Welcome home, drink!
On weekdays, **London drinks its tea**, rolls up its sleeves, and heads out to the battlefield: endless queues on the tube, crazy traffic, and workdays from sunup to sundown (or sometimes from sunup to dark ) . Such is the rhythm that when six o'clock arrives on Friday afternoon, the tea is no longer enough: the body asks, and screams, a good drink.
The craving may not disappear for the whole weekend, and London puts you on a tray to satisfy it from the early hours of the morning with the latest breakfast sensation: the drunch, or brunch with alcoholic drink included.
New York may be in the limelight with its boozy brunches, but London is no slouch. Whatever your usual cocktail is, the British capital has it, fresh and waiting for you, from early on Saturday.
The brunch, with alcohol, much better: the drunch arrives
**IF YOU LIKE CHAMPAGNE (AND SIMILAR) **
Let's start with the quintessential brunch drink: the mimosa , that mixture of orange juice and champagne or prosecco.
The idea behind Le Bun, in the Le Zetter hotel next to Exmouth Market, is simple: no more boring menus . Its menu includes unlimited mimosas and prosecco, along with a culinary offering that defies classification. the star: the Truffles 'n' Waffles, confit fried chicken with truffle butter between two waffles. Unforgettable.
Flesh & Buns, in Covent Garden, takes it a step further – they welcome you with a cocktail and its unlimited menu is truly unlimited: prosecco, red wine, white wine, dessert… The hard part will be choosing.
In case it had not been clear to you: here the solid is the least
IF YOU LIKE VODKA
It has happened again. You started with a pint at five, and by two in the morning you had lost count. In true London style, you don't remember much of the night, but you know it was amazing.
celebrate it (or try to forget it, depending on how your brain wakes up) with the brunch queen: Bloody Mary . On those pungent mornings, nobody like her and the spicy taste of her to wake you up.
Few places in London celebrate the Bloody Mary like Bad Egg in City Point. This sort of London diner is not for the faint of heart. With a menu that ranges from breakfast tacos to Korean-style fried ribs, and all the Bloodies you can stomach, Bad Egg is the ideal place to restart the battery.
Up the Bloody Mary!
Bloody Mary fans, including ourselves, will find its cathedral on Eastway, one of the five restaurants at the Andaz Hyatt hotel on Liverpool St.
The bartender takes his job seriously, consulting with you every step of the way on how, exactly and precisely, how to drink your Bloody: from how much vodka you add to the number of olives that go with it.
For a solid breakfast, play it safe and order a Big Breakfast: portobello mushrooms, eggs, black bacon, mashed potatoes… There is no shortage of English classics.
The sophisticated brunch
IF YOU LIKE A MARTINI
For those who enjoy a serene morning, the kind in which you wake up with the song of the birds and without a miserable headache, their thing is to celebrate it with the most elegant drink that exists: the always impeccable Martini.
At first glance, Brew Café in Putney doesn't look like the kind of place James Bond would frequent... but it would be a great loss for agent 007 , because this discreet cafe is one of the best kept secrets of London mornings.
Eggs with chorizo and bacon on sourdough toast . Spinach with butter and smoked salmon. And the king of the menu, the breakfast time Martini: gin, Earl Gray tea, lemon and thyme. Shaken, not stirred... in case there was any doubt.
Perfect for a discreet drink
Yauatcha, however, is the best option for those days when you wake up with a sophisticated foot. Your Lychee Martini it's enough to drag you out of bed to their City location, where they'll also tempt you with venison fritters early in the morning. Trust us, you'll like it.
Try their lychee Martini and hit it right
IF YOU LIKE... EVERYTHING
Brunch means one thing to you: bacon. In London, you don't have to give up on him or drink. Head to Hotbox in Spitalfields for one of their famous smoked mary : bacon-infused whiskey, the perfect complement to his frankly raunchy Brunch Burger.
Too much for these hours of the morning? Hotbox has other cocktails worthy of attention, both with whiskey base (you can't miss the Bruce Springsteam, with whiskey and foamy beer) as well as a good collection of bloody marys (go for the green one, which adds chimichurri and jalapeños to the vodka) .
Smoked Marys and good meat
But when reading all this, the first thing you thought of was where the beer is… **It's at King and Co **, in the Clapham neighbourhood. Here, the pints reign in the drinks menu, but the surprise is what dish will accompany it. In King and Co there is no grumpy chef and several skittish kitchen boys , but the chef is a "resident", who changes every few weeks.
Each resident brings their menu, which means that one month the menu may be reinvented Indian food and the next traditional English cuisine. As of publication date, the letter was the cheese festival : From ricotta and lemon pancakes to goat cheese sandwiches with walnuts and honey.
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