Top 5: Ways to Eat Brunch in London This WeekendBy Alicia Grimshaw
Brunch really is the most magical meal: it’s acceptable to drink before midday, challenge yourself to get your money’s worth with the free-flowing booze, and the opportunity to order a pudding after avocado on toast, just because. If your brunch plans this weekend are looking a bit lacklustre, here’s 5 new brunch menus you need to try. Get yer skates on, there’s eggs to be eaten:
1. For an Indian Brunch: Gunpowder
What: A second outpost of the hit Shoreditch restaurant Gunpowder is the newest addition to One Tower Bridge, and the kitchen team have just launched a new Sunday brunch menu. Featuring innovative dishes that span across various regions of India and beyond, the dynamic menu offers a unique take on the typical breakfast and brunch, with not a smashed avocado in sight.
Eat and Drink: Chef Nirmal Save’s Sunday brunch menu focuses on feasting dishes to share: whole suckling pig vindaloo (for 6-8 people); Kashmiri duck with ginger, aloo Bukhara (plums) and walnuts; tandoori chicken pulao with egg butter masala; and Malabar irachi idli with beef pepper fry. Individual dishes such as baked eggs South Indian-style with salli and toasted brioche, and Cardamom pancakes with caramelised banana and honey yoghurt are also available alongside coffee from Ozone Coffee Roasters.
Where: 4 Duchess Walk, London SE1 2SD
2. For a New Brunch Menu: Rotunda
What: Following a late summer closure and significant refurbishment and re-think, Rotunda Bar and Restaurant at Kings Place has reopened with a fresh look, drinks lists, and a new brunch menu.
Eat and Drink: There’s all the classics here, like the full English breakfast, with butcher’s sausage, streaky bacon, black pudding, poached hen’s egg, grilled tomato, field mushroom and baked beans, and the veggie alternative featuring potato hash, baked beans, poached hen’s egg, grilled tomato, field mushroom and grilled halloumi. Love eggs? Try either the fried duck eggs with Cornish white crab meat and burnt caper butter, or the always reliable eggs Benedict.
Where: 90 York Way, Kings Cross, London N1 9AG
3. For a Bottomless Brunch: DUM Biryani House
What: Soho’s DUM Biryani House’s weekend brunch menu showcases coastal flavours of South East India, with Chef Founder Dhruv Mittal and his team serving up bold, Indian dishes, sound tracked by their signature hip hop playlist. And there’s bottomless Indian punch for an extra £15 per person.
Eat and Drink: There’s heaps of choice on the brunch menu such as Andhra-style scramble eggs served on sourdough with tomato pachadi; the Hyderabadi breakfast stack with sourdough, fenugreek pachadi and stir-fried lamb, topped with spicy fried quail eggs; and their supersonic dum biryanis (order with either lamb, chicken or season veg). Larger dishes include 24-hour marinated hake, slow roasted and served with steamed banana leaf stuffed with coconut rice, and half baby chicken roasted in a dry masala rub, served with coconut and mustard seed chutney with pickled onion salad.
Where: 187B Wardour St, London W1F 8ZB
Photo Credit: Steven Joyce
4. For a New Brunch Menu: BOTTLES x SOOD Family
What: Italian wine bar BOTTLES in east London has launched a weekend brunch menu with in-house pop-up restaurant concept, SOOD Family. With a knowledgeable and progressive approach to Italian food, SOOD Family has created a brunch menu of classic bites with a global twist.
Eat and Drink: Highlights from the menu include: fried egg sandwich stuffed with guanciale, mozzarella, roasted garlic and chilli mayo; potato frittata served alongside pepper fennel and dill salad; and oak smoked salmon and avocado on toast, finished with seaweed and orange hollandaise.
Where: BOTTLES, 67 Brushfield St, London E1 6AA
5. For Sunday Lunch: South Place Chop House
What: South Place Chop House is celebrating the arrival of the chillier months with the return of their epic roast menu with the addition of free-flowing drinks. Take advantage of the new menu for £20 a head, and pay £15 supplement to bask in bottomless booze.
Eat and Drink: Choose from a variety of the best British meats including sirloin of Hereford beef, roast Goosnargh chicken and slow roasted belly of old spot pork, a dish introduced to the menu by Head Chef Guy Betteridge following his arrival at the hotel in 2017. Each is accompanied by duck-fat roasted potatoes, glazed carrots, a rich gravy and creamy cauliflower cheese. For vegetarian diners, South Place Chop House offers an autumnal parsnip, chestnut and hazelnut roast.
Where: 3 South Pl, London EC2M 2AF