Restaurants

By Simon Coppock

A light industrial estate where the Hertford Union Canal meets the Lee Navigation, opposite the Olympic Stadium – not the first bit of London you’d think of when looking for a buzzy café, but this once-unloved brick bungalow is terrific.

It has been decorated unfussily but with care: rough holes through the interior wall open the counter up to the main room, airline seats face out to the street, tables on the pavement and out back catch any lingering sunshine.

Hot dishes come off a short blackboard list, accompanied by less impressive pastries from self-serve baskets. The £8 Big Breakfast provides sausage, thick bacon cooked soft but with a bit of crunch, firm toast, eggs ‘as you like’ (in our case, scrambled to lazy perfection), plus a few garlicky twists: own-made potato cake, beans baked to sweetness with herby tomatoes, a ramekin of super-concentrated sauce. Antipodeans wield the serving spoons, so you get own-made ANZAC biscuits and properly punchy coffee; tea isn’t such a priority (our ‘green and jasmine’ came with a jug of milk).

Time Out London Issue 2042: October 8-14 2009