Fluffy pancakes doused with maple syrup, scrumptious eggs on toasts, a delicious floral Earl Grey to go with them all – this is what breakfast dreams are made of. The reality is that most breakfast menus will contain the classical dishes and little more, like muffins or eggs Benedict (not that this is necessarily a bad thing). So whenever a restaurant offers something like “Truffle-infused hollandaise and asparagus” for my Benedicts, it’s an instant choice for what I will order.
Location: Esca, Clapham, London
Cuisine: Breakfast
Camera: iPhone 7
Unfortunately, while the dish sounded amazing the execution of it was entirely lacking. I understand the problem: Esca wants to portray a modern deli, and feels the needs to impress its clientele with sophisticated variations of the classical. It needs to step back, however, and learn to do the basics well before trying to go all out there. The breakfast was alright overall, but I felt that from a technical point of view the dish was severely lacking.
For one, both my eggs were hard – whereas poached eggs need to be runny. My co-foodie had more luck with his eggs, and quite enjoyed his meal. Yet I was suddenly thinking about a comment made by Heston Blumenthal in his “Fat Duck Cookbook”: A good restaurant must consistently turn out food of the same standard. I enjoyed the addition of the wild mushrooms, as well as of the asparagus, but the truffle flavour was underwhelming, and the hollandaise had a slightly sour taste to it that didn’t quite appeal to me.
Grade: Purgatory
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