Victoria used to be a culinary hole. When I worked across the Lambeth bridge at the Costa Coffee roastery, it was my nearest shopping centre. The highlight of my working week — other than the free pastries we’d get from the bakery next door on a Friday — was a McDonalds McFlurry. Enough said.
That was 20 years ago and the area is now blessed with many more retail outlets and eateries, and things have just got a whole lot better.
Opposite the mainline station now sits Market Hall — the Mecca of lunch hour venues.
It’s a collection of food counters including Jewish food-inspired Monty’s Deli; a healthy eating and vegan offer charmingly called Squirrel; upmarket fish and chips from Kerbisher and Malt; handmade pasta from Nonna Tonda; Koya offshoot, Koya Ko, for Japanese noodles; a Chinese concept, called Baozi Inn, and several more. It’s the second one — the first opened in Fulham last year — and a third is planned for the West End next year. On the old BHS site — I can’t think of a better use for it.
I was invited to check it out for brunch, which worked perfectly with picking my 18 year old Aussie niece from another central London station. I took mini fresser, Miss K who loves eating out almost as much as she adores her big cousin.
It was a gorgeously unseasonal, sunny morning — perfect as they were opening their roof terrace. We raced up the stairs to the roof top, which basked in direct sunshine, where there were plenty of tables and chairs and a bar. The view (of Victoria Station) is nothing to write home about, but the location is phenomenal. You can also see more than one theatre, making it a perfect pre-theatre stop off for anyone lucky enough to have tickets to see Hamilton, Wicked, or new opening, Toast — the foodiest musical in town.
It’s perfect for disparate tastes and preferences. I’m easy to please, but Aussie niece is gluten free and Miss K the standard tastes of an eight year old child (sigh).
We were each catered for — gluten free granola with yoghurt and berries for Aussie niece; croissant for my daughter and an egg and cheese muffin from Jewish food-influenced Monty’s for me.
It was super easy to each order from different concepts, and Miss K loved the buzzer system that told us when our food was ready. The only drawback was the reasonable schlep up and down the stairs from counter to terrace table. Only a problem for me as the responsible adult and general shlepper, but nowadays the silver lining is always the Fitbit steps gained. (How did I ever move before that was strapped to my wrist?!)
Any points gained were obliterated by pudding at Soft Serve Society — an ice cream vendor definitely invented for the Instagram age. Their soft serve ice cream comes in a variety of flavours and colours with a choice of traditional or black waffle cone. The look is crowned with unusual sprinkles and toppings.
Miss K and Aussie niece plumped for the Cloud 9 — vanilla ice cream, berry candyfloss, strawberry sauce, pocky sticks, strawberry crunch and popping candy. A little girl’s dream and a dentist’s nightmare.
Around the hall, bloggers were holding their ice creams aloft like trophies, contorting their limbs to snap the cone creations before firing them off to social media platforms. I picked choice a black cone filled with charcoal coconut (a dark grey) and taro (sweet potato and pale orange) flavours and a sprinkle of strawberry crunch. I had to scoop off that off as I could visualise my dentist wincing at every bite.
Another score for dentistry when both girls were beaten by their floss but they did manage to scoff of their treats.
Market Hall is a genius location for gourmet guzzlers to choose their favourite foods and share the same experience. The other huge benefit of this one is as a reasonable pre-theatre venue in an area not blessed with eateries.
Market Hall, 191 Victoria Street, Victoria, London SW1E 5NE
