Lunch at The (new) Forum

We'd decided to give Coffee Revolution, part of the Sheffield University Students' Union, a go as it has had excellent reviews for its coffee.  We walked out very quickly though, as there was a band warming up an hour before their gig start time, and it was pretty noisy.  Didn't see anything to eat other than sandwiches either - maybe we'll return one evening.

So we ventured down the road into the city centre in search of some food.  It's been a while since I last went to The Forum on Division Street.  When last we visited, it was more of a cafe/bar, though now I'll opt to call it a coffee shop/cafe/bar.  For me, 'cafe' has distinctly foody overtones, whilst the new look Forum is definitely pushing their coffee.

Since the demise of the nearby Starbucks, one assumes they are attempting to draw in the morning crowd, now that they open from 8am with a breakfast menu, and there is a new coffee bar area.  We decided to give it a try, fancying a different lunch for the day.

They're keen to push their new menus as well, including a "Fitness and Fasting" menu, with sub-200kcal options for those on the 5:2 diet.  I personally find this fad to be the same as all those other silly diets, and I couldn't fathom being able to deliver cancer treatment on only 500 calories a day, let alone engage in any activities that could be classed as "fitness", so we discarded that one.

Their main menu has a mixture of sandwiches, main meals, lighter bites and breakfast options for the appropriate time of day.  There's codes for gluten free (G) and vegetarian (V), but I have to ask why they really bother advertising doing anything gluten free when all that is on offer is a soup, chicken wings and salmon and sweet potato cakes.  Bit more variety, guys?

That said, the sweet potato cakes were very nice.  The atmosphere is much the same as it always has been; a bit of everything.  Families, early drinkers, people out for an afternoon meal.  Not too many just sitting to enjoy a cup of coffee.  Nicky's double espresso was missing half of itself, and he was charged for the full drink, which was swiftly sorted.  The crema on top was also lacking in colour and consistency, missing the smooth 'dark honey' shade that it should have, and as a result it tasted burnt.  My caramel latte was actually rather nice, though, and the milk was very smooth, so well done on that score.

As before then, we enjoyed the food, service was ok (why place my glass of tap water on the other side of the table?), but as a coffee shop?  Well, after lunch we went to Tamper for a good cup with a slice of their ginger crunch...