Around London in 50 Breakfasts: Barnyard, Charlotte Street

Charlotte Street in Fitzrovia is known for is fabulous restaurants and bustling atmosphere. The area plays host to many independent and small-scale food business which perfectly suit the creative crowd. Barnyard, situated halfway along Charlotte Street, is a great match for the area with a fun twist - the whole restaurant is literally converted into the inside of a barn. From corrugated iron panels on the walls to the busted-up wood detailing throughout, one is transported from busy central London to the country inns of America. Thank god there's waffles.

The key theme at Barnyard is the friendly, relaxed atmosphere. Tables are arrange into twos and fours but with a higgle-de-piggle-de effect with multiply layers to the space. The Americana them continues with the mis-matched mugs, vintage glasswear and enamel crockery. All of this is quite surprising as Barnyard is the second venture of Ollie Dabbous - a famously modernist foraging chef. Barnyard appears to be the antithesis of Dabbous, with focal dishes of waffles with banana and huge dollops of natural yoghurt with honeycomb. However, there is a precision to every dish: the flavours may sing of the deep south, hearty food that yo mama makes, but the precision in each dishes presentation and the key attention to detail throughout explain the Dabbous connection perfectly.

I was kindly invited to visit for a second brunch (I had previously visited ahead of the new Winter menu), and have to say I was mighty impressed. Within two weeks of my first visit, Barnyard had transformed into a restaurant that I would visit again and again for it's bold flavours and hearty breakfasts. Enjoy today's review. 

Where

Barnyard, Charlotte Street

When

Saturday morning, 11am-12:30pm

What we drank

• 2x cappucinos
• 2x Bloody Mary's

What we ate

• Brioche toast with butter, Marco Polo and raspberry jam
• Lobster roll 
• Warm potted shrimp salad
• Corn waffles with banana and smoked butter 

Highlights

• Firstly this visit was a huge move on from my previous brunch. The brunch menu is split into smaller and larger dishes, making the plates ideal to share with the table. Although this could be made clearer, I definitely found the general food atmosphere much more appealing.
• My Bloody Mary certainly had a kick - this stuff would wake the dead. Seriously.
• The coffee was once again rich, creamy and bold in its flavour. These arrived warm and freshly sprinkled with chocolate, which I normally don't like but it was fine in this instance.
• I loved the soft, sweet brioche toast with Marco Polo (a plum jam) and raspberry jam. Both jams were clearly made at the restaurant and didn't have that overwhelming sugar-y flavour.
• The natural yoghurt with thyme, honeycomb and EVOO was a real highlight for me. I loved the savoury and sweet combination of flavours and the mix of textures was great too. It need a dipping element of some sort though - I ended up layering it up with jam and toast.

• For our bigger breakfast dishes, my guest and I shared the lobster roll and the warm potted shrimp salad. What's more decadent that having lobster for brunch!?
• The lobster roll was sweet and moorish while the warm potted shrimp salad had a notably meatier flavour. This was needed as I think too much fish may have been overwhelming.

 Lowlight - Yes only one!

OK, I hate to do this, but I found the waffle really, really unappealing. Alex had this at our previous visit, and the maple syrup and smoked butter were served on the side. In this instance, the maple syrup and smoked butter had been combined into a very strange paste that was served atop the waffles. The banana and waffle alone was amazing, but because the paste was on top is was hard to avoid. I think because the smoked flavour evokes ideas of smoked salmon for me, that alongside banana was really not enjoyable :( Please go back to serving these separately - it was delicious that time!

Overall, I was delighted to have been invited to re-visit Barnyard. In general the experience was really lovely and the team took good care of us. The food is comforting and warming but with notes of high-quality restaurants which was nice. Go visit!

Thank you Barnyard for hosting us. 
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