Milk
Contemporary British 20 Bedford Hill, London SW12 9RG ££
Notoriously busy one of a kind Milk in Balham is known for its delicious brunches whipped up from local produce. Every weekend without fail there are ques outside, however, when I arrived last Sunday at 2:30pm I only had to wait 5 minutes. Given that 2:30 is pretty late for 'brunch' the place was still completely full with people breakfasting, although I guess Sunday's are God's day of rest...
Both Kathleen and I ordered the Young Betty (in essence a trendy name for eggs benedict): mine with bacon and hers with salmon. Mine cost £7.80 whilst the salmon option £9.00 - pretty standard these days, although given we only had one piece of sourdough, singular rasher of bacon and a pretty pitiful portion of salmon could have been a bit lower. Anticipating the small portions (I'd only had a slice of toast all day), I went ahead and ordered a hash brown side. To my pleasant surprise, three very decently sized hash browns came out (I was expecting one), covered in parmesan shavings. These were only £3 and given I was willing to pay this for one, the fact three came out made it all the better.
The hash browns were very well cooked as were the poached eggs, with some of the darkest yolks I've seen. I believe they use Clarence Court eggs (the same my Mum buys) which have the brilliant tagline 'fabulous eggs by fabulous birds' - if that isn't enough to make you want to buy them I don't know what is! Milk also has some of the nicest hollandaise sauce I have both seen and tasted - thin and flavoursome with not a lump in sight. All produce from Milk is said to be locally sourced, providing support to surrounding butchers and bakers and keeping small businesses in business.
The location of Milk is on Hildreth Street Market - the middle of Balham's brunch scene. Despite being in the middle of Balham, Hildreth Street Market is a pedestrianised road meaning you do still feel slightly removed from the chaos. The interior of the restaurant is quite small and slightly cramped - the tables and chairs are very small in order to utilise the most space. Some small stalls could have been improved by being chairs and the table could have been slightly bigger in order to fit all my food on it comfortably (although maybe I should just not overorder). The kitchen is small too and completely open so you can see your food being prepared - this is usually a nice touch and interesting for meals other than breakfast but watching an egg being poached isn't really anything mind blowing.
Overall, a really tasty brunch at a reasonable price in a good location. Could be improved in terms of space but at the end of the day they're just trying to satisfy the most customers they can given the large weekend ques! Not sure I would que for an hour for this place, but the 5 minute wait was more than reasonable this time.
OVERALL RATING: ****
http://www.milk.london/
