The ‘experts’ may have warned that the average desktop harbours more germs than a toilet seat, but millions of people still lunch at their desk every day. Most of us just don’t have the time, nor the money, to get out and sit down for lunch more than once in a while. Lunch at the desk – or at least in the rest area is here to stay.

Trouble is it’s so easy to get into a lunch rut. Desk dining often either means the same old sandwich shop or leftovers a la Tupperware.

There’s nothing worse than a food rut.  Without a doubt the best lunch is the one you’ve knocked up yourself from the fresh and healthy ingredients in the fridge.

Yeah right! If you are anything like me being that organised first thing in the morning is pure fantasy. In any case that’s just another rut? Sharing lunch with the people we work with can be a really important part of our social lives.

Town centre offices rarely have the subsidised restaurants that are common on the business parks. Without crossing the IDR you can eat cracking, varied lunches at your desk every day of the week (or once a week for a change) for less than a fiver. You don’t need to resort to the big chains nor rely on the ubiquitous baguette drowned in mayonnaise.

Here are five recommendations to get out of that sandwich rut. Remember, great little eateries only stay open if people use them. So do yourself a favour; clean your desk!

Sushi one0eight

19 Queen Victoria Street. 08453 700 108

Typical. You wait for ages for a proper sushi bar to come along, then three will come along at once. Luckily One0Eight got here first – conveyor belt, the whole bit, before the chains arrive. 80 items on their menu offer fish, meat and vegetable sushi and sashimi and also cater for wimps who can’t do the raw fish thing. Cute little deserts or Ben & Jerry’s. £2 a plate or £4.80 for 3 items to take away makes a reasonable lunch. On line menu, phone order, fantastic service – a Reading based business with ambition to go far.

Mango Kick

17 Harris Arcade at Station Road. 0118-958 9964

Confused their branding may be, but Mango Kick is cheerfully different with excellent service and value. At this juice bar plus, £3.70 will get you a ‘create your own’ salad – leaves plus seven ingredients, with extras like chicken or seafood for an additional quid! Juice/smoothies to order. The result is surprisingly substantial. An independent in the soon to be crowded juice bar market that deserves to prosper.

Picnic

Butter Market 0118 958 9292

When I see a sign claiming to serve the best coffee in Reading I have to take up the challenge. Picnic steps up to the mark with the best espresso in town – just as well as bean grinding mega-corporations surround this cosy independent cafe. The ethos is homemade and friendly with chunky sandwiches and salads, a range of desirable cakes and that damn fine coffee. Sandwich, salad or ‘picnic box special’ and cake for around £4.70.

West Cornwall Pasty Company

3 Broad Street and Reading Station 0118 950 4010

Hardly undiscovered with forty plus English locations including the major London rail terminals, but WCPC does what it does very well. The pasties are freshly cooked, contain recognisable ingredients and, crucially for lunch at the desk, are serve sufficiently hot to warm your hands all the way back to the office. £2.20-£2.80 gets you a substantial lunch that’s just the ticket on a cold day. Visit their website of pirate related hokum.

County Delicacies

35 St Mary Butts. 0118 957 4653

For a town with a reasonably sized Asian population getting a decent Samosa inside the IDR is something of a challenge. The distinctly non-Asian County Delacacies has been serving up reliably good bhajis and samosas for as long as I can remember. But whether it’s Indian snacks or their extensive sandwich bar the essential accompaniment to any County carry out is a Greek desert or the consistently good cheesecake. Two samosas and kataifi -  £2.40 from this fine Reading institution.