BLT Cafe, Newport

Visitors to any area may find themselves, when looking for eating-places, wondering where the locals go. Look no further – it would be a daring lunch-seeking tourist indeed who wandered by accident into Dodnor industrial estate, a forbidding land of used car lots and high barbed-wire fences. But the journey would be worthwhile as in its heart can be found a well-patronised oasis of clean, cheap and cheerily served food: the BLT cafe.

BLT, Dodnor Industrial Estate, Newport

With an extensive range of filled baguettes and sandwiches, including the mouthwatering beef and Stilton; the exotic avocado and coleslaw; and the downright bewildering banana, bacon and cream cheese, BLT has a filling for everyone.

And it’s not just sarnies that BLT provides. Matt and Cat visited on a cold blustery day and decided to warm up with some hot food – Matt opting for baked potato filled with chicken tikka and a salad, and Cat playing safe with scrambled egg on toast.

Whilst they waited for their food, mugs of steaming tea arrived. The BLT knows its market well – teapots were neither provided nor expected. BLT commendably avoids teabags in the cups: the tea was delivered with milk, ready to drink, in traditional transport-cafe style with a spoon in each mug. M and C also had time to check out the interior of this smoke-free establishment, noting that the solid pine fittings and white porcelain crockery were courtesy of Mr Ikea. Pleasing too, was the bright and clean nature of the place, particularly the sandwich servery which BLT must spend all night polishing. Another nice touch was the provision of the day’s newspapers. Matt and Cat had only just started reading about the day’s events when their lunch was served by a friendly chap.

Cat’s scrambled egg was, in all likelihood, a generous two eggs, delivered on standard white bread toast. BLT is not the sort of place where punters should expect exotic seeded granary bread and, thankfully, none was forthcoming. The egg was very nice (not too snotty, not too dry) and went perfectly with the mug of tea.

The baked spud was a decent size, well warmed through and served with butter already applied. The modest side salad, remarkably, did not include raw onion! This caused a thrill of excitement in your reviewers that regular readers will not need to have explained. A healthy dollop of chicken tikka finished off a refreshing and warming lunch.

Prompt and friendly service, a spectacular array of sandwich fillings and HUGE breakfasts for the daring (Matt and Cat ogled the vast platefuls of breakfast delivered to the punters on the adjacent table), BLT is a cheery venue and is well worth the journey through the industrial estate to find it.