London's Hidden Gems

SECRET SPOTS YOU SIMPLY HAVE TO DISCOVER

- HARRIET ADDISON

Photobook Cafe

4 Leonard Circus, EC2

There was an advert in the early Nineties, where a huge, furry, legless blue monster bounds through somebody's house, and comes to rest softly on their shoulders in a huge, cosy hug. It was for Bachelors Cup a Soup ("hug in a mug") and while that particular soup never quite replicated that feeling, the Photobook Cafe in Shoreditch might just be the real-life equivalent.

The first time I visited was on a rainy afternoon in September. Starving, I spotted that the café had a kiosk in front, with a jovial fellow with a large grey beard (Ian) keeping dry under the black awning which protrudes from the pale brick of the building. Grilled cheese, soup, the blackboard proffered - perfect. I ordered the mushroom soup and was ushered inside to pay. This is where the hug really started. Do you want your toast in triangles, halves or fingers, Ian asked. What a nurturing question. You'll want fingers, he tells me, smiling - better for dipping in your cup of soup. He was right; and those hot buttery slices dipped into a creamy mushroom soup were completely delicious.