Restaurants, Cafes, Coffee Bars

I remember the Lunchbox on Walsgrave road very well. It was a great place for a steak supper after the pubs closed. The restaurant was upstairs. Another favourite was Michaels on Ball Hill. People forget, in the early 60s it was difficult to find anywhere to eat after 10:30pm except for the chip or batch shops.

Hi Adrian, I also remember the Lunchbox ; I went there on several occasions. On a Saturday night they used to have a trio playing in the restaurant. The food was very good, and I seem to recall that if you ordered the He-Man Grill and ate all the food on your plate, you got it free. I know of several people who tried but I only know one who managed it.

Hi all I remember the Lunch Box very well. It used to be part of the storage space for Hogarths at one time. The He-man Grill, I did consume once, but could not finish the treacle sponge with custard that was free if you demolished the grill. That was in the seventies. Just enjoyed a 'Pam slow-cooked all-in-one pot stew'. She made it yesterday, enough for us both for two days. Always best on day two. Yummy! Her sister is a fan of QVC, I say fan, more an addict, so we finish up with all of these latest gadgets.

WOW Philip those grills were enormous. Bet Pam's stew tasted just as good if not better. I agree stews always taste better on the second day.

Does any remember the cafe in Pool Meadow, under the clock. It was so in need of white paint if I remember correctly.

Do you mean this one ?

Thanks Midland Red. This pic was taken before the ring-road system was built. The houses behind the buses are a give-away. The cafe had a toilet block, and - pun here - Midland Red booking office. The Midland Red buses never used Pool Meadow as I remember. They had there own stands behind where this pic was taken.

I was born in 66 and I think I have seen this place before. Do any know when it closed down. I may have a memory of it when I was young and had to wait for a single decker Midland Red bus - the one with three back windows, emergency exit being the middle one, going to Stratford-on-Avon for the day. I do remember the other cafe in Pool Meadow.

I lived in Priory Hall just overlooking the bus station in 1989 when I first started at the Polytechnic, and I remember the bus station just being a large expanse of tarmac with a few bits and pieces of building. Was this cafe there then? It was a pretty dismal view - just the wall of the ring road and tower blocks behind it. I remember there was a horrific accident one day, someone died while trying to get onto a bus. Didn't expect to end up moving back here in the late 1990s and living here and starting a family here!

He was a Yugoslavian man, and left the city rather abruptly in circa 1984-ish owing a LOT of money. He also had the small cafe in the Arcade with its art deco frosted glass that separated the upstairs. I think that cafe is now called Bus Stop?

Corner of Old Church Road and Foleshill Rd, opposite Courtaulds gatehouse, a long low building that I think is now occupied by a religious group. During the war years and for some time after it was used as a British Restaurant. I recall one of the ladies who served the meals calling out "Not as good as your mother cooks but it's just as hot". Repeated every day and several times during each meal. I can't remember just why my sister and I went there each day during the school lunch break. Think it could have been something to do with both of our parents doing war work somewhere out of the city. Les

There was one at the corner of Broad St, Foleshill Rd. end, opposite the Trustee Savings Bank. As an apprentice plumber at W. Meads, next to St. Paul's Church, I was sent there with an enamel teacan for "fourpennorth" of tea. It was frequented by Sammy Moore, a vagrant living in Longford, who would turn up with his bean can and beg for a penny so that he could get his tea. The British Restaurant was retitled a civic restaurant and is now a hairdressers.

TekMelf's memory is brilliant! I haven't seen many photos of them in any of my Coventry photo books at home. A real necessity as well. I did find a link describing how they came about, something about 'The Lady with the Ladle'. British Restaurants That link isn't bad for general WW2 references in any case.

I think that it is ironic that there is a Fish and Chip restaurant in Hales Street now, more or less where Fishy Moores was. So sad that we lost the original from that spot!

I think you mean Fairfax Street Anne?