Contributed by Annabelle King:
The Askew Road is definitely on the up. With the opening of the Ginger Pig last November, the very decent Askew Wines, the wonderful Lavelli bakery and now the opening of a new coffee shop Brackenburys, we are getting seriously posh in W12.
Feeling slightly disloyal to our friends at Lavelli who sell the best pastries in west London, I decided to check out the newest arrival to see what they had to offer. This is the second branch of Brackenburys to open this year, the original version Brackenbury Delicatessen is located down the road in W6 on the site of the old and much loved Buchanans. We really need a good deli on the Askew Road hence some excitement that this too would be a deli, but it seems the W12 version is just a cafe for now.
It’s a fresh bright space sitting smartly next to the Pig and seems to have been full since last Tuesday when it opened its doors. On display are a great selection of delicious pastries, muffins and paninis, but we were particularly pleased to see that there is a very good hot breakfast menu. This is where they have the edge over Lavelli who have a limited hot food offering.
My friend was nursing a major hangover and I was recovering from my daughter’s birthday party so we were both in need of serious sustenance. We went for the full cooked scrambled egg and bacon option which was fabulous, but enormous.
Now I am only little and this plate of food could have fed my whole family. I probably ate a quarter of it which is a shame as I hate waste. But the quality of all the food was excellent, delicious bacon (supplied by their neighbour perhaps), wonderful home baked bread, good quality marmalade and fresh eggs. The coffee was excellent too. It was full of post school drop-off mummies like us thrilled to have somewhere new and local to meet. There are just too many buggies to all fit in one cafe so plenty of room for some competition.
The staff are very friendly and efficient and the place is spotless. My only feedback to them would be to halve if not quarter their portion sizes. This was a husband/daddy size plate which they could have charged more for. My husband will love bringing the kids here at the weekend although I think we’ll be fighting for space with all the other local families as it is fairly ‘bijou’.
Overall a welcome addition to the ‘hood. Long may it last but please, next time, one piece of toast is ample.
Brackenburys W12 is located at 135 Askew Road.
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This posting was contributed by Annabelle King who lives in Shepherds Bush. After a crazy ten year career in advertising, she gave it all up to be bossed about by her three little girls. Her blog The Bush Babies was started in 2007, where she writes about the highs and lows of parenthood and raising three little girls in London.
