Apple Butter Cafe - New in Covent Garden

New places; there are a lot of these in Covent Garden. A key reason is that there are a lot of empty shops/spaces. Whenever a shop/restaurant closes, I get quite sad for that business, but optimism quickly takes over around what may take its place.

Clear example is On the Bab on the corners of Neal street. I was devastated when it closed, but elated shortly after when fafa's Pita took its place.

Another example now is the opening of Apple Butter Cafe. This has taken over from Balans on Seven Dials.

Casual Dining in the heart of Seven Dials, Apple Butter is a heart-warming concept neatly tucked away on Monmouth Street providing an oasis of calm away from the circus of Seven Dials.

Apple Butter Café offers a warm welcome for all with its all-day dining menu, cosy yet sophisticated surroundings in amongst an iconic and ultimately instagrammable apple tree, planted centre stage for all to see and enjoy.
The concept has been created by successful Middle Eastern-born business operators and brothers Saleh and Mohammad Alayan alongside Faycal Abdel Khalek, each delivering something special and unique to its ultimate creation.  Collectively bringing years of experience, passion and success with all things hospitality, the trio chose the heart of London to launch their debut east meets west fusion café concept.
The 65-cover exquisitely built café hot spot with a cosy front terrace will serve a wide range of specialty coffee alongside gourmet sandwiches and salads, indulgent Middle-Eastern inspired desserts and daily freshly-baked cakes and pastries piled high; just the smell will be enough to lure you in.  With quality and taste at its core, Apple Butter Café will also offer a full gluten and diary free range to suit all tastes.

When looking at the menu, I couldn't decide what I wanted. A lot of the dishes sounded really good, yet vague. We decided to ask the waitress for help and although she was helpful in telling us about a lot of the dishes, she wasn't able to narrow it down for us.

Dish X was great as was dish Y, but also dish A and B and even C were great too. What do you do?
When this usually happens, I ignore all of their advice and go for something that I know I will like and won't offend me if it is not that great either. The Safe Zone.

Apple Butter is 100% a great addition to Covent Garden.My only fear is that due to the high costs in the area and usual turnaround is that this restaurant will be closed in about a year.

I think their price point is slightly higher than I would like to return here more frequently. At a slightly lower rate I would be happy to visit more often. The dishes we had were the Grilled Cheese & Truffle sandwich, which had a Kashmiri Mix (a middle eastern spice mix) with it AND the chicken waffle with rocket. We also had sides of zucchini fitti and parmesan fries just to fill our stomachs.
I would recommend both dishes, but wouldn't say that they were the best versions of each I have ever had.

One thing which we were told to look out for later on was the daily pastry selection, which the chef (depending on his mood) would create and experiment. I feel like the breakfast here would be a good one.

GOOD TIMES: The food and decor is lovely. The price does add up quickly for a quick lunch out

WATCH OUT: A lot of options, with no real stand out.

OMG: The tree in the middle. Let's hope an independent cafe does last in the area. Fingers crossed.