place of the week: The Breakfast Club London
17th February 2015
I know I’m probably a bit late getting on ‘The Breakfast Club’ train… but… I still want to talk about it anyway because if you don’t know about it then you should… and it’s really really nice!
It was Valentine’s Day and we really wanted to go out for breakfast/brunch, so I searched Google for ‘the best breakfast in London’. The most popular by far had to be ‘The Breakfast Club’, it seemed every one was talking about it, so we had to give it a go.
I checked out The Breakfast Club website to find out whereabouts in London they were, and found they actually now have six different branches all across London; one in Soho, Spitalfields, Hoxton, Angel, London Bridge and Battersea. We decided to head over to the Soho branch as we wanted to go for some drinks at ‘POLPO’ (check out Helen’s blog all about these cool little places here) afterwards and they’re only a few minutes walk from each other.
From only spending two minutes looking on Google I gathered that these little café’s were pretty popular, but I didn’t realise quite how popular! We turned the corner and spotted the cute little yellow café, and then we spotted the massive queue going about half a mile down the road!!! We were told it would be at least a two hour wait for a table, a two hour wait outside, in the freezing cold, oh and it had just started to rain… no way were we doing that, not even for the best breakfast in London!
…. but we did really want to try The Breakfast Club, it must be good if people are queuing two hours for it, right!? So we decided to head over to another branch and we picked the Angel one, as it was pretty close. We arrived at another cute little yellow café, and of course there was a queue outside this one too! We were told it would only be a half an hour wait and by this time we were super hungry, it had definitely passed breakfast time and probably even brunch time too, but we stuck it out and waited anyway.
We were seated within half an hour and yes it was definitely worth the wait!!
There is pretty much everything you could ever want for breakfast on the menu and it’s all very reasonably priced. There’s all of the English Classics and of course the American Classics too, there’s some Mexican influenced faves like Huevos Rancheros, lots of Spanish inspired dishes and some unusual signature dishes too. The whole menu really did look delicious… you can check out the full menu here.
Of course I ordered the American pancake stack with bacon and lots and lots of maple syrup, my absolute favourite breakfast ever ever ever, I would like to eat this for lunch and dinner too, every day if I could. Josh went for the chorizo hash browns which were really yummy too and a perfect brunch dish I think. We also tried a fresh mango smoothie and a latte, both really good. The staff were all super friendly and our food and drinks arrived very quickly which kind of made up for having to wait outside in the cold for them!
It was really quirky inside, with Americana and posters and post cards all over the bare brick walls. There were little wooden tables with odd chairs, fairy lights and vintage leather sofas, industrial lampshades and neon signs and lots of retro Smeg fridges, a really eclectic and very fun style. Of course there’s also a few nods to its namesake in the film, The Breakfast Club, hung on the walls too.
The tables were packed pretty close together and the music was playing out quite loud which may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it didn’t bother us at all, in fact I think it adds to the whole vibe of the place, I love it! The café’s owners say “Our café reflects our love for the 80s with a touch of nostalgia… we want people to be happy when they come to see us!” and I agree, this place does put a smile on your face.
I especially love the styling of the Battersea branch, it takes its inspiration from a 1950’s kitchen and an 80’s launderette, how cool!?
I thought it may have just been the fact that it was a Saturday and it was Valentine’s Day that this place was so busy, but no, apparently it’s like that all the time! I think weekdays are supposed to be much quieter, but if you’re prepared to get up early to miss the big queues or you don’t mind waiting a little while for a really great experience and some super yummy food then I would definitely recommend you check out The Breakfast Club. It’s probably not worth a two hour wait, but a half an hour wait definitely. They serve breakfast/brunch from 8am – 5pm every day, they also have a lunch and dinner menu too, but the breakfast is this café’s speciality for sure.
The Breakfast Club at Angel is only about a ten minute walk from our new Clerkenwell showrooms, so super perfect to grab some breakfast before popping in to see us!
