Leaf’s Lunches: St Catz

[rating: 5/5]

In the process of researching this review (by which I mean googling ‘hall catz cambridge’) I also search-engined the phrase ‘The man maketh the meal’. For wholly unfathomable reasons, I believed it to be a famous idiom. It turns out it’s not. But if I may be so presumptuous as to use it anyway, my Cat’s experience was “makethed” by “the man”, who happened in this case to be a woman.
Catz’s Hall is open from twelve until one-thirty. The seating area is banging for a canteen – not a plastic seat in sight, decent tables, old portraits, lovely jugs, fun and games to be had by all. You grab a tray and are unleashed on the counters. The hot food section was fairly unpleasant; splintery carrots, a manically depressed-looking corn combo, soggy potato di. The steak and kidney pie was good, notwithstanding an oversweet pastry that looked like it may have been used in the cherry pie too.

So far, so meh: the excitement only began when I reached the yoghurts. What a superbulous range! There were Corners, there were Noms, there were Muller Rice puddings; there were plain old strawberry yogs; it was fantastic. Then I took my tray to the check out and fell in love.

The lady behind the cashier served me so wonderfully well that the aforementioned ‘idiom’ donged loudly in my brain, immediately and insistently demanding that I overlook the quality of the food and judge the canteen on the basis of one person. I perved on her name badge and lo! Eros pierced me anew, for she was aptly called “Pam Pleasance”. What a Betty. She was grinning, she was bantering, she was apologising for the price, she was on fookin’ form. I just adored her. And so, because the man maketh the meal, Catz gets the full whack, five stars and well earned.