The Cottage Kitchen, the St Andrews coffee shop that sits upon church square decorated in calming pastel colours and with window displays brimming with cakes and delights. Everything about the Cottage Kitchen is enticing, with its late opening hours (for St Andrews!) and rustic yet chic interior it is the perfect place for a cappuccino and a slice of delicious lemon drizzle cake with a friend, or a comforting Hot Chocolate with all the cream and marshmallow trimmings, sipped slowly while you brood over your laptop hoping to find inspiration for that final defining point that will bring your essay together.
However, the attraction of the Cottage Kitchen has created its one weakness, its popularity. There appears to be a constant flow of students, families, townsfolk and many others who are all desperate for a slice of cake and a pot of tea, causing the Cottage Kitchen to seem continuously full, with not a chair to spare in the two floored café. Yet, with the summer sun slowly peeking through the clouds, the garden terrace extending outside the back of the Cottage Kitchen is becoming the perfect place to enjoy your orange and polenta cake (you promised you would share with your friend but have managed to gobble down before she sat down) in tranquil peace. So I say, when you feel like you are drowning in highlighters and revision notecards take a study break in this wonderful café and you will feel calm and refreshed upon your return!