I take up my pen/keyboard again, having had an experience that made me want to write about it, but not on TripAdvisor, which has had too much of my input recently.
This is somewhere we had not been before, and we found ourselves there whilst looking after our granddaughter for the day. We had to find somewhere child friendly that did not cost an arm and a leg.
The cafe/bistro is located in the leisure centre, and is a large open functional space that looks out on to a patio, where it is said you can see the cathedral (did not notice it). Whilst possibly intended for the sporting users, it attracts all kinds and is one of the places to use if you are in Verulam Park, as it is next to the car park (free for first two hours, and £2.30 if you want 3 hours). When we went there for lunch, there appeared to be a lot of people gathering wearing business dress with name tags, so I don't know if it has meeting rooms there as well.
It offers a mix of cafe style food, with a small selection of hot dishes including pasta and baked potatoes.
Knowing my granddaughter would eat pasta, I chose the spaghetti carbonara with chicken and bacon, so that I could share it with her. My wife had a sandwich. Firstly I have to say that whilst in a pack, the sandwich was well filled and attracted no adverse comments.
After a wait, suggesting that it had been made rather than heated up in a microwave, what appeared, whilst not pretty, was impressive. A big portion which as you can see is stuffed with meat, and not drowned with sauce. The pasta was not over-cooked and it was adequately hot scoring an 8 on the CHOF scale. It was a little on the dryish side, maybe, but it tasted excellent, and exceeded my expectations, but not those of my granddaughter. I have had carbonara in proper Italian restaurants in the UK which have not been as good because they were drowned in salty sauce. A huge plate of pasta cost £6.50 . The Americano Coffee was not great, probably having too much water added (using Costa as my benchmark).
My family rate this place highly, and whilst not as picturesque as the other cafe in the park, it is an excellent functional stopping place. It has the added bonus of free wifi and newspapers.
