Cafes

Honey and Co, London

4/25/2019 01:40:00 PM

My most ecstatic discovery during our recent whirlwind trip to London was the gorgeous Honey & Co. I mentioned it briefly in my wrap-up post on London, but wanted to write about it in a bit more depth, so here we are!

Honey and Co London
Honey & Co

Honey & Co
25a Warren St
London W1T 5LZ
Ph: +44 20 7388 6175
Website

I hadn't heard of Honey & Co before this trip, and my initial plan for our breakfast was for us to take the Tube or a cab to the Ottolenghi cafe in Notting Hill. I hadn't been to London in five years, so I wasn't really across any hot new places that had opened up since then, so wanted to go somewhere tried and true. (I used to follow quite a few London bloggers but most of them seem to have stopped or moved overseas so I haven't been keeping up through those channels either).

However, our London trip came at the end of a whirlwind few weeks in Germany and Paris (and an extra three weeks of US/UK work travel for Sandra before that), and we were just exhausted and wanted something easy. The week before the trip I looked up our hotel (Holiday Inn Regents Park) on Google Maps, and I happened to notice a little food symbol nearby with the name "Honey & Co", which sounded promising. I looked it up, and learned that it's owned by Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich, a wife and husband team originally from Israel who previously worked for the Ottolenghi group before branching off and opening their own place. Decision made!

Honey and Co is a cute little restaurant serving Middle Eastern food. It feels very homey and cozy, more of a cafe vibe than restaurant, although they are a full-fledged restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. At breakfast, they offer a menu of cooked savoury dishes, and have a display of house made cakes. They also offer one made-to-order dessert at breakfast - their famous feta and kadaif cheesecake.

Cake Display Honey and Co London
Cake display, Honey & Co

When we got there at nine thirty on a Saturday morning all the tables were full (you can book online but they were all booked out when I'd looked a few days before), but we easily got a spot at the window. Interestingly enough, once the cafe was completely full and people came looking for a spot, the friendly staff apologised that it was full and suggested they go to Honey and Smoke, a larger restaurant from the same team just around the corner - if it were Melbourne they'd have just told them to queue up outside and wait! (Actually, I'd suggested Honey and Smoke for dinner on our first night in London, as I thought the menu looked great, but Sandra enjoys neither honey nor smoke so she vetoed that pretty quickly! And to be honest we were very tired from the previous travelling and had eaten A LOT in Germany the weeks before. I think a big multi-course meal in a fancy restaurant might have tipped us over the edge! Next time, next time).

But first, coffee. And freshly squeezed OJ. How cute is that tin for the sugar?

Coffees at Honey & Co London
Piccolo £2.20, Latte £2.80, Freshly Squeezed OJ £3.00

Sandra went for a savoury breakfast, the shakshuka with coriander zehug. Sandra is a coriander-phobe and initially requested no coriander whatsoever, but once our kind and friendly waitress explained that the zehug came on the side, we asked to have it anyway, so that I could try it.

Shakshuka at Honey & Co
Shakshuka - 2 Cornish farm eggs baked in a tomato sauce served with coriander zehug & milk bun - £11.50

This was an excellent shakshuka. The eggs were cooked perfectly - all lovely and runny - and the tomato sauce was rich and spicy. Perfect for dunking that bread! I tried some with the zehug, and the fresh and pungent coriander and garlic sauce really lifted the dish.

The whole menu of breakfast dishes looked very good - shakshuka, green shakshuka, sabich (!), merguez sausage rolls - and I had a real hard time deciding! In the end, I made a snap decision and went off the breakfast menu, ordering the cold cheesecake with kadaif pastry and raw Essex honey. Apart from the fact that it sounded delicious, the cheesecake seemed to be a signature dish, and I figured that if they were serving one dessert - and one dessert only - at breakfast, that there must be a pretty big demand for it and therefore it must be good. My logic turned out to be right. It was incredible!

Kadaif Cheesecake, Honey and Co
Cold cheesecake, Kadaif pastry, raw Essex honey - £7.5

The cheesecake was actual perfection, and I'm so glad I ordered it! The crisp and buttery kadaif pastry, shattering against a fork, the fragrant honey syrup, and that cream! It was so rich and creamy, with the best texture and tang. I later learned that the cheesecake mix actually has feta in it, as well as the more usual cream cheese. The well toasted almonds provided a great crunch, and I loved the sweet and juicy blueberries against the cheesecake. Amazing. I have no idea when I can get to London again, so I've been looking up the recipe and want to try making this at home!

The breakfast menu also has the option to upgrade your savoury breakfast dish to a "Big Breakfast", where for an extra £7, you can get a kind of mezze selection for the table to share - bread, dips, salad, olives, pickles, house-made cereal, yogurt, fruits, jam and fig bread. Most of the tables around us ordered this option, and the items indeed looked fabulous. I just have no idea how people could eat that much food! The shakshuka was already a very generous portion in and of itself and we were stuffed! (Fret not, I finished every last crumb of that cheesecake). But if you have bigger appetites than us, go for it.

Just down the road from Honey & Co is Honey & Spice, a sweet little grocery store by the same team that's definitely worth a visit.

Honey & Spice
52 Warren St
London W1T 5NJ
Ph: +44 20 7388 6175

Honey and Spice London
Honey and Spice

They sell Middle Eastern groceries (like spice mixes, kadaif pastry), cookies, jams and wine, as well as kitchenwares and cookbooks. They also have a salad display and do takeaway savoury meals. I liked their cake display - the white chocolate and tahini babka looked particularly tempting! It would be a nice spot to drop in for a coffee and cake. (And actually, this place might be a good option for a small breakfast if you haven't been able to get a seat at Honey and Co).

Honey and Spice London
Cakes at Honey & Spice

They've got a bit of a village vibe - in addition to the products they sell, they also serve wine and nibbles after 5pm and host food talks. I feel like if I lived in the area I'd be there All The Time.

How do you choose places to eat when you're overseas? Do you like to plan in advance or stumble across new venues? Shakshuka or Cheesecake?

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4 comments

  1. Replies
    1. It's so good! I order it all the time now :)

      Delete
  2. I love Shakshuka but that Cheesecake looks divine!

    ReplyDelete

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My email address is sarahcooks [at] hotmail [dot] com.