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
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Tags: best brunch london, best coffee london, bil granger restaurant, granger & co, london flat white, notting hill restaurant, westbourne grove restaurant
