S&M Cafe

If you’re thinking rubber-clad dominatrixes, you’ll be disappointed: the S&M stands for Sausage & Mash. This chirpy branch of a small but popular chain has a postwar feel, with kitschy artworks – Tretchikoff’s ‘Green Lady’, a gurning Frankie Howerd & rows of Typhoo tea packets given the Warhol treatment – set off by gingham tablecloths. The menu is nostalgia-friendly, too: meat or veggie sausages with a choice of mash & gravy are the mainstay, but you might start instead with black pudding fritters or prawn cocktail before progressing to steak & kidney pie, a mixed grill, salad or fishfinger butty. Puddings include a fruit crumble of the day & there’s dandelion & burdock to wash it down. It’s as British as Barbara Windsor or the Routemaster bus, & none the worse for that.