The Dayrooms Café

If you’ve wandered off the path from Portobello Market in the last month, you may have noticed this cute little place during its soft launch phase.  With a soothing sage green interior featuring framed botanical illustrations and small clusters of tables, it’s the perfect laid back place for meeting friends before an afternoon of haggling in the market.

The Dayrooms Café takes its inspiration from East Coast Australian cuisine, and the easy going, “healthy but a bit naughty” vibe permeates the whole menu.Offering all day brunch options that use local ingredients and change with the seasons, there’s a good variety on offer, including gluten free, dairy free and veggie and vegan options. We had a chance to try mini versions of some of their most popular dishes, and they did not disappoint.

I’ve tried my fair share of smashed avocado on sourdough, but this was one of the best I’ve ever had.  The ratios of avocado to toast were perfect, though it was the addition of goat’s curd, heirloom tomato, sprouting salad and chili oil that really elevated it.

The Bagel Royale was another great of example of how well they balance different flavours. I’m not a fan of overpowering sauces, but their green hollandaise was a fantastic complement to the egg on top of flaked hot smoked salmon.  Fish and egg isn’t a combination I usually enjoy, though the sweet addition of a beetroot puree between the two, on top of a dreamily soft bagel base, changed my mind.

A friend of mine defines brunch as “food that goes equally well with coffee or booze,” and the menu here most certainly lives up to that, especially the Sticky Sesame Chicken Roll, which proved very popular on the night.  It was especially good paired with the Australian sparkling wine served, a drier alternative for those who love bubbles with brunch but are a bit proseccoed out.

The coffee was just as good as you’d expect from an Aussie café.  I didn’t get a chance to try the shakes or smoothies, but the menu looked impressive and I think I’d be just as happy coming here for afternoon smoothies as I would a meal.

For brunch enthusiasts, a visit to the Dayrooms Café is worth the trip to Notting Hill, but if that’s just too much of a trek to contemplate, they have plans to open further branchesmore centrally by the end of the year.

Written by Jennifer Melmore

Address: 212 Kensington Park Rd, London W11 1NR
Website: www.thedayroomscafe.com
Social: @thedayroomscafe / thedayroomscafe