Forfars Fresh

I really rather like Forfars, and have taken a complete about turn from loathing their commercial looking «fresh» logo, to really enjoying their clean atmosphere, and locally baked pastries and cakes. This fresh in particular is a jewel in the crown, boasting a decent amount of seating (inside and outside) as well as staying open beyond the infuriating 2:00 PM curfew of the majority of Forfars.
Personally, I think its only really worth getting a coffee from here if you’re buying something else too, and if you just want a drink and a sit down, you’ll do better (if not cheaper) at an independent café of some description. But for a tasty treat at a good price to nibble on the move or at a table, you can’t beat fresh (in my opinion). I always find myself saying to people who ask what fresh is like (you’d be surprised how many people have asked… I’d say its at LEAST one! Possibly even two!) that its like Greggs, if Greggs was actually really really good instead of being exceptionally meh.
Worth a look in then? For sure!

This bakery smells funny. No really, it does! You walk in and it smells like a mix of stale oil and cleaning products– I don’t know what they do in there, because it looks clean! Anyway, when I lived near the Laines I would still find myself braving the smell to buy their Eccles cakes. Now Forfars is definitely old-​school, it reminds me of my Granny kind of old-​school– with giant iced bakewell tarts, sausage rolls, pasties, rock cakes… all the great British cakes and pastry covered savouries from when people actually burned off that much fat and sugar. My Dad loves it and my boyfriend’s Dad loves– Eccles cakes and apple turnovers respectively. It is also, of course, ridiculously cheap. I caught the bug when I tried some of my Dad’s Eccles cake and realised that it was brilliant. The pastry is crispy and flaky but soft and the entire hand sized inside is treacly currants and raisins with spices. They are not good for you but they are delicious and it’s difficult to find a good Eccles cake nowadays.

The Forfars here has a nice cake selection, which caught my eye, as well as the usual Forfars fodder of sandwiches, soft drinks, and assorted patisseries items. Sandwiches go for about £2, as there’s sufficient choice to keep most people happy. The cake selection is also relatively diverse, and the cheese straws here are particularly worthy of recommendation. Promotional offers exist on certain items, with special deals on the purchase of a soft drink, sandwich, and cake, in particular.