Exciting news for anyone who loves pancakes (so, pretty much everyone), Shrove Tuesday is coming up (9 February)! Sometimes we have to wait until March for our flippin’ pancakes but with an early Easter on the horizon Pancake Day has been pushed up the calendar too. In honour of this most delicious day we’ve rounded up London’s top 10 destinations for breakfast/brunch, according to our 2016 survey…
Pancakes with bacon £9.75.
Pancakes with blueberries £9.95
Pancakes with maple syrup £7.50
Pancakes with cranberry & pear compote £9.75
Pancakes with blueberries and crème fraîche £9.95
Pancakes with bacon £10.50
Lecso spiced vegetables in a buckwheat pancake with fried duck egg £9.95
“Less hectic than the Wolseley but with all the good bits” – Corbin & King’s “so-very-civilised” three-year-old, on the fringe of Covent Garden, is a less showy, more “luxurious” alternative to its bigger stablemate (and likewise “pitch perfect” for business). The mitteleuropean cooking “isn’t really the point”, but it’s usually highly “satisfactory” (in particular the “utterly fab” breakfasts and “most delicious afternoon teas”).
Instead of pancakes why not have waffles?
Crispy leg confit, fried duck egg, mustard maple syrup £17
“Go mainly for the extraordinary views” to this 24/7, 40th-floor hang out; “the signature dish (confit duck with a fried egg, waffle and syrup) is better than it sounds”, but opinions are mixed on the “mainly meaty, high cholesterol” fare and you pay “City boys’ drinks prices”. Maybe try breakfast or coffee.
Buttermilk pancakes with berries, clotted cream and maple syrup £7.50
“Capturing the perfect brunch vibe” – this “buzzy”, “NYC-style” haunt in Fitzrovia has a “very media” following that adores it, especially at breakfast (or for a business lunch), and it’s “always busy”; even fans concede however, that the cooking here generally is “nothing to shout about”.
A “top notch breakfast” with “sun streaming through those huge windows” is the most reliable attraction in this “light and airy” (but “soulless”) dining room, over Borough Market; however at other times its British fare can seem “severely overpriced” given the “un-memorable” results – “I’ve had better £10 roasts in a pub!”.
Pancakes, spiced pear compote, vanilla cream and maple syrup £7
This “posh pub”, quietly located near Marble Arch, is proving “a great addition to Marylebone” with “hearty, satisfying fare” and “a nice if noisy vibe”.
Pancakes, apple & walnuts £9
“The central bar is a great focal point” at this “slick” and “sophisticated” brasserie, whose long opening hours (from breakfast on) and flexible Italian tapas menu help make it “a great Mayfair meeting place” (although it can feel a bit like “Hedge Fund Central”).
Crêpes au Sucre £6.95
“How did Corbin and King get things so wrong?” – this “buzzing” Sloane Square two-year-old looks “elegant”, but service can be “appalling” and the brasserie fare is “seriously underwhelming” – “it’s like an expensive Café Rouge!”
Or why not have an omlette instead of a pancake? Egg white omelette with your choice of: ham, cheese, mushroom, tomato and spinach £7.50
“Spillover from the bar helps fuel the really buzzing atmosphere” at the Soho House-group’s clubby Soho brasserie, which is “a little noisy but great fun”; its “comfort food” cooking is best for brunch – otherwise “there’s not much actively bad about it, it’s just a bit ‘meh’!”
New York Pancakes with fresh banana and maple syrup £8
NYC supremo, Keith McNally’s “pricey and flash” Grand Café in Covent Garden is “a disappointing replica” of the Manhattan original; still, even some who concede it’s “a definite case of style over substance” say “the buzzy ambience is compensation”, or tip it “for a girlie brunch”.
