Workshop

We were recently fortunate enough to take a lovely weekend away to that London with our friends Doyle and Jeni. As with any trip to London involving me and Bailey, we had a jam-packed schedule of eating and drinking, not forgetting some more eating, ahead of us. Our first stop was a breakfast recommendation from The Guardian, supposedly called St. Ali but actually called Workshop - a place known for its corn fritters (but they had me at "halloumi").

So we made our way over to the previously unknown to me neighbourhood of Clerkenwell with hungry tums and high expectations. As I say I knew very little about this Clerkenwell place but we could see pretty much as soon as we stepped off the tube that it was very chic and that there were a lot of red-trousered men about.

Stepping into Workshop I can't say we were instantly bowled over. Yes, it looked awesome and yes, everyone seemed to be eating the most delectable breakfasts in the world but the dude on the door told us that there would be a 20 minute wait for a table. Fine, you expect to wait for things in London. We asked if we could wait at the bar and get a drink and were told that if we did that, we would have to start the 20 minute wait over once we'd finished our drink. Eh? What were we supposed to do? Buy a takeaway drink and sit outside on the little bench and wait for him to come and get us, apparently. We thought this seemed a little bit of a silly system but we didn't mind sitting out too much as it was a lovely autumn day. Wouldn't fancy shivering out there in winter though!

Once inside Workshop all was forgiven when we met our amazingly friendly waitress, were seated at our lovely table and took a look at the mouthwatering menu. The food sounded ACE and the place was a joy to be in - with quirky stuff to look at all over the place including a whole wall of plants!

Drinks-wise Bailey, Jeni and I wasted no time in starting the day in style with a Bloody Mary. Steve went for a cup of Workshop's famous coffee. While perusing the menu I did my usual thing of listening in on the conversation of the people next to us. I heard one of them say "I love breakfast, and this is one of the best breakfasts I've ever had." Woah.

Food-wise, it was immediately obvious to me that I would absolutely love the Corn Fritters, not just because they were recommended by the Guardian, but because they sounded awesome and were accompanied by baby spinach, grilled halloumi, kasundi relish and poached eggs. Everything on that list sounded awesome.

The fritters were packed with flavour, crispy on the outside and soft and juicy in the middle. The halloumi and eggs were both perfectly cooked and everything on the plate went really well together. I was enjoying this breakfast so much I forgot to drink my Bloody Mary until afterwards. A great breakfast for veggies but I would probably even recommend this to die-hard meat eaters.

Speaking of meat eaters, Bailey was congratulated by the waitress for his "bravery" upon ordering the Rare Breed Hamburger.

Bailey absolutely loved this meaty brunch treat and it has gone down as one of his top burgers of all time. He wasn't expecting the comté cheese to go so well with the burger and thought the chipotle mayo was a nice smoky touch.

Seeing as Bailey was pretty sure he was going to get some halloumi envy from me (and I had told him in no uncertain terms that he wasn't getting any of mine), he ordered a portion of his own but was a bit disappointed by this, finding it dry and not as halloumi lovely as he was expecting. Still, a very delightful brekkie.

We also heard no complaints from our buddies, Doyle seemed very happy with his Baked Organic Eggs (although he did have to wait little later than us due to the fact they missed his side of halloumi off but took his whole plate away) and Jeni said she thoroughly enjoyed her Grilled Asparagus. I've since discussed the deliciousness of this brekkie with Jen who said "Ooh, I could eat that now..."

So we were all very much in agreement that Workshop was an excellent choice and a fantastic relaxed weekend breakfast option. Pretty much everything we ate was not only delicious but also a little bit unusual, the service was very good and considering we were in a red trousers area of London, quite reasonably priced too. I will most definitely head back to Workshop if I'm looking for a breakfast in the big smoke again and would recommend it to anyone heading down there for the weekend.