This pocket of East London that merges into Shoreditch and Haggerston may be small but it certainly has a lot going on, especially when it comes to breakfast and brunch. These are the best places to grab a morning meal in Hoxton.
Like its sister restaurant, Soho’s 10 Greek Street, 8 Hoxton Square is known for excellent modern European cookery, great wine and top service. Their brunch menu is short and classic – eggs Benedict, fried breakfast, huevos rotos, waffles with summer berries – with the omelette, aubergine, peas & goats cheese being the most inventive dish there. Simple though they may be, every dish is well executed, proving that good food doesn’t always have to be complicated.
The pop-up-turned-permanent restaurant from renowned DJ Seth Troxler, Joe Vidler and Jona Aherne celebrates the home-cooked BBQ food of Troxler’s childhood, so there’s no avocado on toast here. The Smokey Tails bottomless brunch features both unlimited food – you can choose from pancakes with fruit compote, brioche French toast with fried chicken, bacon & maple syrup or cherry cola gammon and fried eggs – and unlimited booze. With a DJ involved, you can be sure that the soundtrack to your brunch is always on point too.
Beagle, located in the arches underneath Hoxton station, has breakfast and brunch nailed. Not only do they serve pastries, fresh juices and a range of egg and veg dishes on grilled sourdough in their café daily, they also have a separate and varied brunch offering that includes everything from oysters to salt beef hash with fried eggs to buttermilk pancakes with grilled banana and dulce de leche. You can even go bottomless on Saturdays with unlimited prosecco, mimosas or Bloody Marys and three plates of food.
As 100 Hoxton is an Asian-European fusion restaurant, they’ve put a bit of different spin on brunch, so you’ll see dishes like spiced sea bass kedgeree, koroke Korean croquette with poached eggs and chilli dressing, and burnt eggplant salad with toasted coconut, apple and beetroot on the menu alongside more classic French toast and mushrooms on toast. Even their drink options for a bottomless brunch are different, with Aperol spritz and boozy slushies available.
Right on the edge of Regent’s Canal is The Barge House. Not only do they have a great location – there’s nothing quite like eating by the waterside on a sunny morning – they’ve got breakfast and brunch food to match. Eggs, avocado on toast and porridge are available daily but you’ll want to drop in on a weekend for their signature Breakfast in Bread; a sourdough loaf is hollowed out, packed with everything from chorizo and beans to roast tomatoes and oyster mushrooms and topped with an egg. Totally delicious and totally instagrammable, and best served with a Bloody Mary made with house-infused vodka.
From a market stall selling salt beef and pastrami sandwiches in Bermondsey to a proper restaurant in Hoxton, the Monty’s Deli mission has been to bring back classic Jewish food to London. That includes salt beef hash, scrambled eggs and lox and challah French toast, which are available at the weekends alongside those legendary sandwiches. And as you’d expect from a Jewish deli, the portions are very generous indeed, so you won’t leave hungry!
For a simple, decent and well-priced brunch in Hoxton, head to The Ginger Pig Café. The obligatory avocado on toast is present on the menu, joined by only a handful of dishes – one meat and one veggie fried breakfast, an American breakfast with pancakes and bacon, sweetcorn fritters with poached eggs, and steak and eggs. Only the latter dish is above £10 in price and even the Bloody Marys come in at £6.
The Hoxton restaurant is one of nine Breakfast Clubs in London, so that should give you some idea of how popular the place has become. Breakfast is in their name and it’s certainly what they do best. Decked out like a diner, albeit with mismatched furniture and eclectic paraphernalia, the Breakfast Club will definitely help you to wake up (or fight a hangover). The menu is extensive, we’re talking pancakes, waffles, breakfast burritos, Benedicts, things on toast, fry ups – they really do have all bases covered.
