Classy Brunch – Brompton Quarter Café: Knightsbridge, 24th of October, 2009

One area where the USA has a distinct advantage over the UK is breakfast. Now I’m not trying to compare a traditional American breakfast with a traditional English one (they’re both great), but I’m talking more about attitude to and availability of breakfast. On a week-long visit to New York a while back, I was overwhelmed by how long, how big and how varied breakfast was.

By comparison, London has some way to go when it comes to the first meal of the day. Particularly at weekends. Which us brings us to a grey and drizzly Saturday morning in Knightsbridge for some late morning brunch. Whilst The Quarter Café isn’t breaking down any international walls, nor serving rustic English fry-ups in a stereotypical London caf, it’s doing a very good breakfast selection.

Some Eggs Benedict (but of course) and Eggs Florentine were just great, despite them being served on toasted bread instead of a muffin. I thought the bread-y part of these eggs dishes was essential and just had to be a sliced English muffin… Maybe I was wrong. The key is more in the consistency of the eggs and the accompaniments. Anyway, I could not and did not complain.

We finished off with a pancake which read like it were ambrosia of the gods: a crepe with honey and mascarpone cream. This was not to be, sadly. The pancake was too thick, not warm enough and just a bit uninspiring. Same goes (although less disappointedly) for the scone we tried. Full marks for serving a choice of butter and cream on the side and good runny jam, but it was too thick and a little dry. Maybe breakfast desserts were telling us we’d overstepped the line between hunger and greed as time pushed on.

Try here if you’re in the mood for some fancy breakfast at the weekend. Recommended if you love long brunches that take you into the afternoon, not if you like your breakfasts greasy and cheap.