The light-filled room at Sunday in Brooklyn
What can you tell us about Sunday in Brooklyn?
It's the latest US import to Notting Hill which is starting to become the first port of call for American restaurants coming to London (following the arrival of Eggslut and Buvette). The original Sunday in Brooklyn opened in, yes, Brooklyn back in 2016 by chef Jaime Young, who had come off a hit run at NYC's Atera. This is their second restaurant and sees them taking over a prominent corner site in Notting Hill.
Where is it?
You can find the restaurant on Westbourne Grove, about halfway between Royal Oak and Bayswater tubes. If you're familiar with the area, they took over what used to be Cote.
So what should I know about the food?
It's all all-day restaurant - we'll get to the evening element in a bit - but as you can get a hint from the name, brunch is really the star for the restaurant and easily the most popular aspect. Part of this is down to their signature dishes - the brown butter pancakes. You may well have seen these popping up on Instagram from time to time. Note that, at the time of writing, brunch is available Wednesday - Sunday and they are hoping to roll that out to seven days a week in the coming months.
So here's a taste of what to expect at brunch/lunch.
This is undoubtedly the main event - the Sunday pancakes drowned in hazelnut maple praline and topped with brown butter. They're available as single, double or triple stacks (£9, £13, £17) and ideally, you want the double or triple stack for the proper drip-down effect.
A look at the pancakes after we've (messily) extracted a slice. As you can see, it's almost more like a cake than a pancake - but it really does live up to its reputation. It's a must-order but also quite huge, so prepare to feel fairly full after eating this and order accordingly.
Obligatory brunch egg shot - these are the Biscuits and Gravy (£13) - drop cheddar biscuits, sausage gravy, poached eggs, sambal. We might have liked a richer gravy and more sausage with this, to be honest.
A pretty superlative steak and eggs - 7oz hanger steak (cooked perfectly as requested), cheddar scrambled eggs (also very nicely done) and their home fries (also on the menu as "Long Island potatoes" (£23).
Anything else?
We watched the egg sandwich go out to a few tables - that's scrambled egg, cheddar, gochujang mayo and crispy potatoes in a brioche bun (£9) - and it looked very good indeed.
What about the evening menu?
There's a completely different menu at dinner. The Sunday Burger and fried chicken sandwich make the journey across but otherwise it's dishes like fish & chips, wood-roasted chicken and the grilled hanger steak (minus eggs). The pancakes aren't available at dinner, but they do add some very tempting desserts. Of those - the chocolate s'mores dessert is undoubtedly the one to get:
How about drinks?
Wines start at £28 a bottle (£7.50 a glass) for red and rose and £36 a bottle for white and there's a focus on low intervention and natural wines. Prices are a little on the high side on the wine list - but then this is Notting Hill. Also coming soon - they're going to be opening a bar downstairs, so keep an eye out for that in the run-up to Christmas.
For our brunch, we mainly swerved away from the booze opting for alcohol free cocktails. These were both very good and certainly bode well for the rest of the cocktail list:
Two of their non-alcoholic cocktails. On the left, the strawberry Buck - American malt, strawberry, ginger, soy, lemon & soda (£8) and on the right the Melon Daquiri - white cane, honey dew, lime & vanilla (£8). Both are excellent drinks that almost make you forget that there's no alcohol in them.
Overall thoughts
Sunday in Brooklyn was positively buzzing when we went in for Saturday brunch - it's clearly become hugely popular in a short space of time. It's easy to see why - the room looks lovely, hugely benefiting from the light that a corner site gives them and they really do serve up a good brunch. And what's most important - those pancakes really do live up to the high expectations.
Hot Dinners ate as guests of Sunday in Brooklyn. Prices are correct at the time of writing.
More about Sunday in Brooklyn
Where: 98 Westbourne Grove, London W2 5RU
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Instagram @sundayinbrooklyn_ldn.
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