Perfect Blend, Streatham
Perfect Blend
12 Streatham High Road
Streatham
SW16
020 8769 4646
by Rhys Chris Peese
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all in favour of bringing café society to London. However, there should be a limit to the project, and that limit is somewhere just short of the A23. Nonetheless, dotted along the busy dual carriageway of Streatham High Road, each bar and coffee shop bravely puts out its tables, ready for breakfasters to enjoy the heady exhaust fumes with their bacon.
Perfect Blend is such a venue, although my flatmate and I decided to savour the monoxide from a comfy sofa by the open window, thus affording us the chance to enjoy the tangy aroma of disinfectant as we tucked into our breakfasts: by night this is a popular bar.
I chose the full English, she the pancakes with maple syrup. Mine was cooked to near perfection: succulent bacon, a single herby sausage, mushrooms, grilled tomato, crispy wholemeal toast and, unfortunately, some tepid baked beans. The pancakes meanwhile were weighty enough to sustain one on some lengthy hike – perhaps to zone one – although I saw this as more of an advantage than my companion did. The menu seemed to be missing a trick, too, not to offer them with some more of that delicious bacon.
Perfect Blend have almost everything right. The coffee is freshly brewed; the orange juice could only be fresher if one of the waitresses squeezed it directly into your mouth at the table. The helpings are ample yet reasonably priced, the food consists of good ingredients cooked well and without fussy embellishment. Now all they need to do is petition for the pedestrianisation of Streatham High Road.
12 Streatham High Road
Streatham
SW16
020 8769 4646
by Rhys Chris Peese
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all in favour of bringing café society to London. However, there should be a limit to the project, and that limit is somewhere just short of the A23. Nonetheless, dotted along the busy dual carriageway of Streatham High Road, each bar and coffee shop bravely puts out its tables, ready for breakfasters to enjoy the heady exhaust fumes with their bacon.
Perfect Blend is such a venue, although my flatmate and I decided to savour the monoxide from a comfy sofa by the open window, thus affording us the chance to enjoy the tangy aroma of disinfectant as we tucked into our breakfasts: by night this is a popular bar.
I chose the full English, she the pancakes with maple syrup. Mine was cooked to near perfection: succulent bacon, a single herby sausage, mushrooms, grilled tomato, crispy wholemeal toast and, unfortunately, some tepid baked beans. The pancakes meanwhile were weighty enough to sustain one on some lengthy hike – perhaps to zone one – although I saw this as more of an advantage than my companion did. The menu seemed to be missing a trick, too, not to offer them with some more of that delicious bacon.
Perfect Blend have almost everything right. The coffee is freshly brewed; the orange juice could only be fresher if one of the waitresses squeezed it directly into your mouth at the table. The helpings are ample yet reasonably priced, the food consists of good ingredients cooked well and without fussy embellishment. Now all they need to do is petition for the pedestrianisation of Streatham High Road.
posted by London Review of Breakfasts |
8:57 PM |
7 Comments:
"However, there should be a limit to the project, and that limit is somewhere just short of the A23." Why should it stop just short of the A23? Snob.
I am not a fan of Perfect Blend - I dined alone there a few weeks ago and was so thoroughly ignored that I vowed to avoid it at all costs in the future. I had to walk up to the bar to pay, they were so intent on avoiding my eye contact. Even though the whole place was deserted! Take a friend lest you feel belittled.
What a load of rubbish, you can't be ignored in perfect blend if you try! Alone, or with a group. Perhaps that has more to do with personal issues than reality...In a comfortable and relaxed place such as this, is it really such a horror to have to stand up and pay at the till?! Nice oppertunity to engage with the staff I'd say.
What a load of rubbish, you can't be ignored in perfect blend if you try!
Perfect Blend rests on its laurels somewhat, and I have experienced the kind of service that annie beaumont mentions. I avoided it for over a year after waiting an hour for a breakfast order, and went back recently. The staff can be downright snooty, one waitress snatched the menu out of my hand - while I was still reading it - she was clearly having a bad morning. It's almost always unbearably hot which isn't conducive to a relaxing time.
Perfect Blend is so close to being perfect - but they just need to be a bit more relaxed - and get the heating fixed!
here here anon. beaumont, you're the type of person who'd find grievance just about anywhere. perfect blend is an excellent cafe where the staff are charming and attentive. however, i go there with my wife and child so perhaps i don't have the time to dream up imagine slights.
Im sorry but i have to agree with the somewhat negative comments posted. I too have visited two or three times and have been ignored, or spoken to rather rudely. I now spend my money in purple where the staff are friendly the breakfast good and no one tries to rush you out the door. PURPLE is the place for breakfast, forget perfect blend!!!
Purple has a nice feel to it but the food is no where near as good as at Perfect Blend.
Personally i dont have a problem with the slow service- reminds me of Spain or Greece, very laid back...which adds to the feel of the place.
Perfect Blend is one of the nicest joints in south london because its the least snobby...you can really relax and enjoy yourself here and its really child friendly.
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