Brother Marcus in Angel: We started the day with the Marcus Breakfast at Brother Marcus in Angel. It is a more refined take on the traditional English breakfast, with rosemary Greek sausage, streaky bacon, two perfectly poached eggs, portobello mushrooms, grilled plum tomato, house beans, and toasted sourdough. On paper it sounded more exciting than it turned out to be, but there were still plenty of highlights. The sausage was excellent, the sourdough nicely toasted, and the eggs were poached to perfection. The only disappointment was the beans, which arrived cold and apparently had not been microwaved properly.
Marcus Breakfast @Brother Marcus Angel
Ziggy Green: London is full of restaurant groups and chains, and Ziggy Green is part of the Daisy Green family, which also includes Holland Park Café. We decided on the spur of the moment to try our luck for breakfast and were seated at the bar, which suited me just fine. Interestingly, the restaurant was never completely full while we were there, so I am still not quite sure how their reservation policy works.
terrace @Ziggy Green
coffee at the bar @Ziggy Green
We ordered the Fancy Bacon Roll with poached eggs, crispy shallots, back bacon, Holy F*ck mayonnaise, chilli, and paratha roti. It was our waiter’s favorite recommendation and an excellent choice.
Fancy Bacon roll @Ziggy Green
The Bondi Breakfast came with toasted charcoal sourdough, back bacon, poached eggs, chilli and fennel sausage, mushrooms, and avocado. The charcoal bread was much better than expected, with great flavor rather than just novelty value, and the sausage was another standout. I also squeezed the lemon over the bacon, mushrooms, sausage, and avocado. The acidity cut through the richness and lifted every element on the plate. This turned out to be a very enjoyable breakfast.
The Bondi @Ziggy Green
Sourdough Sophia in Primrose Hill: Although Sourdough Sophia is another small chain, breakfast here was outstanding. The bakery in Primrose Hill was packed, with people queueing outside, and after one bite it was easy to understand why. The bread was exceptional, and so were the two toasts we shared.
Sourdough Sophia Primrose Hill @London
We ordered one avocado toast and one goat’s cheese toast with roasted tomatoes, followed by a small pastry. Unfortunately I never managed to photograph the pastry before it disappeared, but it was just as delicious as everything else we ate. I kept commenting on how incredible the toasts tasted, and I stand by that.
avocado and goat cheese with roasted tomatoes toast @Sourdough Sophia
Halfcup Kings Cross: On our last morning we headed to Halfcup near King’s Cross. It is an independent café with just two additional locations, one elsewhere in London and one in Dubai, which somehow sounds even stranger when you write it down. We arrived without a reservation and were lucky to get a table. Even on a Monday morning the place was buzzing.
We ordered the Halfcup Full English and the Hash Eggs Hollandaise, choosing smoked salmon from the available toppings. Other included cured ham or grilled halloumi. My friend also insisted on ordering avocado on the side because, in her opinion, we needed some vitamins.
breakfast @Halfcup King’s Cross
The portions at Halfcup are enormous, so order with care. The extra avocado was completely unnecessary, and my plate came with three large triangular hash browns that were clearly of the store bought variety. Fewer would actually have improved the dish. Everything else was very good, though, and I thoroughly enjoyed my breakfast. The Full English was equally generous, with a roasted slice of sourdough bread and another two huge hash browns. Properly fuelled, we headed to the airport before the inevitable food coma set in.
