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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 07:26 AM
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London breakfast?

We're staying just southeast of Regent's Park in a hotel that fails to appreciate our need for full English breakfast included in the price. What, besides stashing yoghurt and granola in our room, to do?

Does anyone have favorite moderately priced breakfast joint? Will travel.
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 07:33 AM
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Kippers a plus.
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 08:31 AM
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Hmmm. Guess I should have written a sexier title. No rush, though.
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 08:38 AM
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1- Pay more at hotel for breakfast.

2- change hotels.

3-Look around on arrival for a cafe.

4-Don't be cheap, your on holiday!
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 08:41 AM
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Don't know that area but have noticed that more pubs are advertising full English breakfasts.

Wetherspoons, a chain of pubs which I don't much like, does a reasonably priced English breakfast that DH loves. You would certainly meet your carb and grease quota for the day!

Some of the old time cafes still exist and most do breakfast. Have a look around on the nearest high street.
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 08:41 AM
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IME, there are usually some little joints on the smaller side streets that do English breakfasts - a few quid for beans, toasts, tomatoes, eggs etc.

Some Fodorites like the Wolseley for breakfast, but way too pricey for me.
http://www.thewolseley.com/DocsAndMedia/alldaymenu.pdf
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 08:46 AM
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I've been searching google for the name of the place on Kensington High Street where we took the family every day during our stay a year ago (we were at the Holiday Inn Kensington and they don't do breakfast). Pricey, American fare (pancakes, etc.), simple stuff but good and filling and free coffee refills

Okay, gave you all that and no name! I just remember it began with a B. There's another that does breakfast and brunch called Giraffe, but I haven't been there.
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 08:47 AM
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rogeruk. Will carefully consider all your suggestions. Cafe it is.

Thanks, Cathinjoe and yk. Even better.

Possibly kippers have disappeared from the face of the earth, for all I know.

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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 08:49 AM
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Thanks, Mel. We'll keep our eyes open, as suggested above.
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 08:58 AM
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There's a place driectly across from the Kensington High St tube station,on Kensington High Street, I think it had a French name. We had a great breakfast there , so good we went back for dinner one evening. I'll google and see if I can come up with the name.
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 09:03 AM
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I think it's Cafe Concerto, it is also a bakery. There is a Pain Quotidien a little further along the High St
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 09:32 AM
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>>Possibly kippers have disappeared from the face of the earth, for all I know.<<

Not retail (I bought one for my Sunday breakfast last weekend), but I suspect most hotels and cafés would consider them too much faff for too niche a market.
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 09:43 AM
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I seem to remember that some of the larger department stores (Oxford St.) served breakfast. Not sure that they still do, but you might check.
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 09:47 AM
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I'm unclear why people are suggesting you go to Kensington, which is practically in a different hemisphere from Regents Park.

You're going to have to forget the kippers, which AFAIK are available only in posh hotels (try the Landmark, which is near where you are) and a handful of eateries - like the Wolseley - that charge at least hotel prices. And if you were happy to pay those prices you'd be eating in your hotel. If desperate, buy a boil in the bag packet from the Tesco Metro in Goodge St or the Sainsburys at Tottenham CR tube, and boil it in your room kettle.

We really need to know more than "SE of Regents Park". Granted that does indeed exclude Kensington, but that's about the only part of London that IS excluded. In particular, are you N or S of the Euston Rd, and E or W of Hamsptead/Tottenhan Court Rd?

If in the NW quadrant of that area, tough. NE quadrant: meander along Eversholt St or Chalton St, both of which have a decent row of greasy spoons (best is the one about 20 yds north of the Novotel, on the W side, of Chalton S, though eggsbaconchipsandbeans recommends the Double 6 in Eversholt St. OK on a crisis). In the SE quadrant, there's one (though gone sadly downhill since being taken over by Eastern European serving black pepper in grinders, rather than proper white pepper, in addition to all sorts of other filthy foreign habits) in the pedestrian walkway just east of Duke's Rd. In the SW quadrant, there's a couple at the top of Conway St.

There's a reasonable list at http://russelldavies.typepad.com/eggbaconchipsandbeans/
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 10:21 AM
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Alternatively, buy real kippers from any fishmonger and a big aluminium foil container. Pour boiling water from your room kettle over the kippers in the container, and leave for 10 mins. Drain (just tip the water into the sink) then eat in your room.

Infintely better for you than that disgusting granola muck.

And that's why they put kettles in hotel rooms.
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 11:25 AM
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Avalon and historytrav, thanks! I have noted.

I suppose it's too much to hope PatrickL would fix us up some while he was at it?

flanner, we'll be at Holiday Inn Regent's Park, which looks to be south of Marylebone and between Portland Pl. and Tottenham Ct.Rd. I'm sure we'll spring for a nice breakfast or two, and it appears that The Wolseley does serve kippers. (I do have a bad habit of seeing a price like 13.75 on a menu and failing to multiply by the appropriate factor.)

Thanks for the other tips and recipe. Will print and bring. I honestly never knew that's what the hotel kettle is for.
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 12:15 PM
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I love the eggsbaconetc. You have pinpointed our demographic exactly.
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 12:31 PM
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''Pour boiling water from your room kettle over the kippers in the container........that's why they put kettles in hotel rooms.''

And trouser presses are really for crepes.

(This reminds me of 'Lies to tell tourists' in Time Out. 8-) )
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 12:54 PM
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You could take a morning stroll in Regent's Park and find the Honest Sausage.You can get a sausage, egg and bisquit sandwich or other selections. The added bonus would be the walk itself.
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Old Jan 29th, 2009 | 01:14 PM
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Coincidentally, we'll be in Kensington the first two nights, compliments of British Airways bless 'em. But that comes with breakfast.
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