The Modern Pantry

A few weekends ago on a Saturday, I booked a little surprise for Katie as a post-birthday treat – a table at The Modern Pantry for brunch. I’d only heard good things about the place, and it came on Time Out’s top 10 places for brunch in London. I LOVE Time Out; they rarely get it wrong when it comes to food places.

So on the sunny Saturday morning we hopped on the tube to Farringdon and walked to Clerkenwell. I have to say, there isn’t much in the area and it’s absolutely dead at the weekend, but The Modern Pantry is set back a little bit from a main road. It’s got tables outside which would have been perfect for the sunny weather, but we got a table upstairs by the window. It was lovely and cool, and nice and bright and airy. So far so good.

I ordered pink grapefruit juice and Katie and her sister ordered fresh orange juice. I was feeling a little worse for wear from the night before, so this was the perfect refresher.

For mains, I went for the cornbread with two fried eggs, chorizo, salsa, corn and avocado. It was truly delicious. I didn’t feel like there was too much or too little food, and the flavours all complimented each other really well. The eggs were also done to perfection.

Katie’s sister went for the classic smoked salmon, poached eggs and hollandaise (ALWAYS a winner).

Katie went for a rather unusual choice – mince on toast with chilli and lime dressing and a crispy egg. Now it sounds bizarre, and not at all ‘breakfasty’ but we all tried a bit and it was delicious. Perhaps not a 9am thing, but definitely for 12 (which is when we got there). It was quite spicy, and Katie hit the nail on the head when she said it felt like an Indian take on an English breakfast. Delicious.

We all managed to eat everything on our plates (SHOCKER) and decided that we would try a couple of scoops of the ice-cream to finish off (Nikita told me we had to try it, and how can you say no to ice cream?) We went for the strawberry and peppercorn, and the toffee options. The toffee was delicious; not too rich but with little bits of honeycomb that melted in the mouth. The strawberry and pepper was very different; you really could taste the kick of pepper in it. I actually quite liked it, but it certainly wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste.

When the bill came I almost fell off my chair, as it came to just over £15 each including service. I was expecting a lot more! The staff were very efficient, the food was top notch and the general setting was lovely. Perfect way to start a Saturday (and St Paul’s One New Change is only a 15 minute walk away – dangerous!)

What’s your favourite brunch place? Any other places I need to try out in London?