Brunch at Beagle, Hoxton

I recently went to try out the brunch offering at Beagle, Hoxton. I was meeting a few friends and Hoxton/Shoreditch is the best middle ground for us all. We’re always thinking of new places to try and as we had heard good things about Beagle and it literally being on Hoxton Overground station, it was chosen!

I love breakfast but I love brunch even more. Maybe it’s because it’s totally acceptable to have a cocktail on the side. I also love the fact it usually enables you to see how you feel on the day and decide between more breakfasty items or something a little more substantial.

Brunch is the new big foodie trend in London, actually it’s not really new but it is definitely growing day-by-day. The instagramable brunch is the weekend goal but this means sometimes they don’t quite live up to the hype, or to the photos. For me an example of this is brunch at Bourne & Hollingsworth – it just didn’t quite cut it for me.

Brunch at Beagle was a different story. It definitely lived up to expectations!

The Food

The brunch menu at Beagle is lovely and concise – we all know how much I love a compact menu! It is almost completely filled with breakfast items, with a few items such as bavette and sautéed potatoes or a roast beef sandwich in case you’re leaning more towards lunch rather than breakfast at your brunch.

There are a great variety of eggs on offer, ranging from the classic poached eggs with avocado or scrambled with chorizo to the more fiery option of fried eggs with yoghurt, green tomatoes and chilli butter.

I could have happily eaten all of those but instead I felt like something a little more than eggs and opted for the hash brown with bacon, poached eggs and salsa verde. And let me tell you, it was utterly delicious!

This was a great version of the standard eggs, bacon and potato combo. The hash browns were almost more like a rosti topped with two flawless eggs. The bacon was crisped to perfection and there was a very generous amount of the fresh and tangy salsa verde.

The portion was the perfect size for me but if you are looking for massive portions and want to fill up on a big fry-up for brunch then this is not the place for you. However, if you are looking for interesting flavours and well cooked food then get down there!

I would never have thought to add salsa verde to my eggs like this but I will definitely be recreating this dish at home. We actually all ordered the same dish, but I spied other plates of food coming out from the kitchen and the eggs with chorizo looked like a winner too, actually it all looked good.

We went alcohol free for this brunch, but I will most definitely be ordering cocktails on my next visit to Beagle – we saw some beautiful looking drinks come out from the bar. But on this occasion I ordered a flat white and a freshly squeezed orange juice.

The flat white was so smooth and so very enjoyable. You know sometimes you don’t realise you’ve not had a good coffee in forever until you have that said good coffee? Yeh, it was that. The orange juice was so beautifully sweet – the best I have had in a long time. This bodes well for the cocktails then!

Overall

After a good ol’ catch-up with friends we made our way back out into the rainy streets of London. There is a lovely chilled vibe to this part of Hoxton and on a sunny day I imagine it’s great to sit in their outside space to people watch.

There was just one niggle for me. Unfortunately the service was not that great. On arrival a couple of the staff were a little off with us, and made us feel a little in the way. We did arrive as the restaurant opened so maybe it was bad timing. But I don’t really expect frosty service like that, so it was a bit of a shame. Though by the time we left they had clearly warmed to us.

But that was a little blip, the important thing was the food was really very good. And I will most definitely be returning to Beagle, those cocktails need to be tried and tested!

Beagle, Hoxton

397-400 Geffrye St
London
E2 8HZ

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