Thursday 7 August 2008

REVIEW... iGigi Cafe with Simon Dance



As you know I have a keen interest in eating out but I am more than often tempted to eat in healthy and natural food places. Brighton is the city I work in and I am spoilt for choice with great restaurants and cafes to fill my lunchtimes with.




I have made a good friend at work named Simon who also has a blog called “Eat in Sussex,” every once and a while he will go ahead and review a certain food haunt! He hasn’t posted for a while though so I have been nagging him to post again as it is a great blog and has really good eating out advice included! Especially for someone like me who is not local to Brighton.


So I suggested we team up and produce a joint post on one of our favourite lunch time spots iGigi in Hove not far from our office.





I love to come for lunch here because it is simply organic, all the produce is organically source and the café has a really traditional feel to it, I would say a cross between a French Café and old English home. It almost feels you’re your away on holiday and you have escaped the world in a sanctuary for an hour of your lunch break.

Below the café they have a cute little shop which sells household goods, I saw a rather classy cake stand I liked the look of!

As for the café they have the most amazing range of cakes, full of fruit and fresh sponges! The last time we visited I had a gluten, dairy and sugar free sponge; although this sounds like it would be rather tasteless... it was orgasmic to eat and delicately decorated with plump red cranberries! I really did find a little piece of Duckey heaven in that cake!





The café has a really relaxed ambience where Si and I can go and discuss work politics, blogging and business.

We visited today and I have to say I am partial to a cappuccino every now and then. As for their coffee... it is on my top list of favourite places to drink my rare treats!





Si had a latte and the asparagus soup with rustic bread – it looked amazing and I wish I had indulged myself but being still slightly on my get fit week aftermath I chose to have my daily fruit intake once back at the office. How boring am I!





What I like most about this place is that the staff are friendly, although it’s small you don’t feel pressured to order or enjoy being there. I love the whiteness of the room and the authentic looking shelves full of cook books and ingredients.

They have some amazing jars filled with sundried tomatoes and anti-pasta and counters of fresh crusty bread. The menu ranges they generally have one special – I would say it is more of a snack stop rather than a lunch time venue.

They state their menu “reflects the true taste of London’s Borough Market where people are passionate about food” and serve the following:

Lunch

• General Store lunchboards served with salad, bread and pickles
• Cheese or meat
• Paté of the day with toast and celery salad
• Sardines on toast with salad
• Soup of the day served with fresh bread
• Open sandwiches

Afternoon tea

• Organic Sussex cream tea served with clotted cream & jam
• Delicious home made cakes
• Monmouth coffee
• Ceylon organic loose leaf teas*
* We only use organic milk




As we don’t get much time for lunch to relax it is a perfect stop for us and I am sure we will visit there again very soon.

In the meantime I recommend if you are ever in the area that you check it out.

Si has also written a post on “Eat in Sussex” so to view his share of the lunch break with me view the link!

Contact:

31a Western Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 1AF, Tel: 01273 728160

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