Lowry and Baker (Portabello)

After biking through the busy crowds of Portobello on a beautifully crisp sunny Sunday, I couldn't have arrived at a more perfect and cosy haven ... more like a higgledy piggledy kitchen filled with mismatched vintage furniture and shelves of jumbled crockery ... an open kitchen staffed by three beautiful people serving their many customers ... all happily settled at tables ... reading the papers, chatting over coffees (made expertly from Monmouth beans) and tucking into the most delicious selection of foods, chosen from the menu scrawled in chalk across a blackboard on the wall.

My avocado on toast with poached egg was quite simply perfection - they seemed to have read my greedy mind and delivered it exactly as i hoped, lots of avocado mushed with lemon, oil and sea salt, scattered with pine nuts and one perfectly cooked poached egg on the side.

There was a wonderful selection of cakes ... most made by the co-owner Maya, who was busy behind the counter ...  ranging from scones and banana bread to a deliciously decadent banoffee cake and gluten free raspberry and almond friands.

It's busy but the kind of place you just want to settle in and stay for hours. And we did ... chatting and enjoying the food, coffee and homely atmosphere until the sun dipped behind the buildings outside and they started winding down for the evening.

Certainly a perfect place to take your work or reading and while away the day. I can't wait to go back and do just that.