High Road Brasserie

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

Kitchen & Pantry

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

Patisserie Valerie

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

Chief Coffee

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

No197 Chiswick Fire Station

197 - 199 Chiswick High Road
W4 2DR


020 3857 4669



No 197 Chiswick Fire Station is a recent Chiswick opening, on the south side of the High Road where All Bar One used to be.  It's the latest outpost of Darwin and Wallace, an independent group founded by a former All Bar One brand manager which is being watched with interest by the ABO team. D&W plans to expand into London's 'local villages'; Chiswick follows Belgravia, Clapham and Richmond and precedes Hampstead, Knightsbridge, Notting Hill and Islington.

The new bar has restored the masonry on the front that reveals the building used to be the home of the Chiswick fire brigade. The fire station originally opened on this site in 1891 and operated there until 1963, when it moved to its present location on Heathfield Gardens.

All Bar One was designed by Bass as a 'female friendly' bar and 197 has retained that vibe. Probably two-thirds of the customers were women the night we visited. And the place was packed. We had tried to book but were well behind the curve so took the offer of chancing a walk-in table.  We were behind the curve on that too, but did get a comfy sofa in the bar area where we could also eat. 

Mrs West4urants arrived first, and things weren't looking good when her Aperol Spritz took a quarter of an hour to arrive. But after a few apologies the service picked up.

From the 'Small + Sharing' section of the menu we shared a Crispy Peppered Squid with coriander, spring onion and chilli (£7.95). Slightly more crispy than peppery, but none the worse for that.

I followed it with the Chicken, Ham Hock, Leek & Tarragon Pie, served with iceberg lettuce in a buttermilk and blue cheese dressing (£14.50). It was absolutely packed with meat and a perfect blend of flavours. Mrs W went for the Wonky Veg Aubergine Curry, with coconut chickpeas and flat bread (£9.95). As the menu says - with a sad disregard for the apostrophe - 'wonky is not waste, its perfectly good grub'. And so it was.

The menu ticks all the currently hip 'Australian-inspired' boxes, like Brew or Granger & Co in Notting Hill. 'Australian-inspired' no longer means just throwing another shrimp on the barbie or a Four 'n Twenty meat pie. It's basically just a mish-mash of every other world cuisine. So expect tacos and crostini, black pudding croquettes and truffle macaroni cheese accompanied by samphire, taleggio and yuzu dressing. Not necessarily all on the same plate, but it's only a matter of time.

There's a good range of wines by the glass and bottle. We had a 500ml carafe of the Rioja Crianza from the 'Bolder & More Intense' section of the list: living on the edge.

197 will soon become a Chiswick favourite, whether for summer brunch in the outside courtyard or a Sunday roast in winter. And in 5 years' time it will seem all so 2010s, we'll be bored of it and queuing for the latest Hawaiian Poke shack, Japanese Ramen bar or Modern Jewish start-up.


Food (for 2): £32.40
Drink: £31.00
Total: £71.33

Rhythm & Brews

22 Walpole Gardens
W4 4HG


07769 332659


Rhythm & Brews is Chiswick's first (and so far only) vinyl cafe. It opened last October next to Turnham Green on the site of the former Arlington Pharmacy at the end of Wellesley Road. According to chiswickw4.com it's owned by Ann Khoshaba, a fashion designer who ran the Cinnamon Cafe in Pitshanger Lane in Ealing for six years.

The concept of a hipster cafe which plays and sells real old-fashioned vinyl is a mouthwatering one. I was certain I was going to love this place. And Rhythm & Brews certainly looks the part: tables are made from reclaimed wood; benches from old railway sleepers; there are cushions on the sofas and the walls are adorned with vinyl and pictures of all the rock gods. They even host 'live lounge' acoustic sessions. What's not to like?

Maybe our expectations were too high, but I'm afraid this was our biggest disappointment so far. It feels like the place is being run by the boy's team from The Apprentice. Siralan would tell them that you can only put style over substance for so long. Somebody on Team Caffeine would have been fired this week.

The signs weren't promising from the start. The boys were struggling to cope with a bit of a rush. The guy in front of us wanted some coffees to take away, and they got his order right only at the third attempt.

On the plus side, we sat outside in the sunshine. And our drinks were fine. I had an Americano, made with Union Coffee, and a green tea for the Missus. Little Miss West4urants had a 'Big 5 Smoothie' with strawberry, kiwi, mango and pineapple (Siralan would have picked them up on their maths too).



She also had the granola with Greek yoghurt and berry compote (£3.95). It looked suspiciously like Harvest Crunch to me, but she loved it. And accompanied it with a decent croissant, probably made elsewhere, but that's fine. I played it safe and went for the toast with jam (not too safe - I asked if I could have marmalade). It arrived with neither, so I asked again. A pot of a bright red jelly-like substance was served, which I think even Lidl would be embarrassed to put in its value range.

But Mrs West4urants was most underwhelmed. In fact she's rarely been less whelmed. We're getting through quite a lot of avocado on toast for the blog, and this was by some distance the worst. One piece of pre-sliced bread, a smear of avocado, some sunflower seeds and a sprinkling of chilli powder (not the advertised flakes) for £4.70. She went inside to complain, and received a furtive thumbs-up from a group of women at another table. (Their verdict as they left is not fit for putting on a family blog).

The waiter was apologetic and offered us a free drink - a gesture rather undermined by him then failing to deliver the coffee I accepted.

We have been positive about every place we've visited so far, and fairly. There's not one place we wouldn't go back to. And, for me, that includes Rhythm & Brews (though I might struggle to persuade Mrs West4urants to return). Maybe they just had a bad day, maybe the function the previous evening really was to blame for the missing jam, maybe the guy behind the counter really was only on his third day. If you're not in a hurry and want to sit in a hip cafe, and browse through some old records, and have a decent cup of coffee, then give it a go. But have breakfast somewhere else.


Food (for 3): £13.15
Drink: £9.00
Total: £22.15

Laveli Bakery

61 South Parade
W4 5LG

020 8742 3990

Slovakian couple Libor (pastry chef) and Veronika (shop manager) Matlovic opened their first Laveli Bakery on the Askew Road in 2008. They have 3 shops now, opening on South Parade (at the bottom of St Alban's Avenue) in June 2012, on the site of a former antique  and chandelier shop. 

Veronika told West London Mum that the name Laveli comes from ‘LA’ for their daughter Laura, ‘VE’ for Veronika and ‘LI’ for Libor. (Son Sebastian probably feels a bit left out). Sadly it didn't exist when we lived in St Alban's Avenue in the 1990s - the bread options then were Plum Duff or Sainsbury's. They now have a wide range of specialty breads, to eat in or take away.

We went for breakfast on Sunday, and got the last table outside at 10 o'clock, in the shadow of St Alban's church. Don't be fooled by the online menu. While Laveli on the Askew Road has a wide range of breakfast options, ranging from Ginger Pig bacon or black pudding in a bun to six different variants of avocado on toast, the South Parade breakfast menu is heavily croissant-based. You can have a plain croissant, a ham and cheese croissant, a cheese croissant, a chocolate croissant, a cheese and chocolate croissant...ok, I made that last one up, but you get the picture.



We stuck with the plain, which was an authentically French croissant, lacking only French ambience. It was certainly better than the Maison Blanc version we picked up later for our revising teenager. And the coffee is pretty good too. So, while it's not a great breakfast option, it's a good spot for a coffee. (And a croissant.)


Food (for 2): £3.00
Drink: £4.80
Total: £9.00