Review

Hopefully by now, Ray’s Cafe will have got its liquor licence. Located as it is in the yard overlooking the wine section of Nature’s Basket, it was a wee bit frustrating to look at all those lovely bottles of wine and drink cranberry juice instead! This cafe is just that and has a delightful feel to it. The outdoor section was full so we had to settle for the air-conditioned bit.

The menu — apart from no booze and cranberry juice — had salads, pizza and sandwiches. The pizzas were recommended by the staff, so we tried out a prosciutto with rocket leaves and also ordered a charred vegetables and couscous salad. The salad was good — lots of lettuce with assorted grilled peppers and a sprinkling of couscous. It was useful for a “pretend” healthy feeling before the pizza arrived.

The ham — prosciutto — and rocket leaves on the pizza were not cooked with the rest of the pizza, which made it an interesting choice. My only complaint was that the ham was not cut into small enough pieces, so one bite of pizza meant all the ham was gone at one go unless you did it yourself. But the taste and the freshness of the meat and the rocket leaves was a pleasant surprise.

The speciality of the Cafe, informed the staff, was the Ray’s special pizza, which was a pepperoni. Ray’s offers the choice of ordering by the slice, so we asked for two and were rewarded with massive slices of pizza, dripping with cheese but not so much, it must be admitted, pepperoni. Pizza is in one way so very basic and in another, can be so fulfilling and Ray’s manages the mix. It is also a welcome change from the chain pizza places and their processed flavours.

The disappointment was the sandwich — and my companion did not like his ginger lemon fizz (which the bill has put down as “exotic drink”) but is that because it was not a pinot noir? We shall never know. We ordered a Ray’s special, which had German ham, dill, jalapenos, onions, cheese and then some. Again, the ham was uncut or in long strips so one bite pulled it out of the whole sandwich and somehow the combination did not work.

However, I would go again for the pizzas and the atmosphere. For dessert we had an apple pie, which was good enough. I overheard someone saying that they outsource the desserts but when I went the cafe was just two weeks old, so they have time to get it all in order.

A good fun place.