You can find this New Zealand run Spanish tapas restaurant and café on Marlyebone High Street, an older and more upmarket part of London. This street also houses other well known institutions such as a Conran restaurant (which one?) and The Grange. Much like many other London stores, The Providores makes an amazingly efficient use of space fitting into two rows of dining tables into what I would normally consider barely enough for a standing bar area.

Arranging a place for breakfast to fit any group about ten is usually quite difficult, so we decided to meet early and arrived at opening at 10am. I think we were all glad we did though considering that it took all of fifteen minutes for this place to fill with diners and not much more to have a queue spilling out onto the pavement.

Inside on the ground floor of the café, the decorations are lavish without