£5 Lunch, Match Bar

The novelty of the (actually rather good) office canteen was wearing off, as was the grind of assembling a packed lunch every day. If only there were some way to find a balance between the hole in my stomach and the one in my wallet, alas! So it was that I went, in search of cheap eats nearby.

A chalk board on the street advertising cheap food in central London is always likely to grab my attention – my Fervent Foodie sense is engaged 24/7 (I dream in sushi). Such was how I happened upon Match Bar’s ‘lunch for £5’ deal. 

The lunch on offer is simple fare – eggs benedict or a choice of filling for your ciabatta/pitta/salad. Avocado & prawn and jerk chicken were both contenders, but in the end I could not resist the lure of chicken and chorizo, in a salad.

The food arrived at the table bursting with colour and I was glad to see that the chorizo was in satisfying chunks. The salad consisted of leafy greens, tomato, cucumber and herbs. It looked good, but another of my first impressions was of the portion size – really rather small for a main. That explained the low price.

Meat.

The chicken was in grilled strips and the salad had a good mix of textures between the tender leaves, crunchy cucumber and juicy tomato chunks. It would have been decent, if unremarkable were it not for addition of the chorizo. The rich and oily, almost nutty quality of the chorizo stood out against the mild backdrop of the chicken salad, which enhanced the depth of its flavour. It was a classic example of how judicious use of a bold ingredient can add life to an otherwise plain dish.

Though the taste of it was great, by the end of my meal I was left feeling hungry: the portion just wasn’t big enough. Perhaps the ciabatta option, with its thick wedges of bread, would have gone some ways to solve this problem but on the flavour-balanced salad option I can only recommend it for small appetites or a light lunch.

You'll find Match Bar at 37-38 Margaret St, the closest station being Oxford Circus