Pigwich: the butcher's food truck in KC

Giraffe Stop: King's Cross Station, London, England

The ceiling of the shopping area of King's Cross station in London, England. The Harry Potter tribute to platform 9 3/4 is on the left side of this photo.

Giraffe Stop is an eatery in London's storied King's Cross train station. There are locations in other stations around London as well. At King's Cross, it is in the food terrace above the shops. I stopped in  late (7:30 PM) on a snowy Sunday night in the early spring hoping for a small dinner. 

Giraffe Stop offers hot sandwiches, hot dogs, smoothies, shakes, and a variety of teas. Like many of the eateries at train stations around London, there is seating both inside the restaurant as well as outside on the terrace. The interior is attractive and inviting, with a variety of colorful signs and decorations that give the space a modern, pleasant feel.

I initially ordered a hot toasted ham and cheese sandwich, similar to a panini. But they told me they were out of ham & cheese, so I went with a traditional tuna melt as a second option, as well as a banana strawberry smoothie.

The banana strawberry smoothie from Giraffe Stop

The smoothie arrived first, and it was tasty. I'm often surprised at the variety of drinks presented as smoothies. The ones I make in my kitchen are very thick and mostly blended fruit, many others are primarily ice with fruit flavoring. This is a blend of fruit and fruit juices, and it was just fine. I'd get another in the future. In fact, I almost had to get another at the restaurant because I drank most of it before my sandwich came.

In fact, the kitchen manager came out and told me they were out of tuna for my tuna melt, so I had to move to a third option for a sandwich. It was late on a Sunday night, so I can't fault them too much. Plus, it worked out really well. I tried the jalapeño cheese sandwich as a third choice, and the manager warned it was a little spicy. As it turns out, I really like spicy -- so I told her to bring the heat.

the jalapeño cheese sandwich with fajita chicken at Giraffe Stop London England

  

I was surprised to find fajita chicken on the sandwich when it arrived. I hadn't really read the menu for my third choice -- I just tossed something out I figured they would have enough of (jalapeños, cheese, bread).  This is a sandwich worth coming back for! The bread was perfectly toasted for a nice  but not too difficult outside crunch. The cheese was smooth, creamy, and perfectly melted, giving the outside crunch a wonderful creamy center. The spice wasn't hot by any stretch, but it was wonderfully nuanced and layered. On my first bite, I thought that this was the best thing I'd eaten in England so far. Halfway through the sandwich, I was making notes to try and replicate this in my own kitchen at home. This is a sandwich of note, buried in obscurity on a menu full of less notable and completely pedestrian items that ordinary tourists would order -- things like toasted ham & cheese or traditional tuna melts. Amateurs. 

One other item of note about King's Cross: Here you'll find a tribute to Harry Potter. This is the place Harry came to go to Hogwarts for the first time, and struggled to find platform 9 3/4. There is a replica where you can pose for a photo with a cart that's going through the wall toward platform 9 3/4, as well as a Hogwarts / Harry Potter gift shop. I didn't stop for a photo, the line was quite long to get a picture and -- more importantly, I'd just been to the Harry Potter Experience at Warner  Brothers in Leavesden where they filmed the movies. Perhaps that's worthy of a separate entry soon enough. Here's a picture of the one at King's Cross if you are in the area and don't have half a day to go up to Leavesden for the studio tour.