Surface+ Café

We go here on Sundays after our swordfighting class (why, what do you do on a Sunday morning??) and it’s a really fantastic little café. It’s a quirky place — I’ve never been upstairs but apparently they’ve got a flooring showroom up there. The sandwiches are all freshly prepared to order (so be prepared to wait while they make them up) and they are very good — the selection is fantastic. They also do soup, although I’ve never tried that. The coffee is nice and they have a decent range of baking and cold drinks. The girl who usually works here on Sundays is a real gem, she’s friendly and chatty and she doesn’t seem to mind that loads of us descend on the café all at once with our many and varied orders. Although I’d love a few more comfy seats, it’s a small place so they’re limited in what they can do with the layout. Definitely a good place for a quiet lunch (except on Sundays when we’re in and it isn’t so quiet!)

Another place that id never think of trying out because of how quiet and … Unidentifiable in terms of what it actually is lol. Is this place a café or is it a flooring shop? Is it a studio? What is this place? Went over today to find out!
Yes, it’s a café and a flooring shop that supports cyclists … Who knew! What a combo eh?
To be honest, in terms of food and coffee, it’s a typical place that serves sandwiches and I wasn’t expecting much from plain sandwiches. I ordered the soup and sandwich: tomato and basil soup with a vege sandwich. The sandwich was quite nice and filling! Came with chips and salad. The soup was just ok though wasn’t warm enough when served.
The coffee wasn’t great because the person manning the food and coffee station was obviously not a barista (he overheated the milk and burnt the coffee for sure), but I didn’t expect anything spectacular so it was just ok.
For some reason, I really want this place to be cooler, funkier and offer more for their food and coffee! Id be there all the time if that were the case! Because I love the space and the vibe of it all! There were even marathon cyclists discussing about the mechanics of their bikes while I was there and I loved listening to them. Just for this, I’ll give you 4 stars because I want you to succeed!
I suppose if you wanted a quick sandwich, you could stop by for a bit and enjoy the space as well, but until they offer up more, I wouldn’t be rushing back. Maybe I’ll test it out for a café to do work in next time :-)

Visited this café on a rainy, gloomy afternoon. I was starving, it was after 3.30pm and I was scared they wouldn’t be serving food anymore. But I couldn’t actually find it on GWR, it was super awful weather and it was hard to see. For ease of reference, here’s how to find it: It’s right near St Georges Cross underground, next to a place called Clive Christian on the Munro’s side of the road. It’s actually really easy to find to be honest, I just had no luck yesterday.
I was so glad to be inside, and the space is really nice. Lots of cool flooring samples on the group (as you’d expect from a former flooring shop) with a mezzanine part (you can’t sit up there just now though). Thankfully they were still serving food! The menu is predominantly sandwiches with a couple of daily soup specials. I went for a sandwich without bread — a salad, that’s what it’s called — which the guy happily made up for me even though it isn’t not on the menu. It had roast beef, beetroot, coleslaw, tomato and lots of leaves. It was a very generous serve for £4.50 and super tasty too, I can’t fault anything on the plate.
They also had a selection of cakes but I’d left my sweet tooth at home so I just had a wee look around and left. There aren’t many cafés down this end of GWR so I hope these guys do well. It is slightly bike themed but not overly so, so don’t feel put off if you aren’t a biker yourself!