Cafe in the Crypt (St. Martin in the Fields)

When I started researching restaurants in London for our trip, I was overwhelmed. I tried to limit my focus to the areas closest to our hotel and I tried to find reasonably priced places to dine. Dining out in London can get very expensive and we didn't want to be spending $150+ every meal. We also knew that we'd be so busy sight-seeing that we would not want to be bound to a reservation time at a "fancier" dinner. One of the places I found was Cafe in the Crypt at St. Martin in the Fields. It's cafeteria style dining in a crypt.

They are open for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner. There are sandwiches, soups, salads, desserts, and a few entrees from which to choose. I was not too excited by the entrees the evening we went (our first dinner in London) but my mom tried the Piri Piri Chicken. It came with a biscuit, salad, and rice. She said it was very tasty but much spicier than she had expected.

SP and I shared a trio of salads: Greek Salad, Couscous with Roasted Red Pepper, Eggplant, Zucchini, and Harissa, and Potato Salad. I really liked the couscous salad. It was a bit spicy, but I couldn't stop eating it. Next to it, the potato salad was nicely cooling with its creamy dressing. The Greek Salad was good, too, tomatoes, cucumbers. kalamata, and onion in a dressing.

We also shared a Chicken~Bacon~Tomato Sandwich. It was good, but I enjoyed the salads more than the sandwich. We were in a bit of a hurry because we had tried to go to several other places but couldn't get in so we arrived a bit late for a Wednesday dinner, probably a bit before 6 pm, and on Wednesdays when they host live jazz, only ticket holders can use the cafe after 6:30 pm. So we quickly ate and then went back to the hotel to catch up on sleep.

As I wrote, it's cafeteria style, so you grab a tray and move through the line, selecting your food. The servers behind the counters were very nice & happy to answer questions. It was neat, not creepy, to sit under those brick vaulted ceilings and have tombstones underneath our feet. It was a nice respite from the hustle and bustle of Trafalgar Square just above our heads. It might not be for everyone, and the options can be a little limited, but we were happy with our experience and suggest it to others.