Tag Archives: best brunch london

Best brunch in London? Pancakes at The Delaunay

6 Feb

My first business breakfast was at The Wolseley. I couldn’t quite believe my luck when I walked through the door and was seated at my table. The menu was presented to me and I was overwhelmed – all of my favourite breakfast dishes listed on one piece of card. I wanted them all. I found it hard to make conversation with my guest before I chose; she must have thought I was a bit strange. I finally made my mind up and ordered the eggs benedict, a dish that firmly etched itself in my memory and one that many establishments fail to live up to.

So when I heard that the guys behind this magnificent and extremely glamorous restaurant situated in an old car showroom by Green Park on Piccadilly were opening a brand new restaurant in Aldwych, anticipation was high. The Delaunay is everything you would expect of the new restaurant. It has the same old school glamour, the same dark furnishings, deep green leather banquetes and the most fantastic old weathered clock that strikes you as soon as you walk into the room.

We sat down and my friend immediately shared some good news with me. The waitress overheard as she was placing the menus down in front of us, walked away and brought back a basket of mini pastries with her, armed with an edible congratulations biscuit. We were both thrilled as this meant we could now try the pastries AND order something else.

The menu is very similar to The Wolseley and features eggs anyway you like them, muesli, porridge, bagels and of course the obligatory full English. Unlike my first visit to The Wolseley, I knew what to expect so this time was prepared and ordered my pancakes with blueberries and crème fraiche (£9.75) almost straight away.

IMG_0097

We tried a couple of the mini pastries before pulling ourselves away as we didn’t want to ruin the main event. It was hard considering they were rich, buttery and flakey – everything I love from a pastry.

Luckily the pancakes arrived quite quickly and my mouth nearly dropped with excitement as I saw the plate coming towards me. The waitress also plonked a large jug of maple syrup next to the plate. As if the pile of three huge pancakes, a perfectly formed crème fraiche quenelle and fresh blueberries wasn’t enough to set the taste buds fizzing, we also had an unlimited amount of maple syrup to play with. Heaven. Heaven heaven heaven is how I would describe my time eating the pancakes – some of the best I have ever had. They know what they are doing here.

The only negative part of my morning breakfast is the general lack of buzz in comparison to The Wolseley. As you enter the doors of The Wolseley, you immediately enter a bustling and rather loud dining establishment where raucus laughter and loud chit chat is not out of place. The Delaunay was distinctly quieter and I’m not totally sure why, apart from the fact that the tables immediately surrounding us were not occupied.

Nonetheless, this venue makes for a very pleasant and leisurely breakfast. I will definitely return, next time I’ll hopefully be able to resist those pancakes and opt for something a bit different. Every time I go out for brunch I tell myself I will order the granola or a slightly healthier option. But once I see those words etched into a menu, I’m hooked. And there’s no going back.

The Delaunay
55 Aldwych
London
WC2B 4BB
020 7499 8558

The Delaunay on Urbanspoon

Tags: , , , ,

Granger & Co

27 Dec

It’s the day before Christmas Eve in West London. A black car sits waiting by the curb across the road from a grand London townhouse. Young professionals wander down the streets and into boutiques for a spot of last minute Christmas shopping. Mark Ronson casually walks across the road and clambers into the black car, careful not to knock his large white hat on the way in. Passers by don’t look twice. Such sightings are normal in these parts.

Across the road, a new restaurant buzzes. Granger & Co, the first and long awaited London based restaurant from Bill Granger, Australian culinary God, opened in November.

A long bar runs down the right hand side at which diners sit, casually eating their food whilst watching baristas perfecting their latte art. Objects adhering to the gold and cream colour theme adorn the bar and the windowsills around the room, including a beautiful lamp that I wished I could slip into my handbag. Tan leather banquets line the dining room, which the morning brunch brigade fills, along with a number of tables in the middle of the room.

The restaurant features an all day casual dining menu and is another to follow the ever popular no booking policy. As brunch is my favourite meal of the day, we arrived at 10.30am and snagged a table in the window.

We ordered two flat whites (£2.50) to start and I was delighted to see that the beans are sourced from Allpress Espresso. Anyone who knows me will be well aware that I have trawled London for the last year looking for the perfect flat white. And I think I have finally found it. Never have I had milk so silky, the perfect temperature, the coffee just the right strength.

