No Barriers to food

The price for a sandwich here is about what you’d expect at the surrounding chains like Eat and Pret, so while overpriced, it’s what you get in central London. That said, the mozzaluna (sp?) I had (£3.50) with cheese, chicken and sweet chili sauce really hit the spot, and I will probably stop in here again as it’s near my work and offers something a little different from the usual chains. I can’t speak to the quality of the actual restaurant since I got my food takeaway — there are apparently more tables downstairs which I didn’t see.

Stopped in for breakfast this morning and got a ham/​cheese croissant and a fruit smoothy. The place is nice, clean, reasonably priced by london standards, takes AmEx which is a big deal for north american business travelers, and the fellow behind the counter was very friendly.
Unfortunately that’s all the good things I have to say about this place. The smoothie tasted like paste, other then the faintly purplish color there was no evidence of the strawberries and blackberries it was rumored to contain. It went straight into the rubbish bin after 2 sips — complete wast of the 3 GBP I spent on it. The croissant was decent but then it’s hard to mess up a croissant whose only adornment is a slice of ham and a slice of cheese. It pretty much is what it is.
Fortunately, after tossing my smoothie I rounded the corner and ran smack into a fruit stand with an older gent selling berries of all kinds for 1.50/basket. Two of those (same price as the smoothy had been) and I’m sorted for my morning fruit fix. I’d recommend you get your daily dose of fructose there instead of at Eatalian.

I come here occasionally for lunch, and it’s not bad by any means. They offer a variety of pasta dishes and salads, sandwiches and dolci, either to eat in (although there is basically just one big table inside and a few smaller tables outside, so you need to be here early to beat to 1pm lunch crowd) or to take away. The food is good home-​style Italian fare, the service friendly and the prices reasonable, given the area. That said, I haven’t been overly impressed, so it’s a solid 3 stars for me.

A slice of average-​sized and dry-​looking pizza = £3.20
A dry, flat, and barely stuffed ham calzone = £3.20
NEXT!!!

After a hellish week at work, and then seeing my friends fudged out of this year’s NomNomNom competition without even a proper explanation (clearly due to not being high up enough in the London Social Media Royalty Clique), it’s been a series of comfort food lunchtimes.
Our office is adjacent to Leather Lane, and since this year I’m trying as much new stuff as I can, I popped in to Eataly. These amazing looking calzones were sitting in the window.
This is a tiny takeout joint, run by an Italian couple, that only sells stonebaked pizza and calzone. I’ve been twice on consecutive days.
The first day, I had a ‘Calzone with beef’. I got it back to the office, split her open, only to discover that it was a regular calzone that had been stuffed full of amazing Bolognese sauce. It was nothing short of phenomenal.
I then went back the next day and picked up an anchovy and caper calzone, which was also note-​perfect.
This is the best pizza you can get in this part of town. Go in and say hello, support these guys. Their food is cheap, delicious and will make you feel better.
And they do a calzone with freaking BOLOGNESE in it people. It’s the best thing I’ve had in weeks.

Eataly sells stone baked pizza for £2 a slice. If you have an appetite that’s in any way similar to mine then one piece of these little slices of culinary luxury will not suffice. I usually have to get at least two or three to keep myself from entering into a hunger induced mid afternoon rage. If you need to get a quick lunch and you’re on a budget then get a slice or two of veggie or sausage laced pizza from this place. It’s a bonafied awesome decision.