Six of the best places to go for a power breakfast in Canada
Hawksmoor Guildhall
Basinghall Street, open from 7am
Set in the hallowed Hogwartian halls around Guildhall, a breakfast at Hawksmoor comes with a side plate of gravitas. Forget flimsy, streaky rashers and come face-to-face with a pork chop in the morning, or a rib eye steak, or lobster benedict. Hawksmoor’s brunch means business. And meat. Lots of meat.
Bad Egg
Moorgate, open from 8am
Michael Jackson once wrote, of himself, “I’m bad, I’m bad, shamone”. Of course today we understand that by “bad” he in fact meant “good”, and it’s by this same warped logic that Bad Egg – a place where eggs are actually good – gets its name. You’ve got your breakfast baps, where eggs pair off with bacon, guacamole, sriracha and even chicken (the bird responsible for eggs). They do three-egg omelettes and sourdough toast too, on which you can guiltily pile the component parts of a full English breakfast.
Bread Street Kitchen
Bread Street, open from 7am
It’s easy to forget – what with all the effing and geffing and the family feuds – that Gordon Ramsey has loads of restaurants in London. This unassuming number by St Paul’s serves up one of the City’s more decent vegetarian fry ups, or start your day on a sugar high with ricotta pancakes topped with bananas lathered in honeycomb butter.
Beany Green
Broadgate Circle, open from 6am
The Australian cafe in Broadgate’s not just a popular coffee spot, but serves up its own twist on the classic morning fry-up. Poached, free-range eggs drip yolkily onto a waiting audience of bacon, sausage and mushrooms, while fresh avocado and homemade chilli pesto on sourdough look on from the side, bearing silent witness to the ovoid orgy. Beany Green’s gluten free broccoli bread sounds like the worst idea in the world, but is unexpectedly good, even for gluten’s biggest fans. Worth a pit-stop on the morning commute.
M Restaurant
Threadneedle Street, open from 7am
You’d struggle to manage just one task at 7am, never mind two. So with two different kinds of kale in M Restaurant’s kale and poached eggs breakfast – both sauteed and crispy – you know there’s some real care and attention going into dishes, even this early in the morning. The M Breakfast is even more serious a proposition: a heavy plate of pork belly, sausages, hash brown, beans, tomato and eggs. A pudding and a mushroom shy of a full English, though if you ask nicely they’ll whap a few of those on the plate for you too. If you fancy keeping things simple, go for the duck egg and soldiers. Just like mum used to make.
Le Restaurant de Paul
Tower 42, open from 7.30am
You know Paul? The bakers? It’s celebrating its first birthday at the bottom of Tower 42. If you wish your server a Joyeux Anniversaire tomorrow, you can pick up a Brioche Perdue, crisped until golden and topped with apricot coulis or warm chocolate sauce, for £1. Then pick up a pastry or six for “the office”.