Brunch, baby, brunch!

I don’t know about you, but one of my favourite parts of the weekend is the Saturday (or Sunday) brunch. I just love it! A lazy morning at home or at a nice restaurant, eating eggs (or fluffy pancakes or a juicy waffle…), enjoying a cup of coffee and talking. This is what a weekend morning is like to me. So, naturally when I heard about a “Brunch Fest” coming to London the last weekend of August, I decided to go ahead and book two tickets for it.

We got onto the tube on a Sunday morning in order to go to Liverpool Street Station, as the Brunch Fest was held at the Old Truman Brewery, in Brick Lane. We had very high hopes for that, as we both love brunching and a whole festival dedicated to brunch? Well, sign us up now! First impression? It was as low key as you can imagine! There were stalls around (not many) selling all things brunch-related, from fresh flowers to coffee and from sausages to granola. There was also a stage with talks scheduled (sadly we weren’t able to attend not even one; we were hungry people!) and lots of tables and chairs scattered around.

First we took a walk around, sampled some delicious granola, brownies and a little cup of coffee, which was quite fun. It was great walking around, seeing all the stalls and exhibitors. Everyone was smiling and super polite, while the Sunday morning crowd was palatable. Luckily the Sunday morning session was okay (there was an afternoon session as well, starting from 3 pm), which was why we looked at it when I booked the tickets.

It was time though for the main event, our brunch! We moved towards the next level, the Sweet Street and the Brunch Headliners. As soon as we passed through the doors, the smell was overwhelming! One of the sellers there was grilling bacon and sausages and you can imagine how that would smell! However we broke with tradition and had something slightly different; I had a delicious Benedict dish with slow cooked beef, a poached egg, a toasted slice of brioche and bearnaise sauce from the Farmer’s Mistress, while my boyfriend picked the Sexy Fish from the same restaurant. The “Sexy Fish” was a dish with smoked salmon, whipped ricotta, cucumber salsa on a charcoal brioche.

My impression? The Farmer’s Mistress “Benedict” was super tasty; the toasted slice was toasted just enough, the egg was poached perfectly, while the slow cooked beef melted like butter in the mouth. My boyfriend’s choice was also yummy; the smoked salmon and ricotta made for an interesting combination (I don’t like mixing fish and cheese, as I feel that my stomach is not going to like them together…), while the cucumber salsa added a fresh note to it. The charcoal brioche was unexpected and I think I liked it. I also had a glass of mimosa (just try to get me away from a glass of prosecco!) After all that, we thought we could try something sweet, so we went for the Brickwood menu. We chose their exclusive dish “the Bomb!”, with banana bread. This is basically banana bread with cacao cream, salted peanut butter and shaved Tim Tams. It was sweet alright, but if the banana bread had some Jack Daniels, it would have been over the top! Now it was a little plain, I think.

My experience in general? The food was fresh, well-cooked and quite delicious. The actual portions were not big though and they were a bit pricey I believe. For example, we paid £29.50 (with my mimosa) and along with the tickets (circa £15.00 each) the London Brunch Fest made for an extravagant experience in my opinion. I am glad I tried it though; it didn’t completely fall flat, but we were hoping like crazy that it would be great. In the end, I had fun, we had a nice brunch out, but I doubt I would do it again!

Till next time,

Sofia-Maria