RESTAURANT REVIEW: NOPI

Corn and polenta cakes

Beef brisket hash

Shakshuka

Brunch is quickly becoming my favourite social meal and every weekends brings about an opportunity to try somewhere new. The location of choice this time was Ottolenghi's NOPI in Soho and yesterday I met Sophie for brunch. I've never been to an Ottolenghi deli before and whilst I've always liked the sound of the middle eastern / healthy food vibe I hear they're overpriced. However, a quick browse of the NOPI brunch menu and I was pleasantly surprised, nearly all the breakfast plates are under a tenner.

Being the two little pigs that we are we decided to order three plates of between us because #YOLO.

First up was the corn and polenta cakes; two fluffy little parcels topped with a fried egg and plenty of dressed greens. I really enjoyed this plate, the cakes were light yet flavoursome and a great vegetarian option if you're fed up of eggs on sourdough.

It wasn't long until we were tucking into a generous portion of beef brisket hash which was melt in your mouth tasty. This came with another fried egg and was possibly the only meat option on the menu (for any carnivores out there).

Our final plate was the shakshuka (braised eggs, piquante tomato sauce, smoked labneh), a somewhat signature dish at NOPI and the most expensive item on the menu. I loved baked eggs, I love how the runny egg yolks blends with the tomatoes to create a rich and silk sauce. Perhaps we left it too late before eating this but the egg yolks were a little on the hard side for my like. That being said this was probably my favourite as the spicy sauce and smoked yoghurt were very flavoursome.

NOPI was lovely, the bill came to £43 which included three breakfast plates, two glasses of orange juice and a 12.5% service charge which I think is pretty reasonable for central London. I'd say the portion size varies a little between dish but three things between two was the perfect amount as our hopes for dessert at the Fortnum and Mason ice cream parlour afterwards were quickly dashed. NOPI is a great choice for a centrally location brunch spot with a twist and whilst I am intrigued to try dinner I think that could be a little on the expensive side.

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