The menu features sweet dishes such as bircher mueli (£5), toasted grain cereal (£5) and porridge (£5), alongside a range of specials from the bakery, including daily baked muffins (£2.75), toasted coconut bread £4.40) and gravalax & fresh curd with rye (£10.50). Customers can also enjoy ‘Bill’s Classics’ such as sweetcorn fritters with roast tomato, spinach & bacon (£11.90) or ricotta hotcakes with fresh banana & honeycomb butter (£10.50).

If I wasn’t already excited enough about the coffee, I spotted that the bread is supplied by the St John Bakery, which is, in my eyes, the best bakery in London. My sweet tooth would usually beg me to order the ricotta hotcakes but something was drawing me to a dish that I have never seen on a breakfast menu before – mozzarella & sage toasted sandwich (£7). We also ordered the avocado on rye with lime & coriander (£5.60), a dish that I had for breakfast nearly every day when I was in Australia.

The toasted sandwich was served on two doorstep slices of sourdough bread, which was heavily oiled and deeply filled with creamy buffalo mozzarella and fresh sage. The mozzarella left welcome a milky residue on the bread and I enjoyed this dish more and more after each mouthful.

The avocado on rye bread was also a delight. Perfectly ripe avocado placed on a thick wedge of rye bread, lightly toasted and doused in extra virgin olive oil, served with sprigs of coriander and a wedge of lime.

As both of us were eyeing up the banana & chocolate bread with fresh ricotta (£4.40), we ordered a portion to share for dessert, along with another couple of flat whites. The bread was light and fluffy, although ever so slightly dry, but the fresh ricotta was on hand to correct this minor problem.

The bill arrived (no, not that one unfortunately) and we were pleasantly surprised to see that it came to a mere £30, including service charge, for a whole load of delicious, fresh and unbeatable breakfast dishes in a calming and beautiful surrounding. I’ve already planned my trip back next week.

Granger & Co
175 Westbourne Grove
London
W11 2SB
0207 229 9111

Granger & Co on Urbanspoon

Tags: , , , , , ,

Caravan Exmouth Market – brunch

18 Oct

If you haven’t been for brunch at Caravan yet, I suggest you do. I have reviewed the coffee at Caravan before but this is the time for brunch, finally!

Based on the corner of Exmouth Market, Caravan produces the finest coffee and excellent brunch dishes. I visited a few weeks ago, when it was still warm enough to sit outside and enjoyed a leisurely brunch before heading to visit a few of the Design Week exhibitions.

Firstly I ordered an orange juice, which I pretty much never do because I don’t trust most places to bring me something freshly squeezed and not five times the price it should be. But I knew Caravan would be different. And it was. The bright orange, bitty, tangy and sweet at the same time was a delight to start with whilst we patiently waited for a table outside.

The table came and we sat down. I ordered a flat white and tried to choose my food order carefully. I had a hard time deciding, everything looked good! I had recently made the Bill Granger coconut loaf and I saw a coconut loaf with fruit and lemon curd cream cheese shining out at me from the menu.

Jack opted for the corn bread French toast with bacon, rocket and avocado, which was to make me envious.

The dishes arrived and I was slightly disappointed by the portion size of my coconut bread. It looked measly in comparison to Jacks mountain of corn bread, luscious tomatoes and handsome leaves. Had I made the wrong choice?

I savoured my dish. The yoghurt was tangy and sweet, a perfect addition to the moist yet fluffy bread. I had definitely not made the wrong choice.

I was nearing the end when Jack caught sight of a hair on his plate. And it wasn’t his. The staff, extremely attentive and very apologeic took the dish back to the kitchen and offered for a new one to be brought out. But Jack kindly refused (I’m not sure why). As compensation, they took all of our drinks off the bill, which worked out to be a better deal than just taking the one dish off.

Yes there was a hair in his dish but that can happen to anyone, at any restaurant, anywhere. I wouldn’t let it put you off and it’s definitely not put me off. When can I next go back to try that corn bread?!

