Ray’s Jazz Cafe, London

London is unrenowned for good value, good service or even good breakfasts but Foyles bookshop’s Ray’s Jazz Cafe has all three, with an ambience and prices for young backpackers on a budget.

Foyles, a landmark at Charing Cross Road since 1906, was once renowned for its ”literary luncheons” and until the 1980s even Bernard Black would have found it a bit, well, eccentric: books shelved by publisher instead of author and a dotty manageress with an aversion to phones, modern cash registers and people, who ”fired” customers as regularly as she did staff.

Today, Ray’s Jazz Cafe has impromptu concerts, readings and feisty interactive author talks.

Bedside reading Helene Hanff’s 84 Charing Cross Road.

Brian Turner for The Sydney Morning Herald

Manon Dallee

Manon is a true food enthusiast who literally has never met an ingredient she didn’t like. Even thought her inability to take orders mixed with her stubborn nature made working as a pastry chef almost impossible, she has immense respect for the trade and still loves nothing more than to bake, in her own domain. Find out more about Manon here.

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