Sunday is a great time to do brunch although I had a challenge on my hand when the friends I met said, let’s do it at 10:30am. If it were any city in Australia, this wouldn’t be a problem but for some reason London tends to be rather sleepy on a Sunday morning. In fact, I spoke to someone who’d yet to see any Sunday mornings for the last two months. In an endeavour to go down my list of places-for-brunch, I found that Automat opened early enough (according to their website, 10am).

I arrived slightly before 10:30am, and besides one other small table, the whole place was pretty empty. Having booked ahead, they mentioned there would be a two hour turn around although I’m assuming this was a standard warning since it wasn’t particularly busy when we left, nor did we feel rushed.

Their interior is loosely split into three areas, the front reception area made up of small cafe-style tables, a middle section filled with leather bound booth style seating (which we sat in) and a sky-light lit dining area made up of more cafe-style tables. As much as an American diner as it felt, it certainly oozed a lot more charm than one you’d expect to enter if you were in the States. It was particularly fitting considering the area it sat in.

Their brunch menu did all the classic American diner breakfasts (waffles, pancakes, french toast) and merged in with more of their interesting American style lunch foods including Mac and Cheese, Smoked Brisket Rolls and “Po Boy” Sandwiches. I decided to go with the Canadian stack, or rather a made up version by ordering the Buttermilk Pancakes with maple syrup and blueberries (£10) with a side of bacon (£4)

Their pancake stack contained three fluffy and very filling pancakes and their bacon was cooked perfectly crisp but still had plenty of flavour. Plenty of maple syrup decorated the plate without making it excessively sickly sweet. The coffee (latte) was reasonable though nothing to call home about (too milky) although bonus points for the freshly squeezed orange juice (you get what you pay for (I think it was £4).

Service was polite although not particularly attentive when we finally wanted the bill at the end. I’d return for a breakfast although with their menu, I’d be more interested in sampling something different on their lunch or dinner menu.

Name: Automat
Found at: 33 Dover Street, London W1S 4NF
Website: http://www.automat-london.com/

This visit was on Sunday 11 April