Just a quickie but I thought I would mention that I went to Balthazar for breakfast on Thursday morning and it was lovely. There have been so many negative reviews of Balthazar since it opened in London a couple of months ago, that it actually put me off wanting to go. But I needed to go somewhere suitable for a breakfast meeting that morning and Balthazar seemed like the perfect place – central, not too noisy and I’ve had great breakfasts in the New York branch in the past.
So I walked in and found myself…well, back in New York! It looks identical to New York’s Balthazar.
I was greeted by an extremely attractive girl at the door and shown to my table. I was unbelievably tired so quickly ordered a coffee. I had been studying the breakfast menu the day before so I was pretty sure I knew what I wanted to eat. It was between the Eggs Royale and the Brioche French toast. That morning, I really fancied eggs so that’s what I went for.
Eggs Royale – poached eggs with smoked salmon and hollandaise on an English muffin with home fries. £14
This dish was beautiful. The muffin was warm and crispy on the outside but springy inside, the eggs were perfectly cooked and the hollandaise was rich, smooth and creamy with the perfect amount of vinegary tartness to cut through the richness. The homefries were crispy on the outside fluffy on the inside. It was just what I needed to get me started for the day.
Obviously I have only had this one breakfast dish there and you can’t/shouldn’t really go wrong with something like this but it really was so good that I want to go back to check out the dinner menu.
Since I was having a business meeting there, I didn’t have time to hang about afterwards to check out the boulangerie and buy pastries and bread, although the bread did look wonderful.
The restaurant itself looks beautiful, the staff were incredibly attentive and friendly, my breakfast was delicious. The only negative I could find on the day was walking out the front door and finding myself in Covent Garden and not on Spring Street.
I’ll keep you posted as and when I go back for dinner.
Balthazar, 4-6 Russell Street, London, WC2B 5HZ
020 3301 1155
3 Comments
OOooooh I haven’t heard of this before. Looks lovely!
Well maybe go but don’t read any other reviews before you go. Then you can have an honest, unbiased opinion of it. I want to try it out for dinner before I make up my mind. But I can safely say my breakfast was really delicious.
Its a lovely place to sit in if nothing else.
Ror a test run you can sit at the bar and have oysters and really cold beer (or wine) and just people watch. That’s a great day at the NY location. .