Made in Camden, The Roundhouse – Review

Made in Camden, The Roundhouse – Review

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Camden for me, is synonymous with its markets, quirky fashions and nightlife, not so much for the quality of its brunch spots. Unfortunately, as an avid North Londoner, there seems to be a real lack of quality brunch options in the area, which is why I was so pleased to hear about Made in Camden.

Made in Camden is quickly building up a cult following amongst North London’s passionate food blogging community. It has recently joined the likes of the Modern Pantry, Terrios, Polpo and NOPI in achieving a cooking score of 3 in the 2012 Good Food Guide and has also been credited with the Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand.

The venue is located at the Roundhouse, one of London’s biggest art and performance spaces. Fairly minimalist in decor, Made in Camden is quite spacious as far as brunch venues go. This is a definite win if you want to avoid waiting in annoying long queues often expected at London’s best brunch spots like Lantana, Breakfast Club and Caravan. It has a semi retro, industrial-feel with its red booths and wooden tables reminding me distinctly of an upmarket canteen.

The weekend brunch menu itself is playful and creative, accommodating traditional tastes as well as the more adventurous with options including baked turkish eggs, chermoula sea bass open sandwich and white cannellini bean stew. However, after inspecting the menu I was slightly annoyed that they didn’t start serving brunch until 10.30am when it opened at 9.30am.

The service was also haphazard and slow but improved later on. It was very much apparent they were not functioning at full capacity either mentally or physically before 10.30am.

We ordered a cappuccino and a latte. The coffee was smooth and had a great depth of flavour but the froth was a little disappointing and quickly dissolved into the coffee as it cooled much like the so called coffee art.

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As for the food, it was fantastic! Since I didn’t have dessert the night before I had to satisfy my sweet tooth craving and explore two sweet options.

The brioche french toast served with cherry compote and marscapone (£8.5) was delightful. This is a big call, but the french toast was one of the best I have ever had, with its airy and fluffy consistency. The cherries were a perfect accompaniment, fresh, juicy and exploding with flavour with every mouthful.

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The vanilla infused pancakes with poached william pear, passionfruit coulis, flaked almond and creme fraiche (£8) were equally lovely. The sweetness of the poached pear was beautifully offset by the tangy, punchy passionate coulis and the flaked almonds.

Compared to other brunch options on the menu, I couldn’t help feeling slightly ripped off by the size of the pancakes. It resembled more like a starter at a restaurant rather than a hearty weekend brunch to start the day.

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Overall, there is no doubt there is great talent in the kitchen. Next time I will come back for dinner or one of their gin and wine tasting nights.

The Damage

Two coffees and two items of brunch menu, approximately £24 with service charge.

My Rating

Food: 8/10

Service: 6/10

Coffee: 6/10

http://www.madeincamden.com

Opened daily from 9.30am – 11pm. Kitchen closed Mondays.

Made in Camden on Urbanspoon

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