Katherine MacAlister samples breakfast in farmshop – then goes shopping – before trying out new healthy Japanese fast food joint

It’s all change at Bicester Village these days. Gone is Carluccio’s in a puff of smoke and now there are two new kids on the block which make Soho Farmhouse look like second hand news.

First up is itsu, the Japanese healthy fast food chain, and secondly Le Pain Quotidien which opens at the end of the month.

It seems that the era of long lunches and casual calories is over then, but perhaps this new erring towards healthy food is more fitting for what is essentially, a posh shopping mall. And with a clientele trying to squeeze into sample size four dresses, massive bowls of pasta may not be the way forward.

But first news of Le Pain Quotidien, originally a bakery which has 200 branches globally serving healthy organic, seasonal food including soups, salads, hot dishes, tartins, homemade pastries, and vegan and vegetarian options, eaten at communal tables.

It opens at the end of this month.

Unable to wait that long, a healthy breakfast at Soho Farmshop, followed by excessive shopping and then a nutritional lunch at itsu seemed much more fitting.

We were as charmed as ever by Soho Farmshop’s wood-cabin styled café/restaurant, manned by endless nice staff in blue pinnies, the chefs working hard in the open plan kitchens.

Not the sort of place where you have a bowl of Rice Krispies or beans on toast, so we went full out on the “avocado on toast with a poached egg and chilli flakes” (yes really) with a strong espresso coffee for my fearless companion, and Earl Grey tea and some granola, blueberries and yoghurt for me.

As it is January, while I haven’t given up booze, I am trying to be slightly more abstemious than usual, so we accompanied it with two homemade-juices which arrive in tiny bottles – a green kale, apple, cucumber, celery, pineapple, lemon, spinach, parsley and ginger and then a carrot, apple, fennel, and lemon.

Breakfast cost £14 each.

Hours later, weighed down with bags, we were desperate to collapse and hauled our poor bodies (both physically and financially by then) into itsu.

Glossy, shining and new with low hanging pink lights, wooden floors and messages all over the walls, it’s modern and refreshing.

You perch at short communal tables, filling stations full of people guzzling noodles, having picked up your food from the long chilled cabinet, and taken it up to the main counter, where the hot food is served.

It’s quick, easy and seamless but more than that, the food is unusual and tasty.

You’re not supposed to dwell over your repast however, the stools and quick turnover signalling that this is definitely a fast food kind of place.

Between the two of us we slung some gyoza dumplings with teriyaki dipping sauce on to our tray, mesmerised by the endless offerings, an itsu “no lettuce” salad of avocado, muki and green beans, seasoned Japanese rice, kombu relish, with vegetarian herb dressing and a miso soup – silken tofu, wakame and shaved green leek in a veggie miso broth, all of which cost less than breakfast.

The dumplings and salad were original, light and tasty, the soup like dishwater, but it meant we were so energised we could have flown home.

So perhaps there is something in it, something more than just a culinary January pep talk, but for Bicester Village this is certainly a departure, and maybe a sign of the times.

Breathe in everyone.

Bicester Village,
40 Pringle Drive, Bicester OX26 6WD
www.farmshopbicester.com
www.itsu.com