Pig and Pastry, York

The Pig and Pastry’s an easy place to miss, squashed in the middle of a row of shops on busy Bishy Road. And that would be your loss; it’s a laid back, artsy café and deli dispatching fabulously fresh, home made breakfasts and lunches along with mouth-watering cakes and bread. The coffee’s pretty good too (and we all know how hard it is to find a decent macchiato anywhere in the county.)

If you’re not comfortable sitting next to strangers, this might not be the place for you, since the long tables are for sharing, and you may well find yourself sitting between a yummy-mummy and a workman in a high-vis jacket. Matters not when the grub is so good; breakfast on smoked salmon, scrambled egg and a slice of sensational soda bread toast, or quirk out with a haggis bacon and sweet chilli sarnie. And anyway you get to overhear priceless Bennettesque bon mots. Read the paper and make your latte last as long as you like, they’re not about to move you on.