The view into the restaurant (it goes around the corner quite a bit too). Photo by Steven Joyce.
What can you tell us about Grain Store Gatwick.
It's the latest collaboration between Bruno Loubet and the Zetter Group, a spin-off of his very successful Grain Store in King's Cross. This time he's on a mission to prove that airport food can be good enough that it might actually entice you to you arrive at the airport early for a flight.
Where is it?
It's in Gatwick's South Terminal. You'll see a window into the kitchen as you approach security, but you'll have to pass through security before you can actually go in yourself. It's on the second floor, tucked away in a corner.
What about food?
Severn & Wye smoked salmon , scrambled eggs with seeded scone, vegemite whipped butter, herb fromage frais.
Grain Store is an all day restaurant, but what you have will depend on your flight time, of course. We've already had the chance to preview some of the menu at the King's Cross original - and you can see what we thought of that here. But with the opening of the restaurant at Gatwick and us handily going on a trip to Madrid the day after they opened, it seemed rude not to call in.
Our early flight meant trying out their new breakfast menu, something that they don't actually have at King's Cross (but we'd suggest they do, going by our experience here).
Bruno's Power Breakfast
We just tried a couple of dishes - but the main event was Bruno's Power Breakfast, which we HAD to order once we'd seen the description. It's "Eggs Benedict, truffles, broccolini, grilled vegetable ratatouille with dukkah, avocado on toast" (£15) - essentially a much healthier alternative to a Full English (which is also on the menu if you MUST). The power brekkie was excellent - and perfect for vegetarians, of course. It's not as huge as it sounds either - recommended.
We were also impressed by the great standard of the scrambled eggs which we had with smoked salmon - not an easy thing to pull off in an airport environment. We'd happily have worked our way through the entire list of specials if we didn't have to actually catch a flight.
And drinks?
Obviously we stuck to juice and coffee - alongside a couple of particularly good flat whites. Although it IS an airport - and beside us were a couple of ladies getting stuck into a bottle of Prosecco. At 9am.
Not a bottle of Prosecco
Overall?
Service was speedy and jolly, the food was great and the takeaway pastries are worth a look too (they really came in handy on the flight). So if you're heading through Gatwick anytime soon, we'd recommend leaving some time for a quick snack at the very least. And definitely grab that Power Breakfast if you can...
Grain Store is at the South Terminal at Gatwick. For more, follow them on Twitter @GSCafeGatwick
