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Cafe 1809, Hildenborough Jan 2016

So this café actually has a proper name and isn’t just called the ‘Kelly café’!

 


 

There is definitely a ‘fitness’ theme throughout the café as you’d expect with Dame Kelly Holmes at the helm but it’s not over bearing & the display of mouth-watering cakes nicely balances it out!   I certainly felt as though if I came in sweating after a run, I would be welcomed.  But walking in with two boys I felt welcomed too!

All of the menus are aiming to be healthy which is no great shock given the exercise apparatus dotted around the place. There was a delicious looking butternut squash and halloumi salad (called ‘Starter’s Orders’, apparently DK’s fave), plus other salads which could be accompanied by hunks of bread or generous helpings of quiche; I went for the soup which was sweet potato, chickpea and carrot.  It was very tasty but if I’m honest, perhaps a little over salted.  It was presented on a mini breadboard, in a miniature pan with a lid.  Well, it impressed me….

The children’s menu has pasta + different types of sauce, boiled egg with ‘running soldiers’, different types of sandwiches (marmite, cheese, banana and honey).  The boiled egg’s soldiers were butterly tempting and the egg was boiled to perfection, the golden yolk dripping down the sides with my son frantically trying to mop it up.  Junior #2 had pesto pasta as that’s his favourite meal in the world and he wasn’t disappointed!  I didn’t manage to ask whether the pesto was home made but the bonus was that they provided me with a ‘doggy bag’ to take home the remainder!  And this seemed like a perfectly normal request, not a lash batted.

Onto the juice: I had a super green juice which they stated wasn’t for the faint hearted but it was amazing!  Who knew kale could taste so delicious?!  My son tried a berry mix juice and loved that so I felt like a good mummy that at least one child had consumed some of his 5-a-day (make sure you ask for the smaller juice for a child as they’re very large – they only let me know about the smaller glasses when I suggested it at the end which was rather frustrating).

The array of cakes was very tempting  including some gluten free treats, but I was surprised & disappointed that there weren’t any dairy or sugar free options (especially as there was an advertisement for a course about going sugar free!).

I would return and recently did, slurping a juice post work-out, of course….

Experience Ingredients:

In the group: 1 ad + 2 children

Consumption & cost: soup, children’s boiled eggs & toast, children’s pesto pasta, children’s hot choc, large oaty cookie, Americano coffee, fresh juice x 2, carton juice x 1 – £22

 

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