Many years ago in London my mother and I went to one of the famous museums for the day and we felt peckish. Mum being an old Londoner walked with me for a few minutes down the main roads and then aid that the best places to eat were always down the side roads. So we took the first one and came to a sandwich bar.
Some of the most interesting places in cities are not in the main routes but tucked away down alleys and picturesque side roads, sometimes best known to the locals and there is a reason for this. Although the best spots are in the main roads because most people walk past, the costs of opening and running shops on them is very high. So smaller shopkeepers have to go to the alley ways and to compensate for their relatively poor position, they try harder. Not for them the glossy frontages, but steady and respected service.
These are also the places you find the unusual, the model shops or the rare spare arts for anything shops, because they don’t have hundreds of customers but still make a living. If ever you are lost in a city wondering where to go along the main tourists routes just take a left or right turn down a leafy side-road and you will find quieter places with more authenticity than the bit tourist sites.