If there is anywhere in London that needs a proper caff for you to hide in, it’s Soho. Once the spiritual home of the Italian coffee bar – of which at least one, the legendary Bar Italia, remains – Soho is the place where the exertions of the night before, or sometimes the night that has still to end, mean that bacon and eggs become a necessity, not a treat.
And so there is Bar Bruno on Wardour Street, which as it happens really is a treat and one run by proper Italians passing it down the generations. It has been there since before I shipped up in Soho in my twenties, and has helped rid me of many a hangover. And it has proper hours of opening: from 4am to 9pm at night.
And the breakfasts are epic. Bruno’s Big Breakfast comprises bacon, sausage, fried egg, hash brown, black pudding, bubble, beans, mushrooms and toast. And all for £16. The portions are huge, the eggs are soft and the bacon is crisp. Lovely stuff.
The menu also ranges across specials – sausage and mash, liver and bacon, chicken curries – but really it’s the pasta that’s the next best thing to the breakfasts. Portions that can be identified from space of bolognese, amatriciana and carbonara to name but a few. All for a tenner or so. You simply will never go hungry once you know that Bar Bruno is there for you.
They also do a very good and very popular line among other things in paninis and other filled sandwiches, often grilled, omelettes or salads to eat in or take away and doughnuts of the old school: huge, doughy, filled to the rafters with custard or jam.
In fact, on a daily basis there is very little that you need that Bar Bruno cannot provide, from a 4am breakfast on your way home, a leisurely bacon buttie and tea on a Saturday morning, a sandwich at lunch to an early supper. And all at very un-Soho prices.
The décor too has remained essentially unchanged over the years. A slight re-ordering of some of the tables, I think about 15 years ago, but the soft drinks cabinet remains on the left as you go in, behind which is the much prized double table with a picture window view of passing punters. But in truth every one of the green faux leather seats is eyed up and fought over as soon as they come free. There is a downstairs area as well but for some reason I have never had to make it down there. The place is always rammed in case you were wondering.
In short, Bar Bruno. Indisputably a proper caff, and your new best friend in Soho.
Bar Bruno, 101 Wardour Street, Soho – 020 7734 3750
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