Camden Food Co, Birmingham New Street Station

I managed to grab this image of the Camden food co. in a short break of the rush hour crowds.

En route to Liverpool Lime Street from Bristol Templemeads means one of two options: change at Stafford or Birmingham New Street. I'd opted for the latter and arrived just before 5pm with half an hour to kill before my connection. Time for 'dinner'. I put the word in inverted commas because this was not going to be a sit-down affair, more a case of 'eating on the go', something I don't particularly enjoy.

Having said that, I found that the Camden Food Co outlet on the ticketed side of the concourse to be reasonably pleasant. I'd passed it many times before but never ventured in, mainly because there was something about the lighting and the seating area that put me off; it was all a bit transient and not that welcoming.

On this occasion, however, I figured it would be my only chance of food as the Liverpool club I would be attending that night didn't offer anythng – apart from crisps and peanuts – so in I bowled to check out what was on offer. Food and drink is laid out in display units or on the counter. All the customer has to do is select his or her food and pay at the counter (where they can also order hot beverages).

I opted for chicken and pesto foccacia, a banana and a cup of tea. The panini was toasted on the counter top and the tea provided in a large paper cup with a lid. I then found a table and sat there watching the commuters before making my way to platform 4c and my train to Lime Street.

The foccacia cost £3.79, the tea (which was organic) set me back a staggering £1.79 and the banana was 59p, although she did offer me two bananas for 99p but I declined.

The service here was good – friendly and efficient.

Café on the Square, Grove Avenue, Bristol

Internal and external shots of the Café on the Square, Grove Avenue, Bristol.

The Café on the Square in Grove Avenue, Bristol is a fantastic place for the simple reason that it has that added something that elevates its status from 'caff' to small restaurant – although it is not open at night. I liked the place the moment I peered through the window and noticed the brightly coloured tablecloths – they were enough to draw me inside where I found a friendly environment and helpful staff too.

Another good thing about this place was that it took credit cards, unlike most places of this sort. It would have been even better, of course, if I hadn't lost my credit card – or rather I had, unknowingly at the moment I entered the restaurant, left it on the floor in my hotel room. Naturally, as soon as I had confirmed that I could pay by card, I started to fumble around in my wallet to find it, only to discover (after emptying all my pockets and turning my wallet inside out) that I didn't have it. I began to panic, ordered my food anyway and paid cash and then sat there fretting.

I won't bore you with all the details, but it turned out that I had inadvertently left it on the floor in my hotel room – all was right with the world again, but it still managed to ruin my meal at the café – Napoli chicken in a rich savoury tomato and basil sauce with red onions and peppers (£5.25) – plus a cup of tea for £1. The total bill was £6.25.

Blackboards on the wall offered grilled paninis (£3.90); a range of home-made pasta dishes (£5.25); jacket potatoes (£3.80 to £5.25); full English breakfast (£5.50); a vegetarian breakast and a Mega breakfast (£5.50 and £6.50 respectively). There were some interesting specials too: chicken rogan josh at £5.50, a home-made beefburger (£5.25) and field mushrooms stuffed with goat's cheese (£4.90).

Oddly, the café sold a range of 'gourmet' potato chips (or crisps) rather than just one variety. Customers have the choice between Real, Tyrell's and Kettle – what is known in the potato processing industry as 'gourmet' potato chips as opposed to more standard products from the bigger brand names we all know and love.

Fortunately, I left the café more elated than when I walked in; my credit card was safe and all I had to do was walk back to the hotel to retrieve it; this done I headed for Templemeads and a train to Liverpool Lime Street via Birmingham New Street.

Café on the Square is well worth a visit if you happen to be in Bristol, not only because of the excellent food but also the friendly staff and the pleasant environment.

Sergio's Continental Bar & Diner, Croydon, Surrey

From the top: my large tea and a Sergio's laminated menu; check out that amazing apple pie with ice cream (it's a Brake Bros pie and it's the best); and then (above) my 147 with extra onions. Normally I have a sausage and onion bap but they'd run out of baps so I opted for ciabatta instead. From now I might order the ciabatta .

You want a cult caff? Then look no further than Sergio's Continental Bar & Diner. I love that name. We call it Sergio's and that's not only because it's easier to say than Sergio's Continental Bar & Diner, but also because Sergio exists. This is a family business run by Sergio and his wife Pat. Pat does the chat, Sergio produces the food on the menu. It's that simple.

Sergio's is to be found in St George's Walk, no more than three minutes' walk from the lobby of St George's House, headquarters in the UK of Nestlé. It is a caff from the seventies and it hasn't changed much since then. I remember going there for a plate of lasagne back in the days when my wife was my girlfriend in the early eighties. In many ways, this is the caff that time forgot – and thank the Lord for that! Check out the interior decor, it's fantastic.

