Paul

Mmmmm, sticky lemon!

I love the cakes in Paul. Or, more precisely, I love the lemon tartlets, as that’s pretty much all I ever have!

The Richmond Paul is a little cake and coffee type place and I think it’s perfect for that. The room is a bit of an odd shape which gives it lots of nice corner tables to tuck yourself into, and on one side you can even hide yourself away from the counter area and feel properly cosy over your coffee. Today we were in the mood for a good read – Charles had his newspaper and I had my book – and we just settled down in a corner for a good hour and a half’s companionable reading. Paul wasn’t busy and the staff were content to leave us there, even after we had long since finished our coffees, which we really appreciated.

Between us we had the obligatory lemon tartlet, a chocolate tartlet and a pizza slice, along with a cappuccino, an Earl Grey tea and a tea with vanilla. The lemon tartlet was very sweet and rich and sticky – yum – but the chocolate tartlet was a bit dried out with cracks on top. Perhaps this was because we visited at the very end of the day and it had no doubt been sitting a while. Charles wasn’t amazingly happy with his pizza slice. It tasted a little bit ‘processed’ and had those stoned, brined olives on top rather than the ‘real’ version. Perhaps we shouldn’t expect restaurant quality food in a café, however! I hadn’t tried Earl Grey tea with vanilla before, that was a new one on me. I have to say it was very nice!

Only after I had ordered my cappuccino did I realise that Paul do coffee with cream (called Viennese coffee, apparently!). That’s a real find for me! In the days before coffee became trendy, all the choice you would be offered was black coffee or coffee with milk – and in the better class of places, coffee with cream. Oh how I long for those days! There is nothing more perfect and luxurious than coffee with cream, and these days nobody offers it – it’s all coffee with tasteless froth on top. In other places I have tried to ask for ‘normal white coffee’ or ‘coffee with cold milk’ or ‘coffee with cream’ and everyone seems to translate that into ‘cappuccino’ (or, once, rather weirdly, coffee with whipped cream on top!!). Now at last I have found a place that does real coffee with real cream – my heart sings with happiness!

Paul, 13 The Quadrant, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1BP
http://www.paul.fr/

ADDENDUM: I have since been back to Paul and tried the Viennese coffee. It isn't that nice pouring cream that I was expecting, it's the whipped stuff. Poo! If anyone finds a place that does real, freshly-ground coffee with real cream, do let me know!