Workshop Coffee Co

27 Clerkenwell Rd.

London

EC1M 5RN

I always hear rumors that restaurant workers hate brunch. I mean, I get it. A bunch of hungover people, who probably don't care that much about what they're eating, asking for eggs eight different ways, bugging you for coffee refills over and over and over and over again... I would probably come out of that thinking the brunch shift sucks too. As a customer though, I love brunch. I want someone to make me something so much more wonderful than I can make at home. It's hard to find in the UK - often brunch is done only passably well, or terribly - I can make nice eggs, thank you very much, and I am good at frying bacon and whipping up a batch of fluffy American pancakes. So for me to think brunch is special, it needs to be special. Thank goodness we found Workshop Coffee Co - look at my grilled asparagus, smoked salmon, poached egg, truffled mascarpone, corn bread dish up top! I would never have all of those ingredients lying around the house on a weekend morning. And there are enough components to the dish that to get it all done at the same time is way too much hassle. So WCC, you have won me over with that dish alone. A had something normal - scrambled egg, sourdough toast and tomato kasundi, with dry cured smoked bacon (actually now that I'm writing this I realize tomato kasundi is not normal at all, I don't even know what it is, so I guess that dish is ok in my books too). Now if only I could get it to move to a spot at the end of my road.

Ladurée

Unit 1, Covent Garden Market
London
WC2E 8RF

A's mom was in London before Christmas so we had a fun girls' day out - a bit of window shopping, and then tea and macarons at Ladurée in Covent Garden. When you consider the luxury of being in a beautifully decorated tea room in central London and being served tea in silver pots with elegant china and some of the best macarons in the world, the prices are actually quite reasonable. The three macarons we split were salted caramel, orange blossom and black forest. My favorite was the salted caramel, followed closely by the black forest, which managed to taste exactly like a piece of black forest gateau. We then bought a boxed set of macarons as a gift for S - who we found out later had just asked T to buy some for her in Paris... so double macarons were received, but that was fine with everyone - it just meant more for sharing!

Bou Tea

22 Wellington Street
WC2E 7DD

Met up with J and D from school for a study break at Bou Tea. I had walked by here earlier in the week and it looked really cute inside. Teas are served in the adorable little pots you see in the picture, and most of them are only 2 quid for a pot (the list of teas is huge, by the way - several sheets of paper long). There are also little slices of cake for 2 quid, and some tasty looking sandwiches. I got a pot of Happy Valley tea and a slice of ginger loaf, which came with a giant knob of butter (why? I don't think butter goes with ginger cake...) It was nice and gingery, and they take a lot of care with the teas - in the menu, each one has the temperature it should be steeped at and for how many minutes written next to it, so when they make your tea they get the right temperature water and put a little timer on top so they know when it is ready to serve. Service was a little confused, probably because there were only two people handling all the ordering, tea making, serving and cashiering duties, but at least all their little mistakes were accompanied by a smile.

One other thing I like - each table has four legs, but one of the legs looks like a tree branch painted purple and it extends upwards through the table top (I should have taken a picture). The bit of branch that extends out of the table top has a fork in it, where they have propped up newspapers for you to read if you need something to entertain you. Anyway - great decor and lovely atmosphere for whiling away a couple of hours with new friends.