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8-10 Neal’s Yard, London WC2

Funky is the style at this smart place that opened in 1982 and may have seemed a little retro in its ambience even then; now it almost suggests self-parody. But it’s a great  place to sit in the open air and admire the local scenery. For starters we enjoyed a vegan soup (pumpkin with coriander) and bruschetta on a kind of crisp bread made of rice flour. My companion ordered a quiche of spinach and ricotta that she pronounced ‘perfectly pleasant’, while I went for a large salad of tomato, celery, leek, beetroot, grated carrot and cucumber, its beautiful colours  echoing the psychedelic get-up of the neighbourhood.  For drinks you can’t go past the ABC (apple, beetroot and carrot)…so many vitamins in the heart of London! The food here is seriously good for you, and for some people this Salad Bar offers a trip down memory lane, although not necessarily the kind of trip people often took in those groovy days.