No.8 Bar Bruno, Soho, London

No.8 Bar Bruno. Soho, London

 

Very little on the outside to indicate what happens inside.

Hello Breakfasters. After giving my arteries a break for a few weeks, where better to go than one of my favourite Saturday morning breakfast haunts for a fry up with great RTWOAF veteran Roland Phillps. London on a Saturday morning has a unique atmosphere; a lull between the two big nights of the week. One can walk up Shaftsbury Ave and then get away from the milling tourists by slipping into back waters of Wardour St. Bar Bruno is a great place to sit inside and conspire at the back or sit wistfully at the window and watch Soho going by. Honest to God, it's really good and get in now before it goes on some Metro list of 'undiscovered London'.

The Fry up

 

If what you want from a cafe is consistency and clear eyed efficiency then don't come here, as confusion reigns supreme among its staff. On (recent) previous trips I have simply bowled up to the counter and successfully asked for a 'Full English'. On this occasion I was shown a list of items that I could choose from. I was understandably thrown and ended up blurting out an unthought-through list of madness. Yet hungry and hungover I made the best of it. The list method is rubbish. It doesn't give you the joy of looking at their interpretation  of the great dish but instead leaves you with a sort of 'Sophie's Choice' about what to omit. It leaves one scornful towards what you chose and wistful about what you didn't. I ended up with Egg, Fried Bread, Sausage, Beans, Bacon and a Tea.  I even forgot to order toast and had to ask for a round once I'd started eating!  The whole lot came to about £6 and I enjoyed it. I decided, which I sometimes do, to use the long fork to make a kind of mini kebab by skewering a little bit of everything on the plate. It's a great technique.

 

Roland felt the sausage was not good quality but I felt it had some charm. It had good girth and seemed to be at least one step up from some of the previous rusk-heavy offerings. Egg on fried bread is hard to bugger up and in my fluster I had forgotten about tomatoes and mushrooms which would have improved things. The beans however were really nice, they had gone with a high quality brand and it worked nicely to get some fibre among my fry-heavy plate.

Apart from the staff having almost no idea about what anyone has ordered, and if they have brought you your tea or not, another big confusion among the staff is whether they have a customer toilet. or not When they decide they don't it's a real draw back. They often don't. Isn't this illegal or some such? It seems only fair that they help to solve a problem they've helped create.

 

Overall the food was about 7/10 but more importantly it's an amazing place and gossipping there on a sunny Saturday gets a 10. Go.



Needless to say afterwards I was a full English!

 

P.S. HP Sauce was not used at any point during this meal.




That seat in the window on the right is the best booth.
Amazing people watching.