WITH its dark wood interior and welcoming leather sofas, Caffe Latino has all the look of a global chain of coffee houses. The pre-packaged ciabatta sandwiches and panini also bear a resemblance to a well-known Seattle-based empire.
Caffe Latino, on New Street, is in fact an independent company with just four outlets in Yorkshire. But with plans to open 12 new stores, business must be going fairly well.
Customers are presented with a fairly limited choice of about eight sandwiches at the New Street franchise, coffee and cakes being the main focus.
The sandwiches are not to be ignored though, as my chicken tikka panini was on decent herby bread and not short of tasty breast meat. My friend agreed about the bread but said his chicken, tomato and cheese panini lacked mayo. But he does like a lot of mayo.
There was only one choice of soup, tomato, but I decided to give it a whirl. At first I thought it was homemade as I spotted chunky pieces of tomato floating around conspicuously, but after several spoonfuls I was not so convinced.
The forte of any coffee-based cafe is going to be the drinks so I was a little surprised that my mocha was mediocre. It was quite weak and wasn’t very creamy or sweet enough and I wasn’t offered any whipped cream or marshmallows.
My colleague also found his Americano pretty uninspiring but we both thought the flapjack was fairly decent.
The outfit is fairly competitive on value with a sandwich and coffee meal deal at just under £4. The soup is not such a bargain at £2.25 and the flapjack is a pretty standard £1.25.
