The Bad Egg, Barbican, London EC2Y

This diner turns inner city dystopia into a design concept. Set in the corner of a tower block the dual aspect dining room overlooks concrete pathways in one direction and a 1960s brutalist car park on the other. Plain wooden tables, leatherette banquettes and wood and metal chairs seat the customers. The look is finished with matt metal grilles and a neon WC sign to guide you to the toilets. It has the feel of a set from a scary 1980s film about street gangs in New York.

The food is basically classic diner fare. Breakfast, brunch, burgers and hashes. They do a bottomless brunch at the weekends which are reputedly very good and very boozy. We were here for a meal before going to the theatre, so tried a burger; the G’Ambal and a hash; the Bad Egg Burger Hash.

The G’Ambal consists of 2 beef patties, a spicy hash brown, caramelized onion, mustard and liquified cheese – all inside a burger bun. It was huge, messy and delicious. We also ordered a side of chips, these were good too, thin shoe lace fries, but to be honest the burger was so filling that we did not need to get them.

The Bad Egg Burger Hash is basically a broken up burger, fried potato, onion, spicy nduja melted cheese served with a fried egg on top. This was also a large portion, nicely spicy and the meat was really good quality. The food here is very good, but I suspect that this would not be the place to come if you are on a diet. They do have vegetarian options, the bean burger was so nicely described that I almost ordered it, but remembered just in time that it is the burgers and boozy brunches for which they are famous.

They have a number of Korean inspired dishes too that look interesting. The service was good, our waiter appeared genuinely interested in our opinion of the food. The music is kind of retro urban, and a good level – conversation is still easily heard. The choice of wine and beer is limited, they had no beer on tap when we went, but they did have bottled Heineken and Corona.

The atmosphere was good, we enjoyed our meal. If you are looking for somewhere a little bit out of the ordinary to have good quality comfort food, The Bad Egg is worth looking up. It is very close if you are going to something in the Barbican or near Moorgate. A nice burger and an interesting restaurant. Sometimes its good to be bad!

Advertisement

MOD Pizza, Irving Street, Leicester Square, London WC2

MOD Pizza is a chain of restaurants that has been in the USA for some years now, it is relatively new to the UK, this is the first one in London. MOD stands for Made On Demand, it is a clever concept – we might be looking at the new McDonalds here.  It is also great value, in fact for  Central London it seems ridiculously cheap at £7.87 for an 11 inch pizza with unlimited toppings.

If you don’t like pizza, then this is probably not the place for you, it does pizza, salad… or pizza salad. However, by limiting their menu, they do what they do very well. You order the size of base that you want and then you move down the counter asking the server behind it to add ingredients to your pizza as they take your fancy as you see them. There is a surprising number of choices, there are six different base sauces from basic tomato, through barbecue to a garlic rub – and I guess you could have them all if you wished. There are also six different cheeses, including a dairy free vegan cheese (is it really cheese if its dairy free?), 8 different meat types (they calls anchovy a meat!) and about twenty other topping types. Then finish it off with swirls of pesto or glaze and add a choice of spices to the top.

Then there is a quick opportunity to admire your creation, before they take it away for baking and five minutes later they bring the completed cooked pizza to your table. The first time I came, it was to a pizza party for about twenty five people and it was a very convivial evening. They are licensed to sell beer and wine, a pretty basic choice of each – but we are talking about a fast food type place here. It brings the American concept of unlimited soda fountain with it, the kids will love this, not only do they do the usual soft drinks, they also have three different types of home made lemonade. The original lemonade is wonderfully sharp, great on a warm day. The milk shakes are good too. If you have ordered too much and you are unable to finish, they also provide boxes for you take home what you can’t eat. I have to confess here that I am one of those (apparently disgusting) people who love cold pizza for breakfast!

MOD Pizza is an interesting new addition to the food offering in the centre of town, and although the competition here is tough, I think they have found a winning formula and we will see many more branches of this chain here in the UK before too long.

 

 

 

Jackson & Rye, Wardour Street, Soho, London

This restaurant looks fantastic. When you step inside from the hectic lunchtime crowds on Wardour Street, it feels like you have walked into a vintage upscale diner in Midtown, New York. It has dark wood, leatherette banquettes, soft lighting and brass rails. The menu is high end American comfort food too – there is lots to choose from. The a-la-carte is relatively expensive, I guess we are right in the heart of Soho, but it has lunch and brunch special menus that look very good value.

The salt and pepper squid was great as a starter. We also had tomato soup which came lukewarm, but was delicious after we had it reheated. The hamburgers and fries were really good too – meaty and well cooked.

The cocktails were a bit more mixed in quality, the whiskey sour was not sour enough for me but the margarita was good and the martini excellent. It is a shame that they had no bottled beers that we had ever heard of on the menu and that the only draft beer was unfiltered.

The service was good and although we lingered over lunch, we were never rushed. All four of us enjoyed our lunch in Jackson & Rye and I would happily return.