Pistachios
15 Nelson Rd
Greenwich
SE10
020 8853 0602
by Gracie Spoon
Pistachios is crammed. Crammed with an army of school-age staff, crammed with small tables buckling with food, and crammed with gleaming retro-haired students. From amidst the mêlée of moving food and good skin, one European teen emerges to jot down two all-dayers (£4.75 each). Though we are fussy, she is unfazed (so, you don’t want beans? We’ll get you extra hash browns. Now you want extra hash browns? We’ll get you extra hash browns) and, very soon, we too have more breakfast than table.
Our neat portions are pared down to one egg, one sausage, and a few delicate scoops of the extras: tomatoes, bacon, silky mushrooms, the chips are just coming… Unarguably spot-hitting stuff. We eat. The tide of waiters group and regroup around us. KT Tunstall whoo-hoos in the background. Finally, the updates on our absent chips peak with an endearing admission that actually there are only six chips left, but they’re ours if we want them. And they are so nice about it, and the chips are so fresh, that we forgive Pistachios.
Although nothing to faint over, breakfast has been a cheerful affair: crispy in all the right places, runny in all the others. Much as in the case of KT and her whoo-hoos, it’s a well-worn truth that a little MOR approachability goes a long way. Although in the hands of a reviewer, ‘boringly faultless’ is the most cynical of insults, out there amongst the breakfast-buying public this kind of reliability sells steadily and wins Brit Awards.
5 comments:
I used to live in Greenwich.
My favourite place for breakfast (in the world, practically) is Royal Teas on Royal Hill. It's nothing particularly special, but it's special to me. I can't resist a plate of their greasy American breakfast, even though now I live in America and know it is nothing like any american breakfast I have ever had. Every time I come back to visit I have to head over there for a treat. It's all home made in a tiny kitchen by hippy people in cramped wobbly conditions with dark aubergine walls.
lovely, love it, - hope you have a chance to try it sometime.
I dont drink coffee - but they grind all their own and have a large selection of beans if you are interested int hat.
I've lived in Greenwich for the last 10 years. I've yet to find any where serving anything close to even an average breakfast. Sad but true. In fact food generally in the area is pretty poor. Probably the only place flying the flag for food rather than "dog" food would be San Miguel, a Spanish/Tapas place right there on Greenich High Road.
Goddards pie & mash (once the oldest pie & mash shop in London) now sadly replaced by a bloody Gouremt Burger Kitchen was *the* best food IMHO. Out of desperation I recently made a foray to Manzes at Tower Bridge Road. I'd been told it was the best in town. Crap!! Total crap! Wouldn't feed it to my dead Aunt.
Goddards say they may return one day. Fingers crossed people.
Loved the Peter De Wit debacle. Handbags at dawn or what?
Keep up the great work though, wonderful reading.
Sadly, it's true that Greenwich hasn't got many good breakfast place, and certainly no really good place. Saying that, a rahter nice small café, the Nevada Street Cafe has recently opened in (surprise, surprise) Nevada St, opposite the Greenwich Playhouse. I haven't tried their breakfasts yet (not sure if they do breakfast), but they have lovely food. Another alternative is Greg's, next to the Bar du Musée (and owned by the same company, Greenwich Inc), but as far as I'm aware, they don't do hot breakfasts, but they do have nice sandwiches and good crêpes.
However, for the best breakfasts in the area, you have to go to Blackheath Village (on the other side of Greenwich Park), where you can find two GREAT places for breakfast: Handmade Food (40 Tranquil Vale) and Locale (1 Lawn Terrace). Both are less than 2mins walk from Blackheath mainline station.
Handmade Food has a changing menu of various fresh foods, from which you can pick-and-mix (all organic), and Locale has the best Eggs Benedict (and some other great dishes) I have tasted in a long time. Both places are surprisingly resonable, considering what you get.
I hope someone will get round reviewing these places sometime soon!
Another important note about Pistachios, at least in the winter time, it's absolutely freezing. We went once in our endless search of the elusive south east London breakfast, and sat shivering in our coats while we munched through our food. Turn the heating up, I'd go back, otherwise too ascetic for my tastes.
Hey guys!
I find it funny his story about the Pischa. is a nice way of making sense of pistachios.
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