I love brunch. I hardly ever partook of such a meal as I’d worked out that if you combine breakfast with lunch, you’re effectively losing out on a meal. Why not have brunchinner and just eat once a day? I mean? Really?

Yet as a concept it’s a good one. Because you can eat breakfast much later and thus eat much more. Justifying it on the grounds that you ‘probably’ won’t have lunch. Probably. Possibly. Because is it early lunch? Or late breakfast? One could argue; it’s both. That’s the point. But other than my 6-weekly brunch meetings with The Legend, it’s a meal I rarely have. Work sort of precludes brunch as an option.

But on Thursday I went for brunch. It was a reunion of the Les Buffets team. It had taken us a month to get over that dinner, so we were ready. Colonic irrigation can only get you so far. Then you need food. So we went to the Angel in Highgate. Used to be a pub, now it’s… a brunchy… place/destination/venue. That also does roasts on the weekend. But nothing else, not a normal ‘restaurant’, they’re so 2024. This is a bruncharaunte.

Giles Coren reviewed it months ago and raved. Then I spoke to a few people who’d been, and they raved. And there’s only so much raving I can take. So along we went. All fully intent on getting the fullest of full-English breakfast I could get. Even though some of that is apparently unkosher. Who knew? Yet when I looked at the menu, I found that they offer kippers. And I love kippers. But only if they’re ‘real’. What my mum would call ‘a pair of kippers’. Like a pair of slippers. But fishier. None of those horrible, rock-hard, dark-red, boil-in-the-bag, filleted rubbish from Aldi, no. Real ones. Bones’n’all. Cooked to perfection. Scrambled eggs, mushrooms (which were outstanding), sourdough toast, because its trendy so they can charge you more, a pot of tea and…

It was brilliant. A real ‘brunch’. Oily fish, ffs, that’ll keep you alive f’rever. And not a smashed avocado in sight. Or I’d have walked out.

So there you are. Another week, another meal. This was never meant to be a restaurant review site but Spurs aren’t playing til tomorrow and I don’t care if Liverpool and Chelsea win or lose. And I keep thinking about kippers.

Happy Saturday

A xxxx