Healthy Indulgence Café is an unassuming little place on Bridge Street in Bolton Town Centre. I'd seen it several times, but never gone in for some reason.

I'm glad I decided to visit today, it's a nice place.

As you go inside, you can see that it has a lot of offerings on chalk boards telling about lovely specials and soups and cakes and the such, with many offerings for Vegans and people with gluten allergies, but also general offerings for those of us who have no such dietary requirements.

The interior is bright at one end and dark at the other, due to a lack of lighting in the back area, but a big set of windows on the other end, allowing the sunlight to cascade inside. The staff when I visited were young and friendly, happy to give extra information about their offerings.

On this occasion, although I was tempted by a baked potato with garlic mushrooms (yum!), I chose to go for a cup of decaf tea, and try out one of their brownies made with gluten-free flour, and "just a bit" of sugar. Very tasty indeed, just the right amount of gooiness and superbly chocolatey. There's several tea options available, and the coffee is provided by Rijo.

I was pleased that although they have a lot of Vegan information/food on the boards, I was still able to get a cup of tea with milk. I was surprised they didn't have skimmed milk available, given the 'healthy' vibe of the place, but semi skimmed was fine for me. It was also nice to see that everything was clearly labelled regarding potential allergies, and there was a file listing the allergens within their food on the front of the main counter.

It was also nice to see that when a family came into the café, the young girl with them went straight to the books which are available on a coffee table by a few comfy chairs. It's something a little different for a café, but makes it clear, along with free wifi with a clearly available password, that they welcome their customers, and want them to feel comfortable and relaxed, which is what we all want really when visiting a café, isn't it?

I'd return here again for lunch sometime, it's friendly and there's so many options!

It's well located for people to get to on foot, and although it does have a car park, I wouldn't say you could get more than 4 cars in it at any one time. The venue is split into three areas, the coffee lounge to the left, the sandwich shop to the right, and the fully licensed bar/function room upstairs.

As you walk in, you step into the coffee lounge section, which is bright, spacious, and modern, with purchasable art displayed on the walls. There are modern tables and chairs as well as couches if you just fancy a coffee and to read the paper. The owner, Stuart Farnell greets me warmly as I walk in, and asks "fancy a brew?". The main counter displays cakes and tasty goods available at that moment, as well as the selections of beers and wines available.

The food selection is mainly breakfast and lunch-based, with a specials board, and everything seems to be home-made and freshly made to order by Stuart, who also used to be a restaurant chef, and who as well as running the place as a friendly host, also tells me that he runs weekly community cookery classes at the venue, as well as other general events. He tells me how nothing quite beats home-made when it comes to his food offerings, to which I agree. Despite being fresh to order and home-made, the food is pretty reasonably priced too!

I firstly accepted the offer of a pot of tea, which hit the spot perfectly. I liked that the milk came in a teeny tiny traditional milk bottle too. For my lunch I chose to have a ham and cheese toastie, which clearly was freshly made. Not only was the quality very tasty, but it came with a little fresh salad, and the best fresh home-made coleslaw I've had in an extremely long time!

For 5p-per-minute you can use the space to your heart's content... whether you choose to find a comfy couch and chat with your friends, a quiet chair in the corner to read, or just listen to the music whilst playing chess with someone you've just met, the environment is that of a social comfort space. At first I wasn't sure about the concept, and worried that in being given a little alarm clock at check in, you'd feel "metered" as it were, but although they don't seem to give clocks out now, I didn't feel pressured, in fact I felt very relaxed. There was no rush, they didn't want you out after your drink, or need to clean up after you, so you didn't feel you were being an imposition, and in this spirit, there are board games, magazines, and papers dotted around for you to enjoy.