Caravan
11-13 Exmouth Market
London
EC1R 4QD
020 7833 8115

Caravan on Urbanspoon

Tags: , , , ,

Ottolenghi, Islington

11 Feb

I have already done one post on Ottolenghi but I was very hungover that time and I figure I should just do it again.

Ottolenghi is a vegetarian or cake lovers heaven. It is also one the best places to go for brunch and lunch in London – in my opinion anyway!

The word vegetarian has been tarred with the wrong brush over the years. People expect vegetarians to live on a diet of Linda McCartney sausages, carrot sticks and celery. Ok, maybe that is a bit far but Yotam Ottolenghi has shown us over the last few years just how exciting the humble vegetable can be.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of visiting his restaurant in Islington (or the three take away cafes branches in Notting Hill, Belgravia or Kensington), you may have been lucky enough to see one of his two cookbooks. The first, Ottolenghi: The Cookbook was written by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi and took influence from their home towns of West and East Jerusalem. But their culinary repertoire does not stop there as the book also features recipes with Italian, American and Lebanese infuences to name a few. The most recent book, Plenty, is yet another delectable mix of cuisines and lets face it, proper food porn.

Ottolenghi doesn’t just like to make dishes taste great, he uses vibrant colours and mixes them together to make the dish look appealing to even the biggest carnivore. It is refreshing to know that Ottolenghi himself is not even a vegetarian – he just understands that the humble vegetable can be so versatile in both taste and visually.

So it’s no surprise that his salads are renowned – there are non veggie options in the restaurant but everything is served cold. Don’t let this put you off though as the seared tuna, seared beef, lamb kebabs and salmon fillets are tasty winners.

Ottolenghi scrambled egg

Every time I have been, I say to myself that next time I visit I will order the French toast but every time I go back I can’t help but order the scrambled eggs with smoked salmon on toast with a rocket salad. He uses Foreman and Field smoked salmon, which I know from visiting the Foreman restaurant is top quality salmon. I wondered for a long time how they managed to get the yolks so orange until I recently came across Clarence Court Burford Brown Eggs. My boyfriend and I had tried to recreate it a few times at home and added a bit of Turmeric to the eggs before scrambling, which worked but we soon realised that this is not the method used in the restaurant! I’m not sure if Ottolenghi uses Clarence Court Eggs but the yolks have the same rich orangey colour and taste fantastic.

Ottolenghi Welsh Rarebit

We also ordered the Welsh rarebit and shared the two dishes. It was a huge error on my part – I totally forgot that Welsh Rarebit has a big dollop of mustard smothered over the bread so I was slightly disappointed as I am not a fan of mustard. At all. My boyfriend lapped it up though and left me with the majority of the scrambled eggs, which I was grateful for.

We ordered a plate of corn bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar as a side dish to share. I am gutted that this recipe isn’t in either of the books – I really want to know how to make it. It is utterly delicious – sweet but with a slight hint of spice from the chilli.

Ottolenghi cheesecake

For dessert (yes you can have dessert at breakfast time too!) we ordered the cake that my boyfriend has become utterly obsessed with, the Macadamia Caramel Cheesecake. I have tasted a lot of the Ottolenghi cakes and I have to say that this is my favourite too. An absolute winner – with a biscuit base and a not too rich cheese centre, a creamy caramel sauce, crunchy macadamia nuts and crunchy caramel. Definitely not one for the health conscious. This recipe is in his first book but I haven’t tried making it yet – I just have a horrible feeling that after all the effort (there are a lot of stages), I will be disappointed with my attempt.

I ordered a pot of tea to go with the cake at the end of the meal – I just love the tea pots that are served at Ottolenghi. Another great thing about the restaurant is that the fresh produce is on show and the chefs have to come out of the kitchen to grab another aubergine or tomato. There is one long communal table, which spreads out along the length of the restaurant but there are also a few tables to the side for couples.

Chances are you have walked past it a few times – so you’ll know what I mean when I say that next time you pass the cafe/restaurant with the huge merringues in the window, you must go in for brunch or a cake and a spot of tea.

Ottolenghi
287 Upper Street
London
N1 2TZ
020 7288 1454

Ottolenghi on Urbanspoon

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 3,580 other followers

%d bloggers like this: