Venue number four in the £5 Breakfast Challenge was Sandwich Box, which is the last one on our side of the road before Acton Lane. Given that it’s right next to the Luna Caffe it’s pretty easy to miss, or at least to mistake them as the same place!

Coming in at only £4, including a coffee or tea (with no extra charge for a latte), their Full English Breakfast is easily the best value that we’ve encountered so far. Their coffee was really good, too – a little on the large size for me, but the favour was great.

As you can see, the food was also generously proportioned: two eggs, two pieces of toast, a sausage, two rashers of bacon, a hashbrown, baked beans, mushrooms, and tomato. On the plus side, the eggs were perfectly cooked, with solid whites but runny yolks. I also quite enjoyed the sausage – a little salty, but it had a nice smokey flavour, like at Luna.

The rest of the meal tasted good enough (though once again I wasn’t a fan of the bacon); however this is the first place we’ve eaten at and felt a bit shady afterwards. Perhaps it was from the sheer quantity of food, though we both think that the quality of the ingredients may have been on the lower side of average.

They also lose points for not offering any fresh juice; I had trouble with the bird’s accent and couldn’t work out if they had run out or if they simply didn’t have it, but I suspect it’s the latter.

To their credit, we walked away feeling very full, and at only nine quid for our two breakfasts and a bottle of juice, my wallet didn’t even take too big a hit. If I was only after a coffee, then Sandwich Box would be top of my list of places to revisit, but for breakfast, I think we’ll be taking our money elsewhere. gerrod.com rating: 7/10.

Next up in the £5 breakfast challenge was the Hot House Cafe, only a few doors down from the Blueberry cafe. It markets itself as an internet cafe, but with a Full English Breakfast for sale at only £4.95 including coffee, it’s definitely a contender for the breakfast crowd.

(It was raining quite heavily when we went, so I couldn’t take an outside photo.)

One of the first things that we noticed about Hot House was that it seemed to have a bunch of regular patrons; either that, or all the waitresses were psychic and were doing a lot of mind reading. I suspect it’s the former. This suggested to me that we were in for quite a treat!

Hot House’s “Full English Breakfast” consisted of two bacon rashers, a sausage, mushrooms, two fried eggs, a hash brown, baked beans, and two pieces of (heavily buttered) toast. Like Blueberry, I wasn’t given an option on the type of toast that I wanted, but their default option tried to cater for everyone with one piece each white and brown bread. Their breakfast also included a tea or a coffee which I thought was very generous, even though they charged me an extra 50p to upsize to a latte (instead of regular black coffee).

Overall, the meal was quite good, though everything was rather salty, most especially the bacon. Also on the downside was the hash brown which was a little soggy, and the baked beans which were quite bland – as if the sauce was there just to hold the beans together but not to provide any flavour. The sausage was quite good though; the mushrooms were even better, and the eggs were the absolute highlight of the meal – perfectly cooked with solid whites, but runny yolks. Yum!

My 50p coffee was acceptable, though I wouldn’t go there if all I was after was a coffee. They didn’t use fresh beans, and instead opted for pre-ground coffee from a tin in the fridge. And though the coffee didn’t taste bad, it was a little light on any. Perhaps a second shot would have helped, though not as much as freshly ground beans would have.

Kristy opted out of this challenge, and instead had smoked salmon (which was quite generously apportioned) over scrambled eggs, and a freshly squeezed orange juice. Bonus points to them for taking “freshly squeezed” very literally, with a huge orange juicer behind the counter!

All up we paid only £11.35 for both of our meals, and we both walked out with very satisfied bellies. I don’t think the quality of the food was quite as good as it was at Blueberry, however it wasn’t far off. Hot House definitely scores higher on both variety and value for money though, and given the choice between the two, I’d be hard pressed to make a decision. gerrod.com rating: 8.5/10.

When we first came (back) to Chiswick to sign the lease on our flat, I noticed that between here and Turnham Green, there are at least 5 cafes that each offer some form of breakfast for £5 or less. Helllloooo… do I hear a challenge in the making? Yes I do!

Enter: The £5 breakfast challenge. Yes, it’s an extremely creative name, and I laboured over it until I was happy. I was also considering dropping the pound sign, and instead going for “The five pound breakfast challenge”, because I’m using a US keyboard and I don’t have a convenient button for “£”. However, I felt that our dear American readers may think I’m trying to eat five pounds of breakfast foods, rather than spending five pounds on breakfast. It’s an important distinction.