I started going there on a daily basis back at the beginning of the new millennium. My colleague Geoff Althoff, aka 'the illustrious illustrator', were fed up with Bar Ispani in the nearby Whitgift Centre because it was too expensive and had an identity crisis: was it a caff or a restaurant? It was certainly charging restaurant prices so we shipped out and started to hang out at Sergio's.

It didn't take Pat long to get to know our needs: a sausage in a bap with extra onions was one regular order from me and then there were the baked potatoes with tuna and onion and let's not forget the apple pie with either ice cream or custard. I used to have the latter but only if the custard was made by Pat or the Portugese lady that helped out behind the counter. For some reason they made better custard than Sergio and don't forget, we're talking Ambrosia Devon Custard – nothing better. The ice cream was good too, especially if the pie was hot as the contrast between the hot pie and the cold ice cream was just amazing.

It wasn't long before Sergio's became a regular haunt every day. Two large teas, sometimes three, number 147 on bap (that's the sausage and onion sandwich with extra onions) and then the apple pie with either custard or ice cream.

When the job went down, we still met there for a while and even now, even if we don't go in for months, Pat still remembers us. She has become our friend and that is what caffs are all about.

Whenever I walk in there, Pat just brings me over a cup of tea. She knows my order. If I asked for my usual, she'd bring me a 147 on a bap with extra onions.

Sergio's has round Formica tables with wall-mounted seating on the left hand side, the service counter on the right and over at the back in the right hand corner, the 'confessional'. That's what we call the bench seating next to the end of the counter where a brown mesh wall separates the customers from the counter staff; it looks like a confessional, hence the name.

My colleagues and I, my wife, my son, my daughter, we all love Sergio's and I would suggest that if you want to experience this caff, waste no time as it looks as if it might not be there for much longer. Why? Well, not because it's losing money to restaurant chains. Oh no! Sergio's is a millon times better than Costa or Caffé Nero or Starbucks or anywhere else in Croydon for that matter.

No, the reason is all to do with St George's Walk and the fact that nobody seems to know what's going to happen to it. At one stage it was going to be knocked down but I'm not sure what's happened to that plan. Either way, the initial proposal meant that leases were not being renewed, that sort of thing, so Pat and Sergio were just waiting and wondering and as other retailers in St George's Walk move on (Millets has gone and so have many other shops and other caffs too) Sergio's is still there.

Today, there's a few weird shops in the Walk and a couple of caffs, an optician's, a relatively new fresh bread shop, and, well, it's all a bit strange as there are plenty of boarded up shops too. There are caffs at both ends of the Walk. At the High Street end it used to be Panino's, but that's now called something else. Either way it's not the same as Sergio's, not as comfortable.

I was in Sergio's last week and the first thing Pat did was bring over my tea. I ordered 147 with extra onions AND I had the apple pie with ice cream. I ordered a second cup of tea and the whole lot was just £5.90. You can't beat value like that, can you?

The best thing about Sergio's, of course, is the warmth. Not only the warmth generated by Pat and Sergio and the friendly atmosphere generally, but the warmth generated by the cosyness of the place and the fact that it's warm and welcoming in the cold weather. It's fine in the hot weather too, probably because the Walk is shaded from the heat (not that in England there is any real heat).

Listen, Sergio's is just the best. It's as good as it gets when it comes to caffs and if you haven't been there, then go there soon because you just never know when it's not going to be there. I know that one day I'm going to head on down to the Walk and find it gone. That will be a sad, sad day.

Daylight robbery – £2 for a cup of tea at Costa

Photographs show my bill for a small bottle of mineral water, the Eat & Drink Co and the Costa at a Moto service area on the M3. Let's get one thing straight here: paying £2 for a cuppa is fine if the environment is something really special, but a motorway service area? I don't think so.

I wouldn't call myself a communist or a Marxist, but there are times when capitalism really stinks. Normally, I get a little cheesed off when I discover that to travel by train to, say, Huddersfield, at 9am in the morning, will cost me in excess of £200. Why, when a hour or so later the fare is more than halved? The answer, of course, is exploitation.

Train travel is one thing, but how about a cup of tea for £1.99? That, in teashopandcaff's opinion, is daylight robbery when you consider that a cup of tea costs only pennies to make. I should know. Many moons ago I was the editor of a catering magazine. I was often told by the brand managers for PG Tips or Twinings that tea only cost 3p to make so that selling a cup for 50p was, in itself, a good mark-up.

Fast forward to Sunday August 2nd 2009 and even assuming, hypothetically, that the price of producing the Great British Cuppa has rocketed to, say, 12p, £1.99 is still extortionate. But that is the price of a cup of tea in a Costa Coffee on the M3. Why is it so expensive? Because they have a captive audience and can charge what the hell they like. Disgusting. It's the same price at an Eat & Drink Co outlet in the same Moto motorway service station where, incidentally, a small bottle of mineral water is also £1.99 (normally it's around 60p in shops).

Nobody should be expected to pay £1.99 for a cup of tea. Sort it out, Costa, your tea is not THAT good. For £2, I'd expect free biscuits at the very least.