Delicious food and a relaxed atmosphere put Taylors cafe at the top of Katherine MacAlister's list

Don’t interrupt me now,” I squeaked as my friend joined me at the Taylors counter and started regaling me with her news.

“I’m half way through the four step programme and I can’t stop now,” I spat, like an alcoholic at an AA meeting.

Making decisions has never been my forte, and choosing a salad was akin to deciphering algebra at school.

The constant stream of regulars who breezed in knew exactly what they were after however, and put me to shame.

“I think it’s a bit like learning to drive, once you’ve got it, you’ve got it,” my friend added sympathetically.

Easy for her to say. It took me four times to pass my driving test and the patience of the Taylors’ staff was wearing thin.

Finally however I got to the end of my salad order and we all sighed in relief. The thing is there are so many choices: choose a main ingredient from chicken to tuna or falafel, then add beans and things, four salad ingredients from a long, delicious and ambitious list, then a dressing, and da-dar, your own bespoke salad is boxed and ready to eat, in or out. Perfect for fussy eaters like me, and for January when we are all trying to be careful.

Throw in the other lunch choices: an entire counter of flatbread sandwiches, a hot section with dishes such as Keralan vegetable stew, chicken and coconut curry and a spicy lentil soup. Then at the end was an entire pasta section, where you can choose your pasta, then a sauce and a size.

In fact, on reflection, Taylors is more like a canteen than a cafe and if you want to sit and watch the world go by while eating delicious fresh food at a table, then I can’t recommend it enough. There are plenty of sandwich shops, take-aways, fast food joints and restaurants but not many independent places where you can eat lightly, perch and chat.

Plus, it’s a lovely, light, airy, contemporary setting at the end of Little Clarendon Street in St Giles, right opposite its more established Taylors deli shop.

My salad was a bit strange, but as I concocted it myself I have no one but myself to blame. Perhaps olives, edamame beans, lettuce, carrot and avocado with a lemon dressing isn’t for everyone, but you live and learn and I can’t wait to go back and fine tune my order.

The pot of fresh penne with an arrabiata sauce was nice enough but needed to be richer and spicier. The flatbread sandwiches were delicious however and the chicken curry a great lunch alternative.

Salad in hand, a mozzarella, pesto and tomato flatbread sandwich in my sweaty palm, and a fabulous cup of coffee, we sat at one of the sturdy wooden tables and relaxed.

We then decided to peep at the cake and biscuit offerings, the pastries looking too good to pass over, settling on the gorgeous looking little Portuguese custard tarts, a brownie, and a slice of pecan pie, with more fantastic coffee.

The brownie was too dense for me, I like mine chewy and light, the pecan pie was fantastic and the tarts a delight.

Now I’ve had my initiation I can’t wait to go back for more. Taylors cafe is a lovely place to replenish, renourish and rest, and one for the little black book.

Taylors/ FastaPasta,
1 Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6HA 
01865 515457

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