Paul's Picadilly

Just been to the Bronzes exhibition at the Royal Academy: a truly impressive experience if you get the chance. We were on our way to South Ken, and wanted refreshment - a coffee and a snack. On Picadilly in that area, you can choose from almost any of the major chains of coffee and snack outlets and some of the less common ones. It is prime tourist territory, so we knew that we were going to be sandwiched between those that did not know and those that did not care. I am not a great lover of Starbucks (a bit too corporate), and for no good reasons entered into Paul's. Although I did not know it at the time, Paul's is a chain of French inspired cafes across London. Check out their web site on http://www.paul-uk.com/content/whats-news.php . There seem to be about 25 branches around central and trendy London
It was busy with Sunday afternoon tourists, many of whom clearly did not get out much and had a poor command of English Language and Currency. The staff were only a couple of steps ahead of this.
The shop looks good, but possibly errs on the wrong side of pretentious. The staff may have taken Gallic indifference as a style statement, but once engaged, the deal came through

With that amount of choice in the middle of a Sunday afternoon, it is not surprising that things did not move quickly. The picture belies the fact that this is on the way out, and on the way in, the queue was about 6 deep. There is a good choice of cakes, savouries and baguettes but not classic sliced bread British Sandwiches.We preferred to ignore the baguettes which looked as if they could have benefited from a change in the bread/filling ratio (a universal problem these days)  I chose a Tourte Sauman Epinard. This was heated for me in a small oven and not a microwave, scoring a CHOF score of 7.5 This is what we got:

It was almost the same as the picture on the website:

This is clearly not one of the uniform objects that you might get from a supermarket or other bakery chains, and sat in the back of the cafe, looking out on to one of the Picadilly arcades, you could almost believe you were in Paris. The tart was tasty, crisp on the top, and the puff pastry was not soggy. A small tart was big enough for one, and we had no problem splitting it two ways. The ingredients were tasty and did not achieve the homogeneous taste that a factory-born quiche might have left. In deed it had the taste and look of France. A decent cup of coffee with milk on the side was also served in proper cups or mugs. So two good sized coffees and the tourte came to £8.65, which for the location was only a little above average. The surroundings were much more pleasant that a typical coffee shop and one felt as if one were not in a corporate shell. I think I will be going there again, but only if I have the time, as this is not to be thought of as fast food.
I kept the receipt, and it says that if I leave feedback on their web site, it will entitle me to a free croissant (if I buy a drink)!
So, Paul, you may be seeing me again. You have got as far North as Hampstead, but that is probably as far as pretentious London stretches. I see that breads and cakes are sold as take away, so that may be worth trying. The British seem to have a virtually unlimited appetite for cafes and take away snacks at the moment so I am sure the brand will spread.