Station Cafes
 

I think it would be useful if members where to share there experiences of cafes at stations, be they good or bad. To start the ball rolling I was in the cafe at Bangor today. It's licsensed, does good food (admittedly with very little choice) and isn't overly exspensive.

Sounds like a good idea. Can you give some examples of the "Good Food" please Pavorossi?
John

Hot and cold sandwiches, pasties and pies, scones and flapjacks. It makes me hungry just thinking about it...

Nuneaton on platform 5 I dont know what the food is like But in there is a Model shop !!

Seth

Carnforth aint too bad! and 2 model shops. plus some Wedensdays a Farmers market where u can buy Farmers cheep :-(

Farmers dont go cheep. They go "grunt".
Sometimes they go:- "Get orf my land you orrible trainspotter. This be a shotgun youse knows."

Anyway I vote for Barrow Hill Roundhouse as the best fry-up I have ever had. And was really good value too.

Rawtenstall on the ELR. It's about the only damn place that you can get something to eat in Rawtenstall on a Sunday. :mad:

A restricted menu, but cheap and good value for money. :)

The one in the old wagon or the one in the station building?

The station building. It was raining and I wasn't going to get any wetter by having to walk down the platform. :D What's the one in the wagon like? Please don't tell me it's licensed. Dunno about 'falling off the wagon', but I reckon I just might have fallen out of it!

Not liscenced and it only does sandwiches, brews and cakes, but I tend to use that one over the other because it's owned by the ELRPS. The other one was owned by the ELRPS but then it was decided to rent it out to the people who ran the cafe in the local Kwik-Safe until it shut down.

Not on a station but there is a good snack bar at Reading if you go out of the main doors it's about 300 yards on the right by the bus stops.
I think it was run by the sally army some time ago,good food and not to pricey.
All the best,Ian.

Temple Mead's in Bristol is not bad, and they have a bar as well. Food is not too pricey and there is a good choice. They make a dam good coffee when you are cold and wet. Seats inside and out on the platform, so you can watch the trains.
Syd

Grindleford Station Cafe used to be great in the traditional sence. Big steaming mugs of tea..... a great favourite with climbers and walkers visiting that part of Derbyshire but not often by train!

You can't do that in Hull Paragon. The buffet is miserably set in the far north eastern corner, about as far away from the trains that you can get. :(

I like the one in Manchester Victoria, since there was no trolley on the Calder Valley services when I travelled to Doncaster back in August, I bought a tea at a palce in the station to take with me, really nice and only 95p.

David, It's ages since I was last at Manchester Victoria. Is the big buffet still open in the old Lancashire & Yorkshire part of the station? It was a really impressive room.
John.

I have seen a quite classic looking area near the first northbound platform (think it had stylish coloured windows). I think it was a place you could get food and drink but I wasn't sure if it was open so I don't know what is in there. Situated near the vending machines.

While on the subject of the Vic Vending machines, they look quite dodgy, one was covered with a piece of cardboard, the other I later tried, after inserting money and pressing the button what I wanted the bottom part of the machine kept moving but nothing else was happening. So I didn't get my water. Wonder if these will get replaced.

If I remember correctly (which I probably don't:D ) the entrance to the old buffet was somewhere below the large Lancashire and Yorkshire mosaic tiled map.
I don't think we will ever have reliable vending machines in this country while there are people intent on abusing them. There is such a thing as a vending machine that works first time every time but they are few and far between in the U.K.:mad:
John.

I was going to recommend the station cafe (Bahnhofbuffet) at Kandersteg in Switzerland but I'm not sure if Rösti or Berner Wurstel is acceptable grub to other forum members:)
Instead, for freshly cooked meals made with local produce at a reasonable price I can thoroughly recommend the station cafe at Dalegarth on the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway.
John.

Worcester Foregate Street is quite odd. At the end of the platform, almost on the bridge, trains pass with minimum clearances. Simple food, seems "home made". Birmingham New Street - I haven't a good word to write ! Ipswich has one of a national chain serving quite decent rolls etc, and a kiosk doing decent hot drinks. Peterborough platforms 4/5 I have visited frequently - cafe and kiosk members of national chains, decent stuff.
Liverpool Street wide variety of national chain outlets, pretty good standards.

Probadly the best station cafe ive come across is at Hellifield - open most days and great food and worth a call in if only to look around

There is a good one at Crewe, I used it many years ago, Im sure I recognised it being there last year so it might be still there, in section on platforms 1-5.

I was at Victoria today and saw something which might fit this. It was a lounge area which said, "Northern Belle" on it, and "1st Class" was written on it. It looked closed and guess it used to be a first class lounge.