All the breakfasts cost between £5 and £8 and taste more or less the same. You're not getting high quality at that price, but it's filling. Far more important is the atmosphere. This doesn't cut it...
I was the only customer. This wasn't as dismal as Patissiere Valerie in Covent Garden at quarter to eight, where they were still taking delivery of the day's supplies. So another place was here...
... on Leicester Square. There were a few people inside and a little more activity. The breakfast looked like this...
but the butter was slightly rancid. It's a little thing like that puts you off going back to a place. Then there were kippers at the Soho Townhouse, which were as good as you would think and as expensive. I was the first through the door, but by eight there were low-key business breakfasts going on. A treat like that is a definite boost for the well-being. And then there was here...
... which was the best quality full English (not at the Soho Townhouse) and it looked like this....
You need to sit outside at Bar Italia, because the counter inside is too narrow and high to eat at. Next to me were a group of firemen who were going to a colleague's retirement parade - they still parade people out in the fire service?
London is a slightly saner town at that time - there are enough people on the streets to make it look like it's inhabited and a working place, but not the blank-faced rushing crowds that there are at eight-thirty. The people walk slower and are more relaxed: it feels more like a European town.
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