REVIEW: Omega3 2Go, Leicester
Edit: But it appears to be closed – has had a ‘closed for refurbishment’ sign up for a couple of months now… watch this space (April 2015)
I jest, of course. Good to see anyone starting a new business in the current climate. And this place seems to work on a freshness concept which I have to admit I do like for an independent sandwich shop.
Tucked away in the lovely Silver Walk on St Martins Square, Omega3 2Go is a simple sandwich shop that makes their own bread daily and has some really good value lunch choices.
Dare I say it, they sort of follow the ‘Subway’ school of thought in the main – having a variety of homemade subrolls for you to choose and a salad bar full of toppings. You can have your sandwich toasted, and add a drink to it and pay £3. They fill those sandwiches pretty well too, so it’s plenty filling for a lunch.
They also offer baked potatoes, my favourite, which come with a little side salad, salad boxes, pizza slices, sausage and vegetarian rolls (About £1.10) and also cajun wedges (£2) which are massive and really nicely spiced – they have a good kick to them. All of this seems to be made on site and is pretty tasty. They have a range of cakes every day, which I have not tried yet but do look tasty and weirdly, it seems to be the only place that are still making mince pies, so if you fancy a bit of nostalgia for Christmas past, this is the place for you.
The staff are universally friendly, but you can tell that some are more experienced than others – you can see that some are more experienced than others. However, I have been going to use a great value Groupon I bought and over the last 3 weeks I have seen the speed of service increase and the friendliness is improving too. Some of the staff do need to learn to make eye contact and greet customers as they come in – sometimes you can be left waiting without knowing if anyone will ever acknowledge you – but I do think that this is part of this new establishment finding its feet. Portion sizes can also be a bit variable, but generally speaking they are quite generous, which is important if you are looking for a work lunch to keep you going for the rest of the day.
They have free wifi, but no music on in the shop at the moment, which I would guess is due to the absence of a PRS licence at this time. Perhaps they are using the ‘Wetherspoons’ approach in this respect. The other day a busker had sprung up nearby, so this plugged the music gap for me. They have a range of seating areas, including one upstairs which I have yet to try. There are comfy sofas for chilling out with a freshly made coffee or smoothie and also tables and bar seating to allow a more comfortable meal experience.
Finally, they are also operating as a bakery – you can get fresh baked rolls, loaves and so forth, all presumably with added Omega 3 (I think from chia, although I’m not 100% on message with what they’re doing here from what I can see in the store). The bread seems to hover around the £1 mark, so definitely better value, better taste and better for you than grabbing a white sliced at the supermarket.
Overall, I’d give Omega3 2Go SIX Extreme Points out of TEN. They’ve made a great start, and this has the potential to be a bustling little city centre cafe. It’s a great location and the fresh made bread is definitely a draw. They are reasonably priced and the service speed and quality is definitely on the rise each week that I go there. I’m pretty confident that once my Groupon runs out, this place will be on my regular rotation of places to get lunch when I’ve got no leftovers to heat up in the office!
Give them a go. It’s better than Subway (like most things in life).
