There are few more beautiful places to sit in London than outside the Pear Tree Cafe in Battersea Park, especially on the DJ’s day off. The cafe itself is a beautiful Art Deco style rotunda, originally opened in 1939 by the London County Council and taken over as the Pear Tree in 2016.

While the view on a sunny day is lovely, frankly the outside area is a bit sh*t. Seemingly hundreds of wooden trestle tables crammed together so tightly that you have to push past people to get from one side of a table to another. Oh, and yes, the shit. All of the pigeons they turfed out of Trafalgar Square now live, eat and defecate on the tables outside of the Pear Tree.

This can lead to the odd fun photo though:

In the summer, the cafe has become unbearable with an outdoor bar and music, but on a cold, crisp, sunny November day, it is about half-full and the perfect place for a relaxing lunch.

The other main attraction of this cafe has always been the consistently good food they produce, and it is well balanced between the needs of vegetarians and regular folk, which is a necessity when dining with my family.

On this visit, the choice of food did not “pop” quite the way it usually does, although it was somewhat self-selecting due to the introduction of peanut butter into what otherwise looked like a very passable curry (the curry/stew dishes here are usually good). From my point of view it would have been a tasty but life-limiting experience.

It’s highly unusual for us both to have the same meal when we eat out (partly because I am notorious for ordering the one bad dish on any menu), but today we both plumped for the Quinoa Salad. It ticked a number of boxes, and having had an excellent meal the week before at the Hand in Hand (review here) involving both squash and feta, it was a no-brainer.

And it looked beautiful, with enough flowers as garnish to start a small florist’s shop.

You may have already guessed this, but the reality of the dish did not measure up to the expectation. First, I challenge anyone to find a single piece of feta in this photo. When you are told you are getting feta, it should not be a “Where’s Wally” exercise to actually find in it (Spoiler Alert: There is actually no feta, so you can stop searching)

And the pumpkin was, well, pasty and tasted of very little. I soldiered through as I hate wasting food, and Mrs Nigel tried to palm off most of her pumpkin on to me, but it was the first disappointment I have ever had here. One of my favourite memories ever is of sitting inside the rotunda on a really cold day looking out through the floor to ceiling glass windows eating one of their superb, wood-fired pizzas.

I felt compelled to complain, but I eventfully demurred because as is so often the case, there was a queue, although this time mainly caused by a lively discussion at the counter as to why living in London was so much better than living in Melbourne. Personally, I hear the coffee is better out there. Maybe the salads are too…

Rating: 4/5 (and only because of the view)

Pear Tree Cafe Battersea: https://www.peartreecafe.co.uk/battersea-park