162-170 Chiswick High Road
W4 1PR
020 8742 7474
This was our biggest outing so far, a morning-after-the-night-before extended family breakfast, with all five of us, plus best friends, girlfriends and god-parents. Fittingly for Father's Day, there were two Dads among us.
It's almost exactly 10 years since Soho House came to Chiswick, replacing the much-loved Foubert's on Chiswick High Road. Local residents Ant and Dec took Nick Jones to the old Cellar Bar, and he liked it so much he bought the whole property. There's a hotel, brasserie with outside terrace, private members club (if you want to spend £600 a year to avoid the great unwashed on the ground floor) and a Cowshed shop. And, of course, it's all very cool, with a hint of art-deco. Fewer hipsters than Shoreditch House or 76 Dean Street, but more yummy mummies. In a stylish nod to the locals, the wallpaper has been commissioned from local designer Marthe Armitage.
There really is something for everyone at the ground floor High Road Brasserie. It's open for breakfast and brunch and there's an all-day menu that lives up to that promise - it keeps going until midnight. If you just want a (pretty good) cup of coffee you can sit outside and watch the local kids scoot past or sit and read the newspaper at the vintage bar.
The avocado and poached eggs on toast was the most popular choice, but our dishes ranged from the healthier end of the spectrum (yoghurt with seasonal fruits, quinoa and almonds and the hot smoked salmon with sweet potato, barley and egg) through smoked salmon with scrambled eggs and eggs benedict to crepes with lemon and sugar.
Between us we pretty much ran through the breakfast menu. An orange juice and a carrot juice to start, and a couple from the Smoothies (£5.50) menu - kiwi, mint & cucumber and carrot, cucumber & basil - which passed muster with our resident nutritionist.
This may not be the best breakfast in Chiswick but it can't be far off and there's no doubt that it lives up to Square Meal's description of it as "the complete neighbourhood package".
Food (for 9): £86.00
Drink: £47.50
Total: £150.19
216-218 Chiswick High Road
W4 1PD
020 8747 0006
Kitchen and Pantry opened in 2008 on the site of the Natural Cafe. They have another branch in Notting Hill and say of themselves that 'coffee is an experience to be savoured and they must get it right every time'. One would hope so.
The two Miss West4urants and I went for breakfast and entered into an interior that is all oak tables, leather sofas and high bar stools and has the slight feel of a dimly lit school dining hall. The menu doesn't get much more exciting than school dinners either - the Full English breakfast was broken down product by product - so there is a choice of eggs, sausage, tomatoes, baked beans etc, etc which is costed by how many you indulge in - so 1 product is £3.50, 2 products £4.50, 3 products £5.50 - you get the picture. It's an efficient if slightly functional and unappetising means of pricing.
Miss Elder West4urants and I had the porridge with blueberries and cinnamon (a small smattering of each) made with almond milk - call me fussy, but I do like somewhere that will make you porridge with an alternative milk. It came in a bowl that looked like it had been filched from a school dining room but was none the worse for that. The Younger Miss West4urants had a sausage bap (2 products) - she was very happy with her processed sausage and white bap, but then she would be - I'm guessing you can see who the health afficionados are in our family. We also had some toast. 1970's sliced brown bread with school jam. It looked almost as sad as I felt eating it.
Coffee was fine, I think. I don't drink it very much so am not able to judge but Miss Elder West4urants is becoming quite an expert. I'm not sure it was an experience that she savoured and they strived for but hey ho. I had a green tea (surprise!), a decent sized mug but I do wish everyone would serve tea in a pot. It's so much more satisfying.
Kitchen and Pantry isn't somewhere I'll rush back to. If you want to savour coffee there are definitely other places in Chiswick providing better savouring. You're welcome.
Food (for 3): £13.50
Drinks: £8.00
Total: £23.50
318 Chiswick High Road
W4 5TA
020 8995 6519
Saturday's croissant was a morning-after-the-Euro-2016-kick-off-pick-me-up from a small boulangerie in Paris. Sunday's croissant was a drying-out-from-a-soaking-wet-Chiswick-dog-walk from Patisserie Valerie on the High Road. Honestly, it wasn't a bad croissant, but it was never going to feature in the weekend highlight reel.
Patisserie Valerie was first opened in Frith Street in Soho by Belgian-born Madam Valerie, who apparently came to London on a mission to introduce "fine Continental Patisserie" to the English in 1926. Appropriate perhaps that we should visit on the weekend of the Queen's official 90th birthday.
The Chiswick shop opened in 2008, on the site of the former 'Nuts About Life' shop (anyone remember that?). Even the normally upbeat ChiswickW4.com was decidedly lukewarm about its opening: "Bets are already on for how long the High Road's newest addition will survive and they haven't even opened their doors!" Well, who's laughing now?
Sandwiched between the Flight Centre and a newsagent that unlocks mobile phones, it's not an enticing prospect (this was our first ever visit). And the ambience inside is no better - the furniture feels very dated and the loo opens straight into the restaurant, which is slightly off-putting (and surely a health & safety red flag).
I washed my croissant down with a reasonable black Americano, and Mrs West4urants warmed up with a pot of green tea.
If you're looking for a decent cup of coffee in a chilled and relaxing atmosphere, there are plenty of places in Chiswick that are doing it much better - Angie's Little Food Shop, Tamp and Urban Pantry to name just three. But if you're looking for rectangular slices of cream and sponge then this is the place for you.
Food (for 1): £1.95
Drink: £4.85
Total: £6.80
Turnham Green Terrace Mews
W4 1QU
020 8994 0636
If we were professional restaurant reviewers, this would be a review of Spring, Skye Gyngell's newish restaurant in Somerset House. We made a rare venture outside the W4 postcode to celebrate 25 years of restaurant reviewing. Or marriage. (Top marriage tip: don't try combining marriage with restaurant reviewing - no cook likes to be told that their muffins are short on blueberries, their tuna is overdone or their hummus could do with more tahini.)
The cooking at Spring is exceptional, an expert mix of flavours and ingredients without being fussy. From the bread to the chocolate truffle nothing missed a beat. We started with burrata with crushed broad beans and peas, purple basil and pea shoots and some asparagus with romesco and crème fraîche. The main courses were wild halibut with spinach, chilli and preserved lemon dressing and grilled lamb with white beans, figs, greens and tapenade. Afterwards we shared an apricot and muscat tart with crème fraîche and a selection of cheese (Cashel Blue, Cantal and Innes Log) with moscato jelly, green almonds and kamut crackers. If you love good food and can't face the journey to Chiswick, then go to Spring.
But we're not professional restaurant reviewers, so let's mark another anniversary: Chief Coffee celebrates one year in Chiswick this week. Situated just off the Terrace in a small mews area behind the Snapdragon toy shop, Chief is based in an old Victorian bottling factory. Prior to Chief Coffee it housed Isokon Plus - in their words an iconic furniture company, from which many of the furnishings at Chief have come.
Chief has an urban look that feels more Shoreditch than Chiswick. Perhaps that's the Isokon touch. There's a Pinball lounge downstairs with 6 Pinball machines ranging from a 1997 Bally 'Cirqus Voltaire' to a 2015 Stern 'Game of Thrones'.
But don't be put off, these guys take their coffee very seriously. The website description of the machinery sounds like a petrolhead talking about their favourite motorbikes: the matt black EK43 coffee grinder and the clean, slick and sophisticated La Marzocco FB/80 in a custom-white finish. (As any coffee aficionado knows, the FB/80 was manufactured for the 2006 World Barista Championships and named in honour of Giuseppe and Bruno Bambi, the brothers (Fratelli Bambi) who founded La Marzocco in Florence 80 years earlier.)
Chief Coffee was voted Chiswick's second best coffee shop (behind The Coffee Traveller) in the Time Out Love London Awards last November. The coffee is certainly good, and the hot chocolate got a thumbs up from Miss West4urants.
There is a small array of baked goods, from which we tried the ham and cheese croissants, purely in the interests of the blog. Chief Coffee is dog-friendly, but sadly for the dog there were no leftovers.
Food (for 2): £7.00
Drink: £7.50
Total: £15.50
