Restaurant Review: El & N Café, Brompton Road, London

If you haven’t seen this place splashed all over your Instagram feed then where have you been?

This is one of the cutest places to eat at and having just been established since the 2017, they’ve certainly come a long way. El & N, which stands for eat, live and nourish, was founded by Alexandra Miller, a woman keen on healthy eating with a background in fashion.

Keen to see what’s so special about the place? Read on!

Location

Or should that be locations? El & N first opened its doors in Mayfair but has quickly branched out (a little pun intended there) onto different locations around Central London. The one I visited was based in Brompton Road, Kensington. It’s a short walk from the station and you could actually incorporate it after a visit to the museums surrounding it such as the Natural History Museum, the V&A and the Science Museum.

A look inside

The cuteness of the place immediately hits you as you go in; from the stylish grey chairs and perfectly hung flowers to the myriad of cakes awaiting to munched on by a customer. It’s not an exceptionally loud place either but faint conversations can be heard. It’s at the back where all the action happens.

Customer Service

If I had to describe their customer service in one word, it would be ‘impeccable’ but not just because they were faultless (at least they were with us) but because of the communication between us and them.

A waitress asked us to take a seat at a certain table and told us that our actual table was about to be vacated and cleaned. She then went off to tend to other customers but here’s the thing, she never forgot about us. Crazy that such a small thing caused an impact. In a world where I’ve found myself occasionally having to remind waiting staff about my request for something or other, it was a refreshing experience to have.

A few minutes later, another waiter came and apologised, citing it wouldn’t be too long. I felt like a celebrity, I’m telling you.

We were eventually seated at in the back room where a huge flower wall is positioned and we were the only customers in there for quite a while.

Menu, food and drink

The menu is simply sublime and caters for both vegetarians and vegans too. The coffee choices are fantastic but sadly, I didn’t get to taste any as I went for a pot of English Earl Grey Tea.

Sister sister went for the Mangosteen pink tea, a dark- hued tea with a light sweet flavour and an even sweeter smell. Do be careful if you are adding sugar as a little bit goes a long way.

My sister started off with an omelette topped with spinach, feta cheese, pesto and pomegranate seeds. I didn’t think I was in the mood for savoury until I had a taste of her omelette. The pesto and feta cheese really went well together and it’s a combination that I never would have thought of trying.

Whilst dear sis scoffed her meal away, I headed straight for the cakes we’d ordered and first up was the Rose macaron, a rose- coloured macaron made with Jivara milk chocolate ganache and raspberry jam. The El & N tag on top was made of milk chocolate. I’m not normally a raspberry compote fan or even of fruity desserts desserts person but this was really nice and the pastry still had that slight crunch as you cut through it, rolled by a soft centre.

The macaron was followed by Tiramisu, an Italian dessert made from Mascarpone cheese, savoiardo sponge and coffee. This to me is a dessert that not many people can get right. Some make it really cheaply and make it with double cream and others make it quite liquid and wet. Like Goldilocks, I felt this one was just right and again, it wasn’t too sweet either so another bonus.

You bet your bottom Dollar/ Pound/ Euro, I will! I ordered a Strawberry cake with which I unfortunately had to cancel on as I needed to head back to Newcastle but my love affair with EL &N is not over until I have gone through their entire menu!