It’s always a good idea to check out the neighbourhood before you move in. Some Sundays ago, I went to look at a house on Lennox Street, close to Portobello. With an hour to kill before I met a friend, I stumbled across Lennox Cafe Bistro, a very attractive, busy, and bustling little spot in the middle of a residential city centre street.
Time for cake. Cake and coffee for one. Lennox Cafe is unashamedly going for the urbanite / hipster/ yummy mummy/ metrosexual dollar (Do metrosexuals still exist, or have they been replaced by newbersexuals, or some other marketing shazzah? And they spend dollars, right?). Anyway, Lennox is a very pleasant, fresh, and clean place, full of fancy, swirly, light-coloured patterns against white walls. It reminded me a little of The Cake Cafe.
The service was relaxed and genuinely friendly. It’s the kind of place where the staff speak to you like you’re a person, and you respond in kind. This is the type of interaction that’s sadly lacking in customer-waiter relationships; too often these encounters are either aloof, condescending, or overbearing.
Oh yeah, the food. Lovely. I had for the jammy bakewell tart (€5.50) because it was the last dessert on the planet, but it was sweet, crumbly, and very fresh. It went very well with a delicious latte (€3.10) and a big glass of top quality orange juice (€3.50), the type that’s normally only found on holidays.
The Sunday brunch menu looked great, while the mains include bruschetta (€8.50), pan fried mackerel (€10.95), burger and chips or fish, chips, and mushy peas (both €14.95), or steak, mushrooms and chips for €19.95. Not the cheapest place, not too dear either. Everyone else’s food looked great, so I’ll check out the dinner sometime. We’ll see if I end up living close by.