Bumpkin - Chelsea

Bumpkin – Chelsea

Billed as a British restaurant, serving seasonal British cuisine, this seemed the perfect place to get a good fry up. Bumpkin is a small chain of four restaurants; the Chelsea branch is on Sydney Street, just off the Kings Road, they only served the breakfast / brunch from 10 – 1 on weekends and bank holidays. From the pavement the restaurant blends in and it would be quite easy to walk straight past as the exterior looks like a city cottage.

The first issue I encountered with the breakfast was the fact they had run out of brown sauce, a vital topping in my opinion! The other problem was the eggs, which were slightly over poached, meaning that instead of yolk running all over the toast and plate, the yellow was soft but held in place. This is easily done, it only it takes 30 seconds too long in the water for this to happen. I could have probably done with another slice of toast also, to balance the dish.

We arrived and our coats were taken by the waitress, we were seated on a table by the window with fresh flowers on the table. This certainly isn't a greasy spoon. I ordered the full English, which came with a sausage, bacon, beans, mushroom, grilled tomato, two poached eggs and toast at a price of £9.95. I also had a latte, which was served in a large glass and was delicious.

However there were good things on the plate; the bacon was grilled and had a great sweet cure flavour. The other star was the Portobello mushroom with was cooked to perfection and packed with flavour.



A little bugbear of mine is beans served in a pot rather than on the plate. I find it a bit pretentious and just unnecessary. That was the case here, where a mini saucepan was used but at least they it was easy to pour onto plate. Overall it was a nicely presented breakfast, with a little olive oil drizzled on the eggs and a few young basil leaves scattered on top; this enhanced the dish, without going overboard.

Everything is based on Britain here, even the music that was playing in the background was by the Smiths, Arctic monkeys and Coldplay; no American tunes in earshot.

The Verdict
A nice restaurant, with a well presented fry up. It had potential with delicious bacon, but overall it didn't wow me.

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