Anyway – the first cafe to unknowingly step up to the plate was the Blueberry Cafe. From the outside, it definitely looks like the swankiest of them all, but a rather unfortunately placed red statue blocks its view of the high rode. (Note: it may look like a mail box, however Royal Mail are on strike these days more often than not, so it doesn’t work like a mail box).

Blueberry’s £5 breakfast comes with two fried eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, baked beans, and two pieces of wholegrain toast. Kristy and I both liked that wholegrain was the default bread – given the option of white, we both probably would have taken it, yet the wholegrain was delicious and nutritious! Still, some options would have been nice – I’m not really a bacon person, and would have preferred to swap out my rashers for sausages if I could have; and I love me some breakfast tomato.

A few points off for not offering any beverage with the meal – we each ordered a freshly squeezed OJ, which we felt was a decent size, and fairly good value for money. I also ordered a latte, which unfortunately was about the size of a child’s beach bucket, and far, far too hot for my liking.

The addition of three beverages to our meal drove the cost up to around £16, however I figured that if you’re going to go somewhere for breakfast, you’re likely to want at least one accompanying beverage, so they should be part of the review.

Blueberry suffers from “the first cab off the rank” syndrome – once we’ve been to each of the cafes, it may on reflection be the best, but until that point we can only rate it on its lonesome. The food was definitely well prepared, and high quality, but not quite enough variety to bring home the proverbial bacon. gerrod.com rating: 8/10.

It’s certainly no secret that one of my favourite things about the USA was Chipotle, and to say that I miss it dearly is quite an understatement. It surprises me that they haven’t opened up any chains over here, let alone anywhere else in the world – as it was always so popular in New York!

Still, that hasn’t stopped people copying their idea, and of course, I’m always lured by the promise of a generic alternative. So far, we’ve eaten at two of them in London, and here’s what I thought of them.

• Ninteen Ten Mexican Kitchen: Seemingly exclusive to Westfield outlets. Nicely flavoured meat, but the guacamole is a bit bland, and the hot sauce is medium-mild at best. Still, easily the default choice should we have to dine in the foodcourt. gerrod.com rating: 7/10.
• Tortilla: Very strongly influenced by Chipotle, right down to the same ingredients offered to you on signs of the same colour and written in the same font. Very tasty, and they weren’t mucking around when they labelled the “hot” salsa! The guacamole is also very nice, and I appreciated having two choices of rice. Still not quite up to scratch, but definitely warrants another visit. gerrod.com rating: 8/10.

I thought there was a third restaurant when I started this article, but it turns out it was another branch of Tortilla that I ate at, late one night with Todd. Oh well!

Kristy and I ate at Valentina at East Putney last night. It’s a rustic Italian restaurant, and Julian had told us that it “looked like a place where we would eat”. Well, we didin’t want to let him down!

My immediate impression of the place was that it was Carluccio’s, just going by a different name. Kristy disagrees, but:

• They have the same blue and white coloured banner out the front of the shop;
• They have various foods for sale as soon as you walk in, including a fresh food deli;
• Just beyond the food section is the restaurant section; and
• They serve illy coffee.

Sound familiar? I’ll admit that I’m not sure which brand of coffee they sell at Carluccio’s, but I’m willing to make a (small) bet that it’s illy!

Anyway, on to the food. Neither of us could decipher the wine menu, as everything was listed by region, and none of the bottles were described. Fail! We had to ask one of the waitresses for a recommendation, and ended up with a bottle of one of the house whites. It was actually really nice – not too sweet or dry, fresh, fruity – really easy to drink. Should have got the name of it!

We shared an entrée of scallops wrapped in bacon, served on a salad. I’m sure it was described more nicely than that, but that’s effectively what it was. It was tasty enough, however we were a little disappointed to only find two scallops on the plate – at £7.50 for the dish, it seemed a little pricey.

My main was a whole sea bass with olives, capers and potatoes. The sauce was nice enough but the fish had so many tiny little bones in it that it really ruined the experience.
Kristy had a pasta dish of sorts – a giant parcel containing pork meatballs and tagliatelle, wrapped up in ham, and served with a tomato sauce. It was delicious! I had definite food envy!

Overall the bill was about £50 including tip – not exactly the cheapest night out, and having been disappointed by the size of the entree, and all the bones in my fish, I don’t think I’d rush back. Though if I did, I’d definitely be getting the meatball thing, it was really quite good. gerrod.com rating: 6/10.

We’ve walked past Samratt Indian restaurant pretty much every day since we moved to Putney (it’s only about 50 metres from our house), and each time I’ve thought, “oohhh, that place doesn’t look appealing”. Julian and Shelley have braved it a number of times and survived, so tonight Kristy and I finally bit the bullet and gave it a whirl ourselves.

