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Farringdon needs another sandwich bar like it needs another butcher. Yet Piada is already doing a busy lunchtime takeaway trade despite stiff local competition. The cafe's USP is that it uses piadina instead of regular bread. Piadina is a staple street food of the Emilia-Romagna region, and is a round tortilla-like flatbread that was traditionally made with flour, salt, water and lard.

The single-storey cafe has been simply done out in black, white and red. Large photographs of old Italy adorn the walls, and eat-in customers sit at tall dark wooden tables and leather stools . Behind the glass counter, chatty Italian cooks jostle over bold red retro bowls full of green rocket (the piadine are made to order, leaving the theatrical cooking door wide open).

The stylish Faema coffee machine adds to the classic diner feel, and our espresso macchiato was perfectly made with just a hint of froth. There are 13 piadine on the menu, numbered zero through to quattordici (no tredici, the Italians are a superstitious bunch), with generous amounts of savoury fillings such as salame Milanese and the fresh cow's milk called stracchino, speck, caprino cheese and tomato, and seasonal vegetables, which came full of chunky al dente roast vegetables and spinach well seasoned with pepper and drizzled with more olive oil, all served with a big handful of rocket.