Churreria Espanola, Queensway, Bayswater

Visited: Sunday 2nd April 2010

Interior: This unashamedly Spanish-run caff is actually only a few bullfighting posters different from any tiled and plastic-tabled caff in London. However it was scrupulously clean, and french windows were optimistically opened out on the street on a rare sunny day in a wet spring. It didn’t encourage me to take my coat off, but it was pleasant to have sun streaming in and of course there wasn’t a trace of the deep fat fryer smell despite the prominence of their naughty andalucian offering on the menu. The service helped stop me getting stroppy about the cold – polite and friendly without being ingratiating, and very helpful.

Food: I didn’t really need to eat, but a swim in the nearby baths had created a bit of a hole, so I had an egg on toast that, despite standard brown cash’n’carry bread was really rather lovely. Just the right level of cookedness and runniness for my taste. I had it with a really pleasant decaff white coffee from the machine – reminding me why having decaff coffee isn’t always a miserable experience and, for those of us who really can’t drink the real thing, but like the taste,  it is worth ordering instead of peppermint tea. I have to admit I have espied this place for years and assumed that when I came, it would be to gobble up the eponymous little doughnut blobs dipped into super-thick hot chocolate. Just typing this is making my mouth water and I think I avoided entering the last few times I’ve been in the area for precisely that reason. However, I managed to resist and now I know I could return just for the coffee and fried egg.