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Please note, Foxcroft & Ginger at Beyond Retro has now closed. Time Out Food editors, May 2018.
‘We’ve hit Peak London!’ screamed the Tweeters when Foxcroft & Ginger opened this new one-food-fits-all eatery in the painfully hip environs of Dalston’s Beyond Retro clothes shop. But while it’s easy to mock – the words ‘poached egg bar’ are inherently daft, and doesn’t every brekkie/brunch venue fit that description anyway? – the food they serve is no laughing matter.
The bar’s USP is that they claim to use a scientifically proven poaching method: each egg should get a full hour in 63C water, resulting in deliciously slippery whites and golden, flavoursome yolks.
The accoutrements are just as tasty. You can have Benedict with either pancetta or salmon, all drenched in sharp, rich hollandaise; eggs and chorizo slathered with North African chermoula sauce; or eggs, crispy sourdough and feta with a dollop of smoky aubergine pickle on the side. None of this comes cheap – the star dishes go for up to £9.50 – and our service didn’t exactly run smoothly, as one plate arrived with only half its ingredients and had to be hurriedly replaced.
But the staff was friendly and the mood pleasantly peaceful – and we should also note that their coffee is strong enough to take your eyebrows off. You’re probably expecting us to end on a cheap egg-based pun – but if you want yolk jokes, you can crack ‘em yourself.