In the not-so-distant past, we decided to make a daytrip to Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. We started the day early by taking a coach to Birmingham and then catching a train to Stratford-upon-Avon (more on Birmingham in future posts).
Stratford is a small and quaint town, but also a major tourist destination due to it being Shakespeare’s birthplace. Indeed, it was rather busy the day we were there. Also of interest is the black and white architecture of most of the buildings in Stratford. Sported by the older buildings, it somehow gave the whole town a timeless and classic feel.
Don’t let the exterior fool you. It may look old and cute from the outside, but inside can be very different. For instance, here we have The Shakespeare Hotel run by Mercure which is a 4-star hotel and is supposed to be rather fancy on the inside (which we cannot be sure of because we have never stayed in this hotel before).
Besides the main streets, smaller lanes like this litter the town. They should not be ignored as many unique shops operate from premises on these lanes. This further adds to the charm of the town.
We were hungry when we arrived, so we decided to head over to The Food of Love which we thought looked good due to its reviews on Tripadvisor. It was very near to Shakepeare’s Birthplace, a major tourist attraction, and so was very easy to find.
A lot of seats were available outside the café, but we opted to sit inside as the inside looked nice and rather elegant. We were not disappointed so far. The seats were very comfortable and the tables were big, which is always a plus.
We tried a Maple Hot Apple drink, which was new to us. Priced at £1.95, this drink tasted like spiced apple with some maple flavour. We were surprised at how nice it was.
We ordered a Soup of the Day for £3.95 as well. The soup that day was tomato soup. The portion was sizable and it was served with croutons. The tomato soup was pleasant and avoided having much of the acidic tomato taste, instead having a nice herby taste. We enjoyed the soup and the croutons very much.
As our main, we had the Mediterranean Chicken & Tomato Sandwich which was priced at £5.50. This was one of their specialities and we really liked it! The chicken was perfectly cooked and managed to remain tender whilst certain outer bits were delightfully crunchy.
We also had a Cream Tea which was a pot of tea served with a scone, clotted cream and jam. This was priced at £4.25. The scone was fresh and soft on the inside. The combination with the jam and clotted cream was excellent indeed!
The Food of Love was definitely a great way to start off our daytrip in Stratford and later, Birmingham. We would definitely go back, if it weren’t so far from us! We got up to more delicious mischief on this short trip, so be sure to stay tuned!
Restaurant Information
37 Henley Street
Stratford-upon-Avon
Warwickshire CV37 6QW
United Kingdom.
Tel: 01789 261188
