In the endless requests for good places for brunch/eggs benedict/breakfast that get sent into Secret London on twitter (seriously, does no one ever bother to see what people have said previously?), Pavilion gets mentioned often. It’s just up the road from me in Victoria Park, but for some reason I hadn’t yet really wanted to bother trying it. Until we went up there for a picnic and I saw the menu, the dishes coming out and the freshly baked bread sitting on the side.
Two weeks later and the weather had gone decidedly downhill but we thought this would work in our favour for getting a seat at this small but popular place. It turned out they were doing a roaring trade (and we overheard that they were much busier than even they were expecting) but luckily we still managed to nab a bit of table inside. Pavilion’s name gives you a clue as to what it is – it is a little Pavilion in the park and isn’t much to look at. There are a few outside tables, and of course, the entire park to take your meal to, and inside are a few bench-type tables with basic chairs, and probably some remnants from the last person’s meal on or around your seat.
But the quality of the food is top notch. They serve breakfast type dishes like three all kinds of eggs (benedict, florentine, scrambled etc), various brekkie-type sandwiches and a choice of two full breakfasts – one with black pudding and two eggs, one with mushrooms, tomato and one egg (or something like that, Stephen had the non-black pudding one by mistake). They also have a pancake option which sounded delicious. Then they do some lunch options such as a few different salads and the irresistible-to-me chorizo, aioli, roasted red peppers and rocket focaccia sandwich.
Both our choices were delicious and it was obvious from the taste that Pavilion use top quality, organic or free range ingredients. They even tell you on one of their big boards who is producing the food you’re eating. One slight complaint was that the sausage in Stephen’s breakfast was a little dry (which I’ve noticed seems to be a sign of sausages made from good quality meat, maybe not enough of the fatty bad stuff is in them!). The beans I think were worth a special mention, and you can tell from the colour of that yolk that it was a good'un.
My only complaint of my sandwich was that it was huge and difficult to eat. I could probably have been happy with just half of it. The chorizo was full of flavour, as was the roasted pepper - one of the best roasted peppers I've had in a good long while. The rocket did what it was supposed to do - but through the fat of the sausage and all topped off with lovely garlickiness, which I can never get enough of.
There were also some cakes and coffee for sale but after eating our brunch we had no room for any of that. We had hoped to get a loaf of bread to take back with us but they didn’t seem to have any so we had to take a walk up to E5 Bakehouse instead (certainly no hardship).
This is definitely going to become a regular haunt for us. It's great value for money (eggs on various things around £6.00) and I can't not try their pancakes.
Two weeks later and the weather had gone decidedly downhill but we thought this would work in our favour for getting a seat at this small but popular place. It turned out they were doing a roaring trade (and we overheard that they were much busier than even they were expecting) but luckily we still managed to nab a bit of table inside. Pavilion’s name gives you a clue as to what it is – it is a little Pavilion in the park and isn’t much to look at. There are a few outside tables, and of course, the entire park to take your meal to, and inside are a few bench-type tables with basic chairs, and probably some remnants from the last person’s meal on or around your seat.
But the quality of the food is top notch. They serve breakfast type dishes like three all kinds of eggs (benedict, florentine, scrambled etc), various brekkie-type sandwiches and a choice of two full breakfasts – one with black pudding and two eggs, one with mushrooms, tomato and one egg (or something like that, Stephen had the non-black pudding one by mistake). They also have a pancake option which sounded delicious. Then they do some lunch options such as a few different salads and the irresistible-to-me chorizo, aioli, roasted red peppers and rocket focaccia sandwich.
Both our choices were delicious and it was obvious from the taste that Pavilion use top quality, organic or free range ingredients. They even tell you on one of their big boards who is producing the food you’re eating. One slight complaint was that the sausage in Stephen’s breakfast was a little dry (which I’ve noticed seems to be a sign of sausages made from good quality meat, maybe not enough of the fatty bad stuff is in them!). The beans I think were worth a special mention, and you can tell from the colour of that yolk that it was a good'un.
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| That looks a bit like black pudding on the plate, but I'm pretty sure it's mushroom. |
My only complaint of my sandwich was that it was huge and difficult to eat. I could probably have been happy with just half of it. The chorizo was full of flavour, as was the roasted pepper - one of the best roasted peppers I've had in a good long while. The rocket did what it was supposed to do - but through the fat of the sausage and all topped off with lovely garlickiness, which I can never get enough of.
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| There is chorizo in there somewhere - lots of it! |
There were also some cakes and coffee for sale but after eating our brunch we had no room for any of that. We had hoped to get a loaf of bread to take back with us but they didn’t seem to have any so we had to take a walk up to E5 Bakehouse instead (certainly no hardship).
This is definitely going to become a regular haunt for us. It's great value for money (eggs on various things around £6.00) and I can't not try their pancakes.
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