have bashed out the blog backlog.
The neverending blog backlog that is.
Helen @ Fuss Free Flavours
November 6, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Ha ha! I thought you were going to say that it was food rescued from dumpsters. I don’t know if they do that here but there was a big hippie movement in Sydney who did so. I was wondering how on earth they would get legal permission to serve the food, so I am glad to hear it is on a donation basis. What a great idea! If only there were more places like this.
Vix
November 15, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Yes, people do that here too – there have been a few high-profile charity dinners where the diners have been told that everything they are eating has come from a skip!
Sarah
November 15, 2011 at 6:06 pm