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The French Café

The French Café
This new café has six tables outdoors on the terrace in quiet Ritherdon Road, neatly partitioned off from oiks and bag snatchers by a wall of raised planters. Vegetarian breakfasts include mushrooms fried in lots of butter – yum – on an English muffin, topped with hollandaise sauce; or a fry-up that includes a sweetcorn crêpe. The full English is a good version which includes a fat, herby sausage and crisp-shelled hash browns. Lighter options include muesli or a simple croissant. The coffee’s fine, but the orange juice is disappointing carton-style stuff. Still, it’s a lovely place for a languorous start to the day – the café doesn’t even open until 10.30am on weekdays.
The French Café, 16-18 Ritherdon Rd, SW17 8QD (8767 2660/ www.the-french-cafe.co.uk). Balham tube/rail or Tooting Bec tube then 155 bus. Breakfast served 10.30am-2pm Mon-Fri; 10am-2pm Sat, Sun. Breakfast for two with service: around £22. Feature continues

Steam
This new brasserie serves a good breakfast at weekends. The kipper comes topped with a perfectly poached egg, and slice of the chef’s sourdough bread – wholemeal, brown, light and wonderfully yeasty. The salt beef hash is also good, with proper chunks of beef, fried potato and pieces of fried kale. The full English includes a juicy pork banger and moist black pudding, alongside a slice of toasted Kingsmill bread. The marmalade and apricot jam taste like own-made. Admittedly the orange juice is fresh from a carton and our cappuccino was bitter, but most of the elements of breakfast here were exemplary.
Steam, 55-57 East Hill, SW18 2QE (8704 4680/www.steamwinebar.com). Clapham Junction or Wandsworth Town rail or 37, 87, 170, 337 bus. Breakfast served 9.30-11.30am Sat, Sun. Breakfast for two with service: around £22.

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Breads Etcetera
A management buyout has shaken up this popular Clapham café, but it’s still a good place for freshly baked bread – the sourdough breads are baked on the premises, and Dualit toasters furnish the tables. Coffee is a big plus, sourced from the Monmouth Coffee Company.
Breads Etcetera, 127 Clapham High St, SW4 7SS (7720 3601). Clapham Common or Clapham North tube. Breakfast served Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. Breakfast for two with service: around £20.

Roast
The menu is varied, offering anything from the ascetic half a melon with pink grapefruit to ‘The Full Borough’, a formidable plate of quality produce from Roast’s esteemed suppliers. In it, you’ll find smoked streaky bacon from Ayrshire, Cumberland sausages, black pudding from Ramsay of Carluke, fat grilled tomatoes, field mushrooms, bubble and squeak and, of course, two eggs of your choice. But if that’s too much to stomach, try the grilled Orkney kippers with lemon and butter, or a tattie scone with bacon, mushrooms and a fried egg.
Roast, The Floral Hall, Borough Market, Stoney St, SE1 1TL (0845 034 7300/www.roast-restaurant.com). London Bridge tube/rail. Breakfast served 7-9.30am Mon-Fri; 8-11.30am Sat. Breakfast for two with service: around £30.

The Table
‘Proper’ breakfast at this 2006 winner of Time Out’s Best Cheap Eats award showcases organic breads and eggs and plenty from the chargrill that dominates the open-plan kitchen. Those wanting something lighter or quicker should look to the ‘Jumpstart’ selection of fruit-yoghurt-muesli combos. Weekend brunches see the likes of buttermilk pancakes, sweetcorn fritters and the Table’s signature breakfast ‘stack’ featuring home-made baked beans, chorizo, poached eggs, hollandaise and red pepper pesto – a rich dish, yes, but great value at £7.50.
The Table, 83 Southwark St, SE1 0HX (7401 2760). Southwark tube. Breakfast served 7.30-11am Mon-Fri. Brunch served 9am-3pm Sat, Sun. Breakfast for two with service: around £18.

Lido Café
You don’t have to go swimming at Brockwell Lido to enjoy its new poolside café (an unobtrusive side door lets you through the wall from the roadside). Light, airy and super-relaxed, this locally run venture embraces both healthy eating and comfort-food nostalgia with heaps of fluffy scrambled eggs served on crunchy wholemeal toast, free-range bacon baps, organic porridge, fresh fruit and granola, blueberry pancakes smothered with maple syrup (a tad eggy on the batter mix), freshly squeezed orange juice and sticky pastries. Clientele is a broad church: hardy swimmers covered in goose bumps and wrapped in towels, post-whippersnappers parents and toddlers, and home workers availing themselves of the free wi-fi and strong (Union) coffee. Brunch is served throughout the day and although the pool itself closed for the winter from October 4, the café remains open all year round.
Lido Café, Brockwell Lido, Dulwich Rd, SE24 0PA (7274 3088/www.thelidocafe.co.uk). Herne Hill rail or Brixton tube/rail then 37 bus. Breakfast served 7.30am-6pm daily. Breakfast for two with service: around £12.

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