Brew

142 Chiswick High Road
W4 1PU

020 8994 0568


The morning after the party before. After a few hours clearing up broken glass, cigarette butts and teenage vomit, we needed to get out of the house. It felt like the first morning of spring, though not quite warm enough to sit outside yet, so we ventured inside for brunch with the babies.

Aussie butcher and road-rager Jason Wells opened the fifth Brew cafe in Chiswick in October last year. The menu is inspired by "Melbourne all-day dining" and it's open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. The extensive breakfast menu features eggs, sandwiches and Coco Pops. Later on in the day they get the pizza oven going and the lunch options include a wide range of burgers, salads and Turkish pides.



I had the treacle cured bacon sandwich served on toasted pide with tomato jam, baby gem, vine tomatoes, avocado and aioli, which was every bit the mouthful it sounds. Mrs W had (yet more) avocado with cottage cheese on toasted pide (which she could have had with Marmite or Vegemite).

Everything is annoyingly priced with 90p on the end - 10.9 for the sandwich, 8.9 for the avocado, 3.9 for the Coco Pops (four quid for a bowl of cereal?!). Mr Wells has clearly spent as much time studying behavioural economics as he has cooking.

Despite being part of a chain, Brew has the feeling of a neighbourhood cafe. I suspect the Wednesday cinema evenings have a loyal and local following. It's clearly aimed at young families and twenty-somethings (like us). The two girls who sat next to us were planning to eat their way through the menu (not in one go, obviously) - perhaps that will be our challenge for next year.

Food (for 2): £19.80
Drink: £5.30
Total: £28.24