Coco Di Mama

I marched into work this morning, pleased as punch with myself for having brought stuff to make lunch with. Midday rolls around and I’m horrified to discover that I’ve forgotten my tub of Vitalite — I’m not a heathen, I won’t eat my jacket potato without this. Not fancying braving the mile long queues in Tesco Metro to buy another one, I dove into the first place available to get my carby fix and this just so happened to be it.
This place is relatively small, not really anywhere to sit, with fridges alongside the lefthand side of the wall that have a selection of soft drinks, pre-​made salads, sandwiches and pasta (all very pricey — not much here that’s below £5, to be honest)
I ordered hot food from the counter, as it seemed like better value for money. I went for a large garden pesto pasta with parmesan and chilli oil, which came to £4.90. The service was very quick, and the staff are super friendly. One thing I will give this place props for is that they don’t charge extra for add-​ons (I know a few places that will add on a 50p charge if you ask for parmesan). I was given a cutesy gingham paper bag to take my order away in, which contained a very generous sized pot, two napkins and a plastic fork.
I was a little overwhelmed when I lifted the lid off of my pot, the parmesan and pesto were both laid on SO thick, I wondered how I’d ever get through it all. After demolishing the top layer, the pesto thinned out considerably, and towards the bottom there was a good couple of inches of olive oil with just plain pasta floating around in it. I couldn’t eat this and had to throw it away. I would have preferred the pesto and parmesan to be more evenly distributed, and without all the oil; to use that much olive oil is just horrible. It wasted half the pasta.
Despite the prompt and courteous service and seemingly good value for money of their hot food, I’ll be giving this place a swerve in future. The food isn’t the best quality, and I’d rather pay 50p extra for parmesan and have some decent pasta than get it for free and eat oily, tasteless slop. What an anti-​climax!

I had a long weekend off work, which I used to visit my mum on the South Coast. It’s a pretty long journey from Manchester so, whilst I had some time, I arranged to meet a friend for lunch on my way passing through London.
Coincidentally, my friend’s office is next door to the building where my company’s (well, not MY company, but the one I work for) on Fenchurch Street. So I knew exactly where to go — out of Exit 6 of Bank station, straight down Lombard Street and then on to Fenchurch Street. We met, and then my friend took me to this place, which from Fenchurch Street, you’d cut down Philpot Lane onto Eastcheap and it’s just a few doors down on the right. If you were coming from Monument station, it’s just a five minute walk away.
If I hadn’t had a late (and big) breakfast on the train down, I would have gone for one of the pasta options. The bolognese looked and smelt particularly nice. My friend didn’t go for the pasta on this occasion as she had a salad in her office, but said that she’s tried the pasta before, and it is really good.
As it was, I just had some green tea and some cake — a raspberry and white chocolate bakewell. My friend had lemon polenta cake. Both were really good.
It’s reasonably priced and well worth a visit if working in this part of the City. Not sure if this branch has been there too long, as I don’t recall seeing it the last time I was in the area at the start of the year.