Poco Broadway Market: brunch menu review
East London newcomer Poco needs to be at the top of it’s game to compete in the already crowded East London brunch market, which, with it’s Portuguese punched potatoes, choice of 3 bloody marys and eggs in many guises it is.
In a nutshell
This is the second iteration of a bricks and mortar cafe Poco from Tom Hunt, Ben Pryor and Jen Best. The original caravan is still touring festivals and the first cafe is based in Bristol. Wherever and how ever Poco presents itself, the organic, seasonal, local and low wastage ethos remains. There’s nothing complicated about Poco, it's simply good produce cooked well.
Our review
Neatly lodged in the ex-Lock 7 Cycle workshop on Broadway market’s bridge over the Regent’s Canal, Poco benefits from wide pavements and comfortable outside tables denied to Broadway Market proper establishments, as well as a snug interior space set off by high ceilings and huge windows. It’s the kind of venue you wander past and then wander in to, enticed in by food you can see on the tables.
If you’re a late riser then the brunch menu here has a good run every day from 8 am – 3pm weekdays and 10am – 4.30pm at the weekends. Eating organic Haresfield farm eggs in the afternoon (or fruit, yoghurt and sprouted buckwheat if that’s your poison) is a perfectly acceptable pastime in Hackney.
The brunch menu is egg heavy, papas a lo pobre, Portuguese punched potatoes come with a fried egg and optional chorizo, field mushrooms with labneh and zata’ar with poached egg, the smoked trout with paoched egg and there are 2 kinds of scramble, Moroccan with merguez and Moorish with chorizo. You must leave room for the churros, crisp, cinnamon strewn and with thick chocolate for dunking, these are so moreish you will eat the entire plate no matter how full you are.
Bloody marys are suitably pokey with a good chunk of celery, we tried the harissa and classic and there’s another option of beetroot.
Service was friendly and efficient, the atmosphere is buzzy and the tables along the wall comfortable (the higher tables may not be so if you have short legs and a tendency to slip off bar stools). You can tick the eco-friendly box as well, 90% of the ingredients used here are UK sourced, as much as possible locally and they up-cycle and recycle the same percentage of waste making this a very sustainable business.
The verdict: A solid brunch venue built on sound ethics serving exceptional churros – worth visiting for those alone.
129 Pritchard’s Road, London, E2 9AP 02077393042
Writen by Lulu Grimes
November 2015
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