Noho Star

In New York they often employ an interesting but persuasive logic that is rather simple but I guess is difficult to fault. There’s a large road running through lower Manhattan called Houston Road, the area to the SOuth of HOuston Road is called Soho & the area north of the road is called Noho. Tribeca is the TRIangle BElow CAnal street. Makes sense I guess. However, I have no idea how our Soho in London was named, I’m unaware of any Houston Roads in the area. Noho was the location of my next brunch joint, at a place called The Noho Star, another recommendation from a friend.

It was an extremely hot and sunny day so I decided to sit inside to get some air con. It’s quite a cool vibe inside; it’s like a large and airy colonial beach hut, in stark contrast to the brown and dusty roads outside. Service was swift enough. Our waitress was a bit dopey and seemed not to understand our English, getting a bit confused over the order but there was no real problem.

Inside

 

The cold chai latte had a good mix of spices but was far too sweet. This seems to be the problem with most chai lattes, people go overboard with the sugar and it just ruins the whole thing. At least it wasn’t as bad as the Starbucks version. The Wake Up, Shake Up contained orange juice, greek yoghurt, banana and ‘non-sugar carbohydrates’. Places need to do me a favour and stop pissing around with pseudo-scientific lingo. Don’t say things like ‘non-sugar carbohydrates’, just tell me what you’ve actually put in and I’ll know if it’s a protein, a carbohydrate, a lipid or fibre or anything else. Don’t trying to pretend that there aren’t any ‘sugar carbohydrates’ in the beverage because there’s a shed load of fructose from the orange and bananas. Fortunately it tasted bloody good; thick and citrusy whilst not being too sweet (thank god they didn’t add any sugar carbohydrates hey).

Chai Latte

Wake up shake up smoothie

When the food arrived, it was clear that the chefs take the same approach to the presentation of their food as Mario Balotelli does to keeping out of the headlines. The eggs Santa Fe looked particularly vomitus in its nature with a pale watery brown liquid puddle underneath the eggs and corn tortilla. Despite this it tasted rather good, the soft (and drenched) corn tortilla struggling to support the weight of well-cooked scrambled eggs and spiced Mexican beans. These were accentuated by the classic combination of cheese, sour cream and guacamole.

Eggs santa fe

I ordered the eggs and apples Benedict with maple syrup and bacon on French toast. Two poached eggs smothered in hollandaise provided a shocking white contrast to the exceedingly dull and brown looking at French toasts covered in apples and bacon of the same colour (who knows how you can get all those different ingredients to blend into one). But by god it tasted great. Huge soft fluffy toast was lifted by the sweetness from the syrup and distinct flavour of apples. This was tempered by the unctuous yolk from the perfectly poached eggs and the well-made hollandaise sauce. Whilst the bacon had the texture of cardboard it certainly provided the perfect salty piggy flavour required just to lift the dish an extra level. This was that perfect balance of sweet and savoury that I crave from a good breakfast.

Eggs & apple Benedict

Reasonably priced and close to Soho, this was definitely worth the trip and one of those places that proves the point that food can still taste very good even if it looks pretty gross.

Price: Breakfast dishes roughly $10-17

Where to go before/next: Start your big day of retail therapy at Noho Star before heading over to Soho (about a five-minute walk away), which is full of department stores and boutiques.

Website: Click here

Location: 330 Lafayette Street 10012

Nearest Subway: Bleeker St or Broadway - Lafayette

Opening Times: 8.00 – 00.00 (Mon – Fri). 10.30 – 00.00 (Sat) 10.30 – 23.00 (Sun)