Whenever you consider Asian fusion eating places, a greasy spoon café might not be the very first thing that involves thoughts. However one spot in South London is serving up a full English with a Chinese language twist.
The Spicy Noodle Cafe, in Balham, has taken all the things we love a couple of typical café and made it higher. Inside, it seems like a basic caff, with a blackboard behind the until and the usual bacon and eggs on supply. However for these seeking to spice issues up (actually) – additionally they serve an array of Chinese language dishes.
On the blackboard – proper subsequent to the predictable objects – is a Chinese language menu that features fried rice, noodles and gained ton soup. And the place customary, plastic trying tables usually sit – the Spicy Noodle Cafe boasts darkish brown picket ones, with siracha sauce subsequent to the salt and pepper.
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The cafe’s supervisor, Sonny Liao, initially from Hong Kong, has been cooking up Asian breakfasts in Balham for the the final 20 years. He mentioned: “After we first got here right here, it was an quaint conventional café. They had been all the time doing English breakfasts. Then, initially we began including Singapore dishes, now we have now many extra selections and plenty of different starters.”
The store is just open for breakfast and lunch, the place prospects can tuck into some noodles from half six within the morning. Duck dishes, candy and bitter choices, and salt and pepper wings are all on supply – even a rooster curry is on the market to order as quickly because the café opens.
“Our prospects are primarily working class, builders, contractors and academics from the native college. In case you simply do regular breakfasts it’s totally troublesome as a result of there are such a lot of cafes round right here. It’s important to do one thing distinctive and particular,” Sonny mentioned.
MyLondon’s reporter determined to order the meat in garlic and black pepper sauce. Admittedly, it felt a little bit odd to order earlier than noon – however that weird feeling disappeared after one scrumptious chew. It has all of the nostalgia of a takeaway and the buzzy ambiance of a working individual’s café, the place diners can look look straight into the kitchen and see their baked beans being cooked in woks.
The chef additionally defined that the café was usually busy at completely different occasions – however its when the weekend approaches that Spicy Noodle Cafe turns into one of the crucial wanted spots.
“It is all the time busy at completely different occasions – some days 10 o’clock generally one within the afternoon, or half six within the morning – however Friday is essentially the most busy day. On Friday folks come to loosen up, they arrive for breakfast and lunch to deal with themselves for the beginning of the weekend,” Sonny added.
Even on a Wednesday at 12pm the Spicy Noodle Cafe was busy. There have been outdated regulars, builders on their lunchbreaks and others choosing up a takeaway sandwich too.
Orders had been flying out the kitchen – king prawn and duck dishes adopted by a bacon sandwich. South West London is suffering from boujee vegan cafes and chains like Gails, and Starbucks – however the Spicy Noodle Cafe, within the coronary heart of Balham, is a superb reminder of London’s range and its distinctive collision of cuisines.
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MyLondon is celebrating London’s greatest impartial retailers, companies and people who exit of their technique to make issues additional particular.
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