Goodness gracious, what a pleasant surprise we got! Firstly, the staff are extremely polite and helpful. Secondly, the meal portions are huge – we didn’t even come close to finishing our two main meals, not to mention the two garlic naans that were a meal in themselves. Thirdly, it was delicious – I would definitely order the salamn kirit again, even if that’s not what it’s actually called!

Loads of people told me that there was heaps of good Indian restaurants in London, but until recently I didn’t believe it. We’ll definitely be calling back at Samratt for all our poppadom needs. gerrod.com rating: 8.5/10.

We caught up with Pat on Sunday morning for brunch at The Electric Brasserie, a boutique little joint appropriately located right next to The Electric Cinema. It was an absolutely buzzing atmosphere with excited patrons everywhere.

I found the waitstaff a little low charged – old mate who brought us our drinks got the order wrong, and was displeased when we corrected his mistake. To top this off, our bill was also incorrect, and fixing it for us didn’t seem like the best way of charging our waiter’s electrons, if you get what I’m saying.

On a positive note, the food was pretty good – my eggs royal had generous chunks of salmon, and a bucket of hollanaise sauce on them. Kristy had pancakes, and though I wasn’t offered a sampling, they certainly looked tasty! And I didn’t hear what Pat thought of his French Toast, though I was rudely on the phone for a few minutes of breakfast and hence may have missed the in-person review.

So would I go back? Well, I wouldn’t offer any resistance to the suggestion; but with a plethora of other gates to be tested within in the circuit of London, I’d be a little surprised if my current flowed down that pathway again. gerrod.com rating: 6/10.

Kristy and I checked out our local Mascalzone recently – which turns out to be part of a chain, but this is the only one that I’ve ever seen.

For a restaurant that has “Calzone” in its name, I was rather disappointed to find that they only had one calzone on their menu. Still, with about thirty pizzas, about the same number of pastas, plus other “mains”, entrees, and desserts, I certainly couldn’t complain about lack of choice.

As you can see, we both went for a pizza. I can’t remember what either of them were called, but mine had ham, olives, anchovies, capsicum, and an egg; Kristy’s had mushrooms, artichoke, and buffalo mozzarella. As you may also notice, the pizzas were huge – easily enough food for a hungry growing lad such as myself.

I’m a bit fussy when it comes to pizza crusts, and these ones were not up to my standard – I basically just ate around the edges. But the toppings were flavourful, and not too skimpy either. A few points off for only having a single beer on tap, but at only £12 (or so) each, it was overall great value. I’d happily go back and try them again! gerrod.com rating: 7/10.

Lately I’ve been taking my camera everywhere I go, but never taking photos at the appropriate time. Did I take a a photo of any of the delicious Yum Cha we enjoyed at Phoenix Palace on Saturday? Nope! How about a shot of Liming, David, or Victoria – friends we made on the Croatia trip, who we dined with? Good lord, no!

Instead, here’s a photo of Shelley looking rather mischievous, and Julian looking rather worried about Shelley looking rather mischievous, on our journey back from Baker Street.

Unfortunately, it was a similar story on Sunday, when we headed out to Richmond to have brunch with DJ Puu. Photos of any of us? Nup. Scenic shots from Richmond, then? None. Not even a few shots of some random people just enjoying their brunch at Giraffe?

Sorry, no luck.

I blame the cold.

Competition update: It appears the competition is far harder than I expected, so I’ll make it a bit easier. Don’t worry about guessing who went over/under budget, just try to guess who bought what. Current entries are still ok unless the people that made the guesses want to change them. Please leave your guesses against the original story!

Currently we have multiple people tied for first, with one correct purchase out of four (though not always the same item)! If no-one can guess all four by Sunday this week, then I’ll award the prize to the highest guesser (if there’s one person out in front by then).

One of my favourite new restaurants in London is the Friends Oriental Food Hall, just down the road from Putney train station. They have a very Wagamama inspired menu, only their meals are cheaper and come in even larger portions.

My favourite dishes so far are the Beef Ho Fun, Yaki Soba, and the Yaki Udon, but there’s a lot more dishes that I’m yet to try.

We ate there on Sunday at lunch time, and when we arrived we were the only ones in the restaurant. The staff must have thought playing some moderately loud music would provide the buzzing atmosphere that the missing patrons could not, as the volume increased shortly after we sat down. Ordinarily I wouldn’t mind, however their tunes of choice were Christmas carols. On the 4th of January. Seems a little bizarre to me.