Best brunch in West Hampstead?

An institution in West Hampstead. No other way to describe this former wet fish shop that now serves up it's former merchandise along with innovative meat and veggie ones. It's also a hot brunch destination and, I have neglected it for too long. 

The huge windows beckon you into a wonderful, large room with art deco features and original tiling. It's a special atmosphere that works day and night places and is very hard to imitate. The brunch menu is an egg lover’s dream. 

Eggs everywhere: benedict, florentine, royale, scrambled, poached, bubble & squeak topped with egg. The two dishes that we opted for: Breakfast Salad (scrambled eggs, spinach, avocado, feta, tomato, and brown toast) and Potato, Chorizo and Egg Scramble with refried black beans and toast. 

Both dishes were well presented. I was a little disappointed about the amount of egg in the Breakfast Salad but the restrained serving proved perfect. Typically with brunch I get the feeling people, including myself, like to indulge, and have visions of plates stacked high with pancakes or an enormous fry-up. 

I left satisfied and a little smug over the 'healthiness' of my choice. It was great and a testament to the food and manner in which it was served. Particularly so with Mr Muesli Lover’s dish - on the face of it potato, chorizo, eggs, beans and toast sounds like some gargantuan Mexican feast. 

As for the coffee, the stand-out best coffee in West Hampstead. I'm inclined to say that about the brunch dishes too.

Wet Fish Cafe, open 10am-11pm (Tues-Sun) 12pm-10pm (Mon)

Mr Muesli Lover brunches in Dubai

Mr Muesli Lover went to Dubai recently and came back having had a very surprising breakfast...

"I was in Dubai for 48 hours visiting my brother and his fiance. They suggested that we go out for a relaxed brunch to a new place that had opened up, Jones. “Brunch” in Dubai is usually associated with copious amounts of food and booze so I was intrigued as to where we would be going.

Non-boozey breakfasts in Dubai had previously been a mixed affair. Either over-the-top hotel affairs or cafes with a Middle Eastern slant that didn’t always get it quite right. We arrived just off the Sheik Zayed Road which was hardly the most auspicious start: the road is one of Dubai’s busiest. The building was also non-descript. A cube-like block of dark glass-could be any Dubai office block. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover...

Walking in one immediately entered a large, spacious room. Light, airy, a touch of metal here but nothing too fancy. Tables were around the outside of the room with the serving area and kitchen in the centre and accessible from all sides. It was pretty cool walking around and seeing everything going on in the kitchen. Shelves were packed high with various food items ranging from Jones’ branded muesli to high-end condiments. There was also a wonderfully smelly fromagerie. I was looking forward to breakfast.

The menu was refined and efficient. Nothing too different on there but all of it looked appealing. I chose the omelette with a side of mushrooms. I was offered the choice of medium or well-done - a first! I chose well-done not being a fan of under-cooked egg. The presentation was restrained with just a couple of sun-dried tomatoes accompanying the omelette which sat on a crunchy, thick slab of sourdough.

Again, appearances can be deceptive as although the dish looked rather simple it was cooked to perfection and tasted quite magnificent. Firm yet not dry at all and with a layer of cheese that ever-so-slowly oozed out. The mushrooms arrived in a terracotta dish and were as good mushrooms should be: juicy and clearly cooked in butter. Absolutely wonderful - amazing how a food item that is not that tasty raw comes alive with some heat and butter.

I left Jones elated and invigorated: it was a really great breakfast and, given I visit Dubai a reasonable amount to see my brother, a viable option for a good breakfast and coffee without the temptation of knocking back 7 glasses of champagne...Not that that is a bad breakfast either!

Kaffeine, Soho, London

Hurrah the Antipodean revolution. Another fantastic coffee stop, and a stone's throw from the crap coffee-toting cafes of the Oxford Street strip.

Kaffeine is cute and classic of the new genre of Australian/New Zealand-owned independent cafés. There's an open-top counter of colourful sandwiches, fresh salads and cakes with hand-written labels. The Anzac biscuits are top notch coffee dippers, although the dense, rich brownies are a delight too. The music is groovy, the vibe relaxed, and I even saw a minor celeb in there (Lillie Allen and man), if that's your bag.

It prides itself on local food and the Square Mile coffee, naturally, is superb: nutty, soft, smooth and divine. A welcome glowing light in the dingy dark of Oxford Circus coffee shops.

Details: Kaffeine, 66 Great Titchfield Street, Fitzrovia, London; W1W 7QJ; tel. 020 7580 6755.

Breakfast included: The Soho Grand

The surroundings: Manhattan’s Downtown may not be as smokin’ hot as the Meatpacking/West Village and Lower East Side/East Village districts that sandwich it on each side, but being between the two makes it a perfect place to stay.

The Soho Grand is so cool it doesn’t bother with a proper restaurant – why have a boring old meal when you can sip martinis and sustain yourself on olives and trendy bar food? The nightlife isn’t the only hip thang – there’s the vast iron work staircase with rivets and sweeping handrail, a huge pencil sketch of warehouses hinting at Soho’s industrial past, and dogs… everywhere. Live ones, bronze ones, this is a pet-friendly hotel that welcomes canines of all sizes – from handbag Chihuahuas to the pony-sized Great Dane that passed me on the stairs.

Not wishing to shackle you to a boring-old-restaurant, breakfast can be taken anywhere – bedroom, lounge, bar, trendy armchair…

Buffet: none


Hot stuff: The fact that the Continental breakfast comes with banana bread immediately endeared me to this trendy hotel. The $15 is steep, but not for New York. Juice of the day ($8), carrot and ginger, was fresh and perfectly spiced, while the power shake of pineapple, banana and whey protein ($9) was breakfast in a glass.

Nevertheless, I powered on… there was much to like – French toast with orange butter ($16), ricotta pancakes with lemon and sugar ($16) and the Sex-and-the-City favourite, egg white omelette with herbs and vegetable ratatouille ($15). I plumped for soft poached egg with toasted sourdough and roasted mushrooms ($15). Tasty on both counts with just-poached-enough eggs and tasty mushrooms.

As you’d expect in this part of the world, the sourdough was top notch – a crisp crust and doughy centre. I’m assured the granola of toasted seeds and oats ($9) was tasty, although I felt the extra $2 for yoghurt a little steep. Fun and frivolous, if a little bank-breaking (our bill with tax, service and drinks came to $78), worth it for a mooch around the hotel and cheaper than a round of cocktails.

The Riding House Cafe, Soho, London

The salvage/brick/iron/wood interior of Great Titchfield Street's latest brunch spot is a hint of New York. In fact, the interior is divine. The sage green leather is a striking contrast against the industrial colours. Seating ranges from cyan blue distressed leather bar stools to soft orange banquettes and tattered armchairs. The lighting is a bit NY too - oversized lampshades and bare bulbs abound.

The breakfast menu ceases at midday, which was the first disappointment once we'd sat down to our 12.15 booking. Gone were the buttermilk pancakes with vanilla clotted cream and berries (£5.50), the avocado on toast with black pepper (£4.80) and the Orkney bacon sandwich (£7.50). However, some brunchy items remained on the lunch menu.

Chorizo hash browns with mushroom and poached egg (£10.50) sound like such a brunch winner I'm surprised I've not come across them before. They were a winner - a generous colourful plate and a crisp, salty, crunchy taste. I had the smoked haddock kedgeree with soft boiled egg and pea shoots (£13). It was good - tasty, hot, fresh and substantial.

The service took an age, despite our arriving between the busiest periods, and a mistake with our order resulted from the waiter not writing it down (cue rant on waiting staff not writing down an order then getting it wrong... St Ali: are you listening?).

Fun, chi chi and civilised.

Details: The Riding House Cafe, 43-51 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 7PQ; tel. 020 7927 0840

Breakfast included: The Spindrift, Anstruther, East Neuk of Fife

Surroundings: The Spindrift gets its name from the spray that blows off tempestuous ocean waves, and on stepping out of the door on a windy, wintery day I think I could taste the salty air.

It's the first house on the left as you drive into Ansturther from the south and occupies a somewhat exposed but dramatic spot. The icean can't be more than a mile away and it's a golfer's paradise, but more to the point, this place has won porridge awards.

But before the oats, the house. It's a handsome stone-built Victorian house with eight bedrooms and a few grand bits and bobs - a huge sideboard, a grandfather clock and big, heavy doors were my favourites - oh, and the whisky-rich honesty bar.

Buffet: The sun-dappled breakfast room was a sight for sore eyes. The central buffet offered muesli, nuts, fruit, jams, honey, oat cakes, yoghurt and juice.

Hot stuff: The porridge was the main event for me. The B&B was a Scott's Porridge Oats Golden Spurtle Award Winner in 2003, and standards haven't slipped since then. The hot smooth oaty mixture came with a spoon made of bone, I think. The toppings included honey, whisky, jam, blackberries, brown sugar, cream and the like. I wanted all of them.

The next course was a little less successful - I wasn't at all sure about the pink, chewy, triangular sausage, but the potato cake was spot on. The eggs were a little too cooked and textured for me. I wish I'd stopped at the porridge.

Details: The Spindrift, Pittenweem Road, Anstruther, Fife, KY10 3DT; tel: 01333 310573. B&B from £32 a night.

Brunch at Bubby's, NYC

Coming from a city where we are very much still getting the hang of brunch, it’s a revelation to brunch in a city where the best meal of the week has been an institution for years. Yes, it takes up the large part of the day. Yes, you drink alcohol. Yes, you can read the papers and ignore your companions for at least some of the meal. Yes, you can take your child/dog/badly behaved friends and be a little raucous. Brunch is relaxed, frivolous and indulgent.

At Bubby’s you will queue for brunch, but with satanic chocolate cookies, pomegranate soda and lattes to keep you occupied, the waiting isn’t hardship. The restaurant is typical TriBeCa: surrounded by nondescript warehousy buildings and tarmacked and cobbled streets of little traffic. It’s also atypical TriBeCa, in that it has been popular for years, contrasting with it’s flash-in-the-pan neighbours.

The brunch crowd come for big plates of comfort food. There’s one thing that should be on everyone’s order: pancakes. I had the best I’ve ever tasted at Bubby’s. Vast disks of soft, but not too spongy buttermilk pancakes topped with churned butter and liberal DIY drenching with maple syrup. Pancakes come in different guises too – the sourdough version is a revelation, while banana and walnut is what I’ll order next time I go to Bubby’s.

The brunch staples are your classic egg/bacon/sausage variations with/without pancakes, plus scrapple (a sort of bubble and squeak). There was also Egg’s Benedict, Florentine and a lobster Benedict for the under-indulged. Steak and eggs and pork chop and eggs were the big protein hits, while granola, fruit and yoghurt and smoothies were the lighter options, but really, not in the spirit of brunch. Brunch cocktails, not served until midday, included Bloody Mary, mimosa and bellini.

The only other bemusement was that Bubby’s is cash only, of which you’ll need plenty, if like my table, the round of espresso milkshakes warrants a repeat order... Pastis is, like so passee. Brunch in NYC is all about Bubby’s.