Picture of Ottolenghi, N1 2TZ

Ottolenghi, N1 2TZ

Excellent restaurant on Upper Street in Islington, part of a small chain founded by Yotam Ottolenghi (who has a vegetarian food column in the Guardian Weekend magazine).

The Islington branch has a narrow, white room with long tables running the length of the space, and a few booths for two people along the side. Chairs are moulded plastic and very comfortable. It gets very busy at peak times (at 11am the place was almost full, but the wait for a table didn't take too long). At the front of the cafe is a shop area with a large selection of divine looking cakes and pastries available, as well as some other products (for example, jams) photo.

In the mornings, they serve a breakfast menu until 1pm (though only noon for the hot food). Toasters are placed at regular intervals down the tables so that customers can toast their own bread. Platters of spreads (butter, marmalade, raspberry jam, and chocolate hazelnut spread) are provided.

The bread selection (£5.50) comes with three large slices of bread and a choice of pastry. Ewan's spring onion & chives waffle (around £8) was very tasty, with a fried egg (just the right consistency), perfect grilled tomatoes and some sour cream on top photo.

Service is friendly and requests are happily accommodated. It's not the cheapest breakfast menu in town, but the food is of the highest quality and is great value.

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Last visited by Ewan and Jo, May 2008. Opening hours taken from the Ottolenghi website, August 2019.
OS X co-ord: 531702 OS Y co-ord: 184023 (Latitude: 51.539752 Longitude: -0.102317)
Last edited 2023-09-05 13:31:26 (version 24; diff). List all versions.