eggbaconchipsandbeans

NOW CLOSED - The Cafe, 10A Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, SW1V 2SD

I'M AFRAID SOMEONE'S JUST EMAILED TO TELL ME THIS PLACE HAS CLOSED. BIG SHAME.

Great Scott, this is a magnificent place. Just when I thought I'd seen all the best places on my usual routes I looked in here, which I must have walked past a dozen times this year, and it's brilliant.

It's sort of like a capsule EBCB, a bonsai EBCB. Not the biggest ever but perfect in many regards. Look at those chips to start with, they run the gamut of shapes and sizes, from gorgeous big fattypuffs to shrapnelly thinfers. The bacon is pink like joy and the beans and egg act like sea and shore at the beach, each contrasting with the other to make a perfectly relaxing environ.

It's possible that I've run out of ways to describe egg, bacon, chips and beans.

Suffice to say, this place does a great fry-up.

And all the anciliary joys are in good order. Magnificent condiments. Proud and Victorian.

A great cuppa. My fault for that dribble into the saucer.

And the interior is just lovely. Deep, aged, loved colours and textures. Booths, benches and browns with tiny little additions that grab the eye.

The calendar.

The lights.

Just everything really.

This place is magnificent. Go here.

Tony's Snack Bar, Chapter Street, SW1

Just around the corner from The Regency is a modest little place called Tony's Snack Bar. Which turns out to be perfect once you pop in for a quick fry-up.

A textbook ebcb; the chips are pale, interesting and sprawling over the beans, the bacon has that irresistible combination of soggy and crisp, the egg offers a multitude of heavenly textures, the beans  are breaking out of their compound like feisty stallions. Delicious.

Brilliantly simple condiments. Just your basics. No flim-flam. No flummery. Clean lines. Iconic shapes.  Like baroque never happened.

These booths are clean and perfect. The ideal place for an assignation, a gossip or a solo read of the paper. There's this friendly, family mood to the place. When I was there it started off lovely, empty and contemplative. Then the lunchtime crowd poured in - school-kids, office-workers - and it got lively and loud. Then, almost instantly, it got quiet again and I got my head stuck back in the paper. All in the space of about half an hour. Brilliant.

It's always nice to find a menu which actually offers egg, bacon, chips and beans, in that order. Like my choice isn't that unusual.

But this sign is the icing on a perfect cake. And it doesn't over-promise. They give you fine food and quick service. A magnificent place.

platial place

Wilton Snack Bar, Wilton Road

UPDATED AGAIN: The Wilton has gone. Replaced by a Mexican restaurant.

UPDATE: The Wilton has had a bit of a make-over and some of the unreconstructedness of it has gone.

The Wilton Snack Bar is a fabulously unreconstructed place in Victoria. It's tiny, but bright with large windows and chatty Eastern European women.

A textbook ebcb. Delicate little chips. A sprawling egg. Compact beans. This one went down very quickly.

Good boothy/benchy things. And a lovely patina  on the tables.

There's good pillars in here with lovely 60s looking tiles.

Aaah.

Astral Cafe, Horseferry Road, SW1

This is an intriguing place. I wonder why it's called the 'astral cafe'? There are no obvious signs of tarot readings or other dimensional travel going on. Mostly just breakfasts and lunches. And there aren't a huge number of glorious design details apart from the sign outside.

The grub though is marvelous. Crunchy chips and the beans threatening to spil over the edge which always makes you feel like you've had extra portions. Dark meaty bacon all curled up and poised. And the egg has a strange volcano look to it, like the yoke might erupt if you're not careful. Very nice.

A classic condiment cluster.

Simple, clean, lovely.