Hungry for home-made food in a hurry? Maxine Gordon knows a place that's just heavenly.

IT was the first of June and my friend Janet and I had hoped for an al fresco lunch soaking up the summer sun. But the rain was lashing down and we knew the only way to cheer ourselves up was to have some comfort food.

Without debate, we headed for one of our favourite cafs in York - the Spurriergate Centre, tucked away at the end of Coney Street.

For those in need of an introduction, the Spurriergate Centre is in a former church and houses a self-service restaurant with seating over two floors. It serves unpretentious home-made grub, has friendly and helpful staff and is fabulously child-friendly with great access and facilities for the disabled too.

At the start of the servery is the comments book, filled with page after page of glowing tributes from happy diners. What better enticement for first-time visitors?

Sandwiches and baked potatoes are available daily alongside a special of the day and slices of quiche and potato and cheese in pastry slices. Main meals come with salad or vegetables. Kids can enjoy a lunch box filled with a ham or cheese roll, Hula Hoops, yoghurt or piece of fruit and a biscuit with a drink for £2.65. Mums with babies can order a sandwich and a jar of baby food for £3.30.

At the cutlery and condiments counter, besides the usual suspects you will also find plastic baby bibs, cups, beakers, bowls and spoons, which customers are welcome to use. For older children, there is a small play area in full view of the downstairs caf. There are excellent baby-changing facilities too.

But it would be wrong to think the Spurriergate Centre was just for parents and tots. It's the ideal place to go if you fancy a no-fuss fill up in your lunch break.

Which brings us back to our visit.

Janet chose her favourite: Quiche Lorraine with salad, while I couldn't resist the square of potato, bacon and cheese slice with veg (both at £3.95). We helped ourselves to a free glass of water, paid up, then took our trays up to the mezzanine eating area which also hosts a shop selling Fair Trade goods and a coffee and cake bar.

Ravenous, we devoured our dishes, only pausing to share sighs of contentment as we worked our way around the plate.

Janet's quiche was generous in size and oozing with cheesy-egg and huge chunks of bacon. The salads featured haricot and broad beans as well as couscous, brown rice and a green salad. "I feel like all the major food groups have been ticked," said Janet, who declared her meal "perfect comfort food".

I couldn't have put it better myself. It was the first time I'd tried the potato pastry square, a Spurriergate favourite I've since learned, and I'll be rushing back for more. It was gorgeous: imposing in size and wickedly moreish.

The potato and cheese filling was soft and salty and reminded me of the inside of a cheese and onion pastie.

Like Janet, I loved the dice-shaped chunks of bacon throughout. My veggies were good too: peas, carrots and roast potatoes. If I had any niggles, it was that the veggies were lukewarm, which is perhaps the drawback of a self-service caf.

Wanting to do the Spurriergate Centre justice, we forced ourselves to have a sweet. From a spoilt-for-choice range featuring carrot cakes, lemon cake, chocolate cake and scones, we picked a coffee and walnut cake and a fruit flapjack (£1.25 and £1.15) and two mugs of filter coffee (£1.30 each with a free refill Monday-to-Friday).

Yorkshire portions were the order of the day again, with the flapjack the size of a handyman's hand and the cake slice more than enough to stuff your face with. Both were excellent. The cake was moist, the icing rich and sticky, while the flapjack was springy rather than chewy and not too sweet. The caffeine in the coffee brought a welcome kick to wake us up after our super-stodgy lunch.

If you're strapped for time and in need of sustenance - spiritual or culinary - then the Spurriergate Centre hits the spot.

Spurriergate Centre, St Michael's Church, Spurriergate, York.

Telephone: 01904 629393. Open Mon-Fri 10am-4.30pm, Saturday 9.30am-5pm. Closed Sundays.

Maxine visited on Wednesday June 1, 2005

Updated: 08:53 Saturday, June 04, 2005