Front Room Chicken Burger

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I don't really like the 'Front Room' very much. I do like the atmosphere I suppose and the crumbling dirty tables and general cafeness of it. They do the bare minimum in terms of food prep - really bland awful food at expensive prices...but when the alternative is that horrible flourescent tube lit 'italian' 'deli'...anyway.

Today I was starving and rather than brave a burn out carcass of a 'chicken' (Nandos) I thought I'd go to the Front Room as I hadn't been for a while. Free WIFI!! Brilliant! I had a watery espresso, not bad - the water tasted a little bit like coffee.

Then my 'Chicken burger' arrived. A fried chicken breast inside an untoasted ciabatta. YUM! With MAYONNAISE!!

To my utmost horror it tasted like a KFC?!?!?! I couldn't believe it. I spent the next 30 minutes wondering how on EARTH this chicken could possibly taste like a KFC. Had they snuck out and chucked a KFC chicken burger inside the Ciabatta? Surely not. Then I thought, 'Well maybe it's the battery farm where the chicken was from' ?

In all not a nice experience.

Colette

Uh-oh. SGR bashing. David's not going to like that.
For what it's worth, I had a pretty decent breakfast at Front Room last weekend - not outstanding, not good enough to make me never go to Pick More Daisies again, but certainly good enough to make me think twice about the walk up and down the hill... and the staff were lovely too.

matt

Interesting snippet of information: I do not eat chicken

Another fact, same time tomorrow (almost!)

David

Overpriced shit chicken is fair game. I think you're missing my grievance with a particular type of SGR bashing.

Liz

I mainly go for breakfast. Good tea, nice scramblies. I think it's about playing to their strengths when you order.

dion

@ Liz - you are right. In any restaurant it is about ordering the right things that they do well. Even great restaurants have some dishes they do better than others.

Ian

I really like the Front Room and the people that run it and work there. It opened a couple of days before I moved into my current flat and until late that summer when I had my kitchen done I basically had to go out to get cooked food so frequented it regularly. The random service is part of it - I don't mind as time is on my hands. The restricted menu has always been a bit of a problem when vegetarian/kosher friends have been with but hey.

However, I don't go much these days, and that's because I think the quality has dipped on the ingredients. Paying 7 or 8 quid for a breakfast I hope to have decent bacon and sausages, not cheapo kinds. Might just be my taste buds but I think that kind of café needs to go for best stuff.

Ian

Went again this weekend with friends. Much much better. They have upped the quality again. Could have just been a blip. Wouldn't want to be complaining without giving credit.

Also they are advertising for a chéf that does French and English food, so either they are expanding menu or they think Croque Monsieur is very difficult to cook. Now all they need is proper pepper pots and all is well again in the world.

poxy

<i>Paying 7 or 8 quid for a breakfast I hope to have decent bacon and sausages, not cheapo kinds.</i>

£6.50 in Spiazzo C.E. buys the best Eggs Benedict I've had this side of the Atlantic.