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There is no perfect definition, because a Full English Breakfast is a modular sort of meal, you can plug in extra components as you will (so it is not obvious when the 'Full' really is full). It is generally agreed, though, that the core of an FEB is bacon and eggs with a source of carbohydrate, usually toast or chips, but sometimes (I go for this) 'bubble and squeak', which should be fried-up leftover potatoes and cabbage, but these days is often made up specially.
Any decent London café will allow you to mix and match further additional components, including sausages (sometimes beware of these, they are frequently of lower quality than the bacon), black pudding, fried tomatoes, fried mushrooms etc etc. Brown sauce (preferably HP) or ketchup is the preferred condiment.
For Central London FEBs, there used to be an excellent café on New Compton Street, just next to Shaftesbury Avenue, and another nearby, on Shaftesbury Avenue where it meets Bloomsbury Street, one of them must still be open, and it's a short walk from Trafalgar Square. Basically, I would nose around the Covent Garden area.
Originally posted 2 months ago.
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Fin Fahey edited this topic 2 months ago.
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Although I agree with Fin Fahey, that the meal is modular. I think the common thread ingredients are:
Eggs (normally fried, but poached is an option)
Bacon
Sausage
Baked Beans
Fried or hot Tomato
bread or toast with butter
many places also do Mushrooms and hash browns as the normal full english breakfast.
I would recomend the FAT CAT bar restaurant in Mile End. their all day full English (which also includes black or white pudding) is awsome after a big night before. Nearer the centre of town however I would look toward the covent garden direction invariably there will be somewhere that looks like a greasy spoon cafe. - Enjoy!
Posted 2 months ago.
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Forgot the baked beans, Steve, indeed. Also for total recklessness, 'fried slice' - fried bread, basically. I usually leave off the sausage, I find the black pudding is generally better quality.
Agreed you have to go a bit further out for lots of FEB choice, I know a few good places in Hackney, particularly Hoxton. But I may give the Mile End one a go though next time I'm down there, partly because of the white pudding, to which I'm rather partial.
Two of us say Covent Garden, then. Maybe it's a legacy of the old market, them traders would've needed a good hefty breakfast - and probably got a bit sick of the sight of veg.
Oh, yes - my local favourite is Joseph's on Stoke Newington High Street, their bacon always seems well-sourced, and they always get the eggs just right, can't bear yukky egg whites.
Originally posted 2 months ago.
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Fin Fahey edited this topic 2 months ago.
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Well worth visiting The Regency Cafe (Regency St) - not near Trafalgar Square either, but quite handy if you're going to Tate Britain
Also some great cafes in Borough Market
Posted 2 months ago.
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Hmm, what hasn't been mentioned yet...
A mug of tea completes the full English breakfast, and there can also be fried bread an alternative to toast. I don't really agree with chips at breakfast time, but fried sliced potatoes or refried mash are fine. Hash browns are probably foreign so not part of FEB.
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Yeah, to me chips for breakfast are just not right, but they seem to have crept into the FEB, so thought I'd include them. Definitely agree on the hash browns, my local caf includes them, but only as a part of what they call an 'American Breakfast' (I doubt any American would recognise this dish, however).
Any twice cooked carbo (no refried beans!) like bubble or refried mash is totally admissable. Very important to remove all traces of water-soluble vitamins, nasty things ;)
Posted 2 months ago.
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Hash browns are commonly found on American breakfast menus, but the beans, black pudding and the fried tomatoes are what we don't typically have. That to me is the essential difference between the English and the American breakfast plate. Mushrooms, if served at all, are usually part of an omelet.
Posted 2 months ago.
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Bacon, Eggs, fried bread, sausage(s), beans, black pudding, buttered sliced bread (to mop up afterwards), a copy of the Sun and as many mugs of tea as is necessary. If plumbers/plasterers/electricians or other tradesmen do not regularly frequent the place then don't go in, it will be rubbish.
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Oh yeah, bottles of HP/Daddies sauce and ketchup NOT sachets.
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Just out of baker street tube station, turn right, cross the road and there is a small cafe with a few outdoor seats, ive found their breakfast to be brilliant and not to expensive.
if you are south of the river, from southwark tube walk away from the river and after a few streets you should see 'blackfriars cafe' thats a brilliant food there as well.
sorry don't know any in trafalgar square,
but i don't imagine there will be any proper cafes that close in, not the proper working class english cafe anyway.
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ohhhh I love a FEB
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Off topic a little, if you want a totally un-prententious, inexpensive and English lunch (with english puddings and custard!) near Trafalgar square then there is 'The Stockpot' in Panton street.
(Now I have given away my fave hidey-hole when in central London)
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wow I used to eat there all the time... it's been around for decades and the food is your normal home cooked kind of stuff
There's one of those in Kings road too
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Yes and they are quite fast with the courses and I love the old push key cash till and the 'dumb waiter' lift that delivers the food from the kitchen upstairs.
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Aw man, black pudding..... slurp!
And a Full Irish has pretty much all of the above, but also WHITE pudding. Delish.....
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I wouldn't mind an irish.....
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I was also going to say the regency cafe, went there yesterday for breakfast, the bubble and squeak is goooood! Plus it's cheap. I can't believe i've lived a 10 minute walk away for 4 years and not been till recently. Nearest station is Pimlico but you can get the number 88 bus from trafalgar square and it'll take you pretty near.
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Sassy indeed! ;D
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Actually, I'm finding this thread quite useful now, some good tips there. One useful generalisation that emerges - Hoxton and Borough market have been mentioned - is that if there's a street market, there will usually be a decent café in the locale.
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Was delicious. There was a pub around the corner from our hotel called "The Old Shades".
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codooaustin edited this topic 2 months ago.
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There's also, as always, a full english group. However, as there is a 6 week old empty thread at the top of their discussion list you can see that it's more about the piccies than the chat:
www.flickr.com/groups/fullenglish/
Posted 2 months ago.
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www.simpsonsinthestrand.co.uk/menus.php?id=1
Old England posh, though - they do kedgeree.
I agree with Fin. Baked beans have NO place on the full English breakfast plate.
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Tsingtao edited this topic 2 months ago.
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There's also a popular Usenet group called
alt.2eggs.sausage.beans.tomatoes.2toast.largetea.cheerslove
I'm not kidding. It's probably still active, hang on I'll check....
Yes, 11 messages today, not all of which are spam. I don't know why they're discussing globe artichokes though, but I suppose that's more on-topic than I was expecting!
Posted 2 months ago.
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I remember that group well, one of the most civilised alt. groups, glad to see they're still there.
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And remember, there is no "or" in breakfast - avoid anywhere that offers you sausages OR bacon.
Posted 2 months ago.
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Browse these:
www.classiccafes.co.uk
www.flickr.com/groups/classiccafes
russelldavies.typepad.com/eggbaconchipsandbeans
I agree about no baked beans, but I don't like baked beans, anyway! Also, proper American hash browns are a godly thing, and absolutely nothing like the so-called hash browns to be found in the UK (which are more like potato croquettes, actually, and tend to be of dubious fast-frozen quality, and best avoided).
I've always meant to go to the Regency but it's always closed when I go past. I think it closes at 3:00pm -- quite a few caffs do -- The Star in New Compton Street (another one I keep meaning to visit) does. You can get a 24 bus from Trafalgar Square to Victoria Street and then walk to the Regency -- it's not that far.
Old Compton Street Stockpot is aces, but AVOID AVOID AVOID the one in Panton Street -- I had the worst meal I've ever had in my life there, and the service was appalling.
Time again to say how much I miss the New Piccadilly...
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I'd deffo recommend the Star in Great Chapel Street. It's a good place to spot minor celebrities, and does a lovely all-day breakfast as well as nice omelettes and specials.
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mondoagogo - the number 11 bus will take you much closer (as I found out after many a drunken wander home) and the regency is open 7 - 12 (although sometimes he shuts early) on a saturday morning, and during the week i think it shuts at 2.30 and reopens again at 4 or 5 but apparently it's very popular with the people from channel 4 and mega busy at lunch time. Alas it's closed on sundays…
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Eggs fried x 2
Bacon thick x3 rashers
Sausage pork x2
Baked Beans x large serving spoon full
plum tomatoe x 2 (tinned)
mushrooms closed cup
fried black pudding x 2 pieces
Fried bread x 1 slice
toast with butter x 2 slice
hot strong tea
chips and hash browns how very dare you!
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@Dr Juffwamba -- I figured there probably was another bus, I just use the 24 a lot to go to Victoria, so that's the one I knew. Good to know that the Regency opens in the evening, though, now I have no excuse not to visit.
The trouble with this thread is that it's making me crave proper hash browns, and you just can't get them anywhere in London.
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mondoagogo edited this topic 2 months ago.
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The New Goodfare at the corner of Parkway and Arlington Road in Camden Town is pretty spectacular when it comes to fried goodness generally. I tend to go for one of their epic omelettes in preference to the Full English, admittedly.
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Oh oh! I used to go there with my mum all the time when I was a little girl. I went back last year and it was the same, but not the same. It had a refurb, didn't it? Something was different. And it's quite pricey, understandably, given the rise of rents 'round there.
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Yeah, I think it changed hands a couple of years ago.
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Ah, that'd explain it.
I just found this today:
www.dinnerinabottle.com/english-breakfast
(actually, somebody else ffffound it)
Read the site's disclaimer, 'cos it's funny.
Posted 2 months ago.
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