What the Dickens! Great breakfast expectations

Pop down for a pop-up breakfast. Photograph: What the Dickens

It’s the morning after the night before, and the cravings for a full English are setting in. You rummage around your fridge searching for absolutely anything you can fry, but with little success.

Instead of slamming the fridge door shut in frustration and cursing how you once again have neglected to get any shopping in, head down to the Reliance pub on Old Street for a What the Dickens! breakfast.

English Breakfast lovers and the hung over masses should take note that the team behind Chatsworth Road Market’s successful What the Dickens! food stall have launched a six-week weekend run of their pop-up café at the Old Street public house.

This is the venture of three childhood friends who share a passion for traditional British food and time-honoured recipes. Expect British breakfast classics on the menu, such as the full English breakfast and Manx kippers, as well as Eggs Benedict, the feared and revered Kedgeree, and, for the more daring, Devilled Kidneys.

Despite the pub’s somewhat dull interior, the What the Dickens! trio have fashioned a quaint and quirky breakfast canteen, aided by live music from local musicians.

What sets this menu apart, however, is the emphasis on homemade grub and the revival of traditional Victorian recipes. The sourdough bread is sourced from the E5 Bakehouse, but most other foods, including the English muffins, baked beans and Hollandaise sauce, are made from scratch. Even their delicious sausages come from a Victorian recipe.

If traditional British breakfast fare, served with a Victorian twist and dollop of eccentricity on the side, sets your stomach rumbling, then a What the Dickens! breakfast could be worth investigating.

What The Dickens
The Reliance
336 Old Street
EC1 9DR
020 7729 6888