date of visit: Saturday 7 April 2012

We live quite near to Marion and, while it’s fair to say I loathe the place, it’s incredibly handy if there’s any serious shopping that needs to be done.

One thing we rarely do at Marion is stop to have a coffee because food wise Marion’s offerings just aren’t that appealing. There’s the food court and then there’s quite a few places that sit out in the middle of the mall itself. You might assume that these are great for people watching (and they are) but they just don’t have a very pleasant atmosphere.

There is, however, one place that we do stop off at if we’re feeling like single serving coffee and cake. And that is Angs, which is downstairs near Woolworths (and near the excellent Cheese Monger – if you haven’t sussed them out before, you really should!). While Angs does have some seating out in the mall it also has a proper shop presence so you can sit inside, away from the shoppers and enjoy your snack in (relative) peace. Of course, you do get to listen to the coffee machine but any experienced café goer can cope with that!

The coffees are good and, as a bonus, you can buy beans or ground (to order) coffee while you’re at it. The selection is modest but we’ve always enjoyed the coffee we’ve picked up. The biscuits are fresh and appropriately crisp or crumbly and, last time we ducked in, the lemon cheesecake received a tick of approval from Andy. They also sell savoury food but when faced with cake or biscuit, why would you choose that?!

If you do need to escape while you’re at Marion, Angs represents your best bet.