Fancy rubbing shoulders with the likes of Sienna Miller, Noel Gallagher and Rita Ora while indulging in a spectacular hungover breakfast? Er, we're not sure we do, but 100 Wardour St's new 'recovery brunch' is waaaay more interesting than any potential celeb sightings – to us, anyway. It's a three-course menu, so kick things off with pancakes with grilled pancetta and maple syrup (gluten-free, obvs) or salt cod brandade with a poached egg (yes, please) before moving on to a baby shrimp omelette and Provençale-style steak tartare. For an extra fiver, you'll get dessert, too – we've heard the profiteroles with salted caramel and chocolate sauce are pretty damned good. And to drink? Prosecco, of course. We're sure Sienna would approve.
Want to the know the best way to start the day? We'll tell you: a bloody great burger. It might not seem breakfast-appropriate, but Dirty Bones have made it more suitable for AM dining with the addition of a poached egg and oodles of hollandaise sauce. If that doesn't float your boat, there's the Yankee – a burger with sauerkraut, spring onions and French's mustard – and the Mac Daddy. We'll leave you to imagine what that entails. Feeling abstemious? There's also the green cheese toastie with avocado and oozing taleggio, or the smokey, shakshuka-style fired eggs. If you're after something sweet, you're in for a treat – there's Milk & Frosties – panna cotta served with Frosties – and the irresistible banana toblerone-tella waffles, topped with caramelised banana, toblerone-tella, blueberry jam, peanut better gelato and crushed nuts. There's not much else to say about that one, is there?
The Woodford shot straight to the top of every London foodie's must-eat list when it was awarded London Restaurant of the Year at the Evening Standard Restaurant Awards, and now there's even greater reason to make the pilgrimage to the depths of North East London: it's started serving a unique, luxurious brunch menu. Chef Ben Murphy – a protégé of Pierre Koffman and former Young National Chef of the Year – has put together a refined offering that includes dishes such as raspberry granola with almond, ricotta and mint, and eggs with ham, crème fraîche and chives. And of course, there'll be bubbles too, in the form of bottomless Pommery champagne.
There are (at least) three very good reasons to sample Urban Coterie's new brunch menu: you get to choose three dishes – yes, three – you get unlimited mimosas, and its location on the 17th floor of the M by Montcalm means you get a spectacular view over London's ever-expanding skyline. The food is everything you'd expect from Anthony Demetre – who was also behind Arbutus – and head chef Killian Lynch: indulgent, British-influenced and really, really tasty – think scrambled duck eggs with hot-smoked salmon; French toast with mascarpone and blueberries; avocado and sardines on sourdough toast; and steak and eggs with spiced green salsa. Want the best seat in the house? Ask for the seat in the corner, where both you and your companion will be able to enjoy the view.
Ember Yard's newly launched breakfast and brunch menu has all the Spanish and Italian influences you'd expect, leveraging the restaurant's custom-built Basque-inspired grill to maximum effect by cooking over single-species charcoal and sustainable wood from Kent. There are charcuterie-style small plates of meat and artisan cheese, as well as a variety of your more typical breakfast dishes – juicy, ruby-red slices of fresh blood orange were topped with emeralds of toasted pistachios; sourdough toast was smothered with sobrasada (a soft spreading chorizo) and topped with grilled mahon cheese; succulent sardines were served on grilled bread with tomato and fresh basil. Our favourite bit? The flatbread that came with the avocado and poached egg. It was so good we then had an extra portion with honey, thyme and smoked butter. It's made specially for Ember Yard with honey and potato. Yuuuuum.
At Berners Tavern, it's wonderfully distracting to gawp at the soaring walls filled with gilt-framed art, the glistening chandeliers and vast cocktail bar, but please remember to order some food, too – it's even better than the view. The menu comes courtesy of chef du jour, Michelin-starred Jason Atherton, whose vast brunch offering ranges from the classic to the inventive. Confit duck hash brown was topped with the best poached egg we've had all year, while baked Moroccan eggs slathered in a thick, velvety tomato sauce was faultless. Save room for dessert: the baked alaska is a delicious piece of food theatre that's ceremoniously set alight, and comes topped with a colourful mass of pistachios, cocoa nibs and raspberry crumble. Almost too pretty to eat. Almost…
When a restaurant comes from acclaimed chef Bruno Loubet, molecular mixologist Tony Congiliaro and the Zetter Group, you know it's going to be good, but what really seals the deal at this particular venue is its commitment to sustainability – it recently won the Sustainable Restaurant Award 2015. As such, just about all the meat and fish is organic and responsibly sourced and Loubet's menu really focuses on making veg the talking point, and to great effect, too. You'll find plenty of Mediterranean-inspired dishes such as laverbread, vegetable and quinoa cake alongside the usual offerings, but our favourite is Bruno's power breakfast (pictured), which which involves four mini versions of popular brunch items: an egg benedict topped with crunchy, flavoursome grated truffle, accompanied by ratatouille, steamed broccolini and avocado on toast. For the ultimate treat, you can even follow your brunch with dessert – we had our eye on the coconut & kaffir lime green tapioca, sweet potato and banana crisp.
If you wake up craving some lean fish, citrus and spice, Pachamama is the destination of choice. The much-lauded Marylebone British/Peruvian fusion restaurant has opened its doors for weekday and weekend brunching, which includes dishes like quinoa waffles with yacón syrup and bacon, brown crab and yuca churros and pollo à la brasa served with herbed chips and hot sauce, as well as its famous pan con chicharron, which recently claimed the gong of Best Burger in London.
London's latest New York import is a larger-than-life, cooler-than-cool, French-American, jazz-inspired restaurant on Orchard Street. Aaaaaaaand breathe... Hotel Chantelle, which made its name on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, will go big on brunch, with performances from jazz musicians on the reg and loads of American classic dishes, as well as the signature lobster Benedict. That's a brunch item that doesn't screw around.
Fancy a taste of New York in central London? Look no further than Brass Rail, the newly renovated salt beef bar at Selfridges, which has just introduced a brand new breakfast menu. It's hangover-busting but not greasy or heavy – just classic, modern-Jewish-inspired salt beef and smoked salmon dishes (the salt beef hash, pictured, is particularly good) as well as bagels and its take on the classic reuben sandwich. It'll also do you a great coffee in partnership with Origin Coffee Roasters. Whether you're shopping or not, a great breakfast destination.
Tonic & Remedy is based on the apothecaries of Olde London Towne, so it's no surprise that its brunch offerings aren't restricted to the standard Full English – instead, it takes six classic dishes, including asparagus, hen's egg and truffle, and its glorious G&T-cured salmon, and serves them up with a choice of breakfast cocktails. The Bloody Remedy, made with Absolut Blue and served with cucumber foam, will blast away the hangover (before preparing you for the next one).
Honest Burgers
Available weekends at Clapham and Tooting 9:30am-1pm and weekdays at Liverpool Street on weekdays 8:30am-11:30am
Honest Burgers' new brunch offering is much like its main menu – compact and somewhat low-key, but elevated to delicious heights by way of its Ginger Pig meats. Choose from a classic full English (pictured), as well as tasty bites like the black pudding and cheese toastie, chorizo and avocado on toast and bubble and squeak bun.
Yes, we know we told you about this Soho restaurant's Rock 'n' Roll Brunch before, but after a limited run it's back with a vengeance. For £29, dine on a curated menu of East Asian favourites, plus a bellini on arrival and, gulp, unlimited prosecco.
Italian food-lovers rejoice – Soho's favourite vermouth bar/Italian restaurant is now open for breakfast. The menu's compact – coffee, Italian pastries and juices, mostly – but there's also a breakfast boccone available which features an all-star line-up: homemade sausage, smoked pancetta, free-range egg and house relish on toasted sourdough. Would it be wrong to have a negroni with it?
Photograph courtesy of Giulia Mulè; mondomulia.com
Apart from the fact that everything's tasty and bite-sized enough that overindulgence is a formality, we can't really fault Spanish cuisine when it's done like this, and South Ken's Casa Brindisa's breakfast menu has us drooling. Among its bounties are a Spanish take on the Full English, with butifarra sausage, and churros con chocolate – the classic Spanish staple of piped doughnut dough deep-fried and dipped in liquid chocolate. It ain't light, but it's damn good.
Yes, you have to have a membership to enjoy Home House's brunch menus, but its new breakfast martini might just make it too good an offering not to join up. Choose from, among others, the Marmelade, Miel or Raspberry Jam Martini, and enjoy it alongside the 'clean food' breakfast menu (which boasts no carbs and no sugars) so you can detox while you retox.
Spanish tapas god Jose Pizarro has continued his ascent to the top of the food game with a new restaurant in the renovated Broadgate Circle, and now that restaurant has unveiled a cracking breakfast menu full on continental-style Spanish breakfast tapas. Choose from sobrasada on toast with, honey and Mahon cheese, jamón Ibérico with fried eggs and patatas fritas, and more.
Quintessentially British restaurant the Balcon (on Pall Mall, don't you know) prides itself on upmarket twists on British and European favourites, and its Sunday brunch is no different – among the menu items are duck eggs Benedict with bayonne ham, and hot-smoked salmon with quinoa. Which sounds pretty good to us.
Josh Katz's vaunted Berber & Q opened to rave reviews, and now it's drawing a hungry crowd on weekend mornings too, courtesy of one of the only North African- and Middle-Eastern-inspired brunch menus in the capital. Dishes include shakshuka (baked eggs in spicy tomato and pepper sauce), Turkish eggs with merguez sausages and more.
Marcus Wareing's new joint is a haven of good food at prices that are pretty reasonable, especially given the stature of its executive chef. Its brunch menu includes a brioche roll with bacon, egg and bacon jam, and a couple of punchy morning cocktails.
Fancy something a little bit decadent? 1920s relic Quaglino's has a new, indulgent 'Q Brunch' menu that includes, among other things, salmon gravadlax, ham, pea and fennel salad, and a range of croque monsieurs. Ooh la la...
We’ve got two words for you: bacon. Naan. If this unlikely combo sounds a bit beyond your usual remit, we demand that you get yourself to Dishoom and try it immediately. Inspired by Irani cafés in Bombay, the theme at their newest opening in Carnaby Street is, fittingly, the swinging 1960s in India. The décor and psychedelic soundtrack are so authentic that you can almost imagine Led Zep hanging out on the terrace. Peace out, dude.