Picture of St John Bread And Wine, E1 6LZ

Historical version 20 of St John Bread And Wine, E1 6LZ (view current version)

The Shoreditch branch of St John, EC1M 4AY, specialising in off sales of bread and wine, as well as a St John style traditional British menu, breakfasts and elevenses. The menu changes daily, with some options appearing more often than others.

During the week they open at 9am for breakfast, switch to elevenses at 11am, and have the full menu available from midday, with occasional extra items appearing from 1pm. Bread is cooked on the premises and is available to takeaway.

Breakfast always has a bacon sandwich on the menu, with big homemade bread, lots of good bacon, and homemade ketchup. Other options as of September 2007 range from £2.50 for bread and honey up to £6ish for kippers, and consist of a variety of traditional breakfast foods including eggy bread and pikelets. (Note: a visitor called Denny tells us that as of August 2010 the bacon sandwich is now £5.40, and that on a Sunday morning visit half an hour before the end of breakfast service the only hot option left was the bacon sandwich.) Their coffee is Illy and it's all rather good. Service can be a bit slow when they open, but this seems to be due to them cooking everything fresh. Breakfast can fill up, but booking isn't always necessary — it is possible though.

Similarly, you can normally get a table for lunch, although booking is recommended later in the week. The menu is made up of mainly smaller dishes that they recommend are ordered about two per person. Prices as of September 2009 start at about £5 per plate, going up to £10-15 for full main dishes and the menu varies each day. The food does follow the normal "Nose to Tail" eating idea, so expect crispy pigs ears and spleens alongside roast fowl, soups and vegetable dishes. They have a fairly big dessert menu, almost always including their famous Eccles cakes served with Lancashire cheese, and have Madeleines available, cooked fresh in about 15 minutes and sold by the 1/2 dozen for £3.60.

As the name suggests, they also do wine and have a good selection, almost all available by the glass. The wine drunk in the restaurant is also available to takeaway at the significantly lower price that you'd expect.

James visited with two friends on a Sunday morning in August 2010 and was fairly disappointed. The service was extremely slow (10 minutes to get lattes) and the bacon butties (now 5.40 each) never turned up (after 25 minutes). Upon complaint, the waitress cancelled our orders and shooed us out!

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Last visited by James and two friends, 22 August 2010.
OS X co-ord: 533714 OS Y co-ord: 181850 (Latitude: 51.519240 Longitude: -0.072561)
This is version 20 (as of 2010-08-22 14:19:01). View current version. List all versions.