Five to try: Food to go

TRINITY STORES
5-6 Balham Station Road, SW12 (020 8673 3773), £16.
I wonder if local estate agents are still trying to persuade their clients that Balham is the Notting Hill Gate-way to the south. They could certainly invoke Trinity Stores in making their case. This haven of a shop/traiteur/deli/café takes the trouble to make simple items such as stuffed peppers, quiches, salmon fishcakes and ploughman's lunch special. If you want to eat in, you can do so around a large table piled with patisserie. If you prefer a picnic the staff, with a bit of warning, will pack a hamper.

THE LARDER
91-93 St John Street, EC1 (020 7608 1558), £20.
Nick Male, chef/proprietor of this enterprise housed in a building once used by the grocers Lovell and Christmas, has turned over part of the large premises to a bakery and shop. On weekdays, bespoke sandwiches and salads can be bought to take away, along with cakes and tarts made under the supervision of head baker Cyril Vigouroux. When I ate in the restaurant one evening, staff seemed to tire easily of the long distances they are obliged to walk. Using your own pins is more efficient.

STORY DELI
3 Dray Walk, The Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, E1 (020 7247 3137), £20.
It's not only chicken tikka masala of dubious provenance that is available in Brick Lane. Organic pizzas are the speciality at this funky hangout, either to take away or eat in the blameless environment where seats are made from cardboard boxes and the wood of the tables is doubtlessly reclaimed. Laying claim to a place at one of them is the problem, particularly at weekends. Pizza bases are paper-thin, toppings imaginative and of high quality. Bakery items are luscious. It reminds North American fans of similar outfits back home.

FERNANDEZ & WELLS
43 Lexington Street, W1 (020 7734 1546), £18.
Jorge Fernandez and Rick Wells wanted to inject the principles of Borough Market into Soho. The first outlet at Lexington Street provides bocadillos using traditional French stone-baked baguettes, filled ciabatta buns and a sandwich of grilled Scottish black pudding with homemade egg mayonnaise that is beyond wonderful. Soups, stews and salads are also on offer. The lushly bearded Fernandez worked at Monmouth Coffee Company and all that he learned can be appreciated at the second branch at 73 Beak Street (020 7287 8124).

MELROSE & MORGAN
42 Gloucester Avenue, NW1 (020 7722 0011), £25.
A picnic for Primrose Hill can be sorted — and a blanket rented — at this excellent deli that is much appreciated by locals who are just too exquisite to, you know, cook. When entertaining, they bring Provençal casseroles to be filled with fish pie or Clarice Cliff platters for roasted meats. The kitchen sends out food to suit the time of day, from compotes in the morning to Beef Wellington in the evening. Fine suppliers are germane to the enterprise. Along with the more usual suspects, there is Madame Oiseau in Canterbury, who makes chocolates.

Prices estimate a picnic for one