Viva Lewes Issue #161 February 2020

FOOD
Café du Jardin
Quirky classic
Lucinka Soucek, who runs Café du Jardin, is also a brilliant printmaker. Her
linocut, Passing Trains, which we’ve featured before in Viva Lewes (June 2016),
is truly wonderful. I was delighted to spot it on the wall when we visited.
We went for lunch the day after the café reopened in January. Set within the
courtyard off the street, the café’s outside tables offer a lovely spot to sit in
summer. It being still January, however, we slunk below – to the quirky and
welcoming large downstairs dining room.
It’s a lovely room, cheering, with loads to look at, including table football, standard lamps, and a couple of
tables served by armchairs. A charmingly quirky space. Everybody was very friendly. Pete ordered Croque
Monsieur £7.95, and I tried the Herb Crêpe filled with ratatouille and brie £7.95, both served with beautifully
fresh salad and crisp, flavoursome frites. The helpings were generous without being intimidating. The
Croque was excellent – a classic dish that hadn’t been mucked about with. My crêpe was comfortingly rustic,
with herby juicy ratatouille and the lovely surprise of brie.
We couldn’t resist two cakes for afters: lemon drizzle £2.95 and salted caramel millionaire’s shortbread £2.95.
Again, classic recipes beautifully enacted. These came on little mismatched plates with tiny cake forks. Nostalgic
details like these make me a very likely return-visitor… Charlotte Gann
15 Malling Street, cafedujardin.co.uk, open on Valentine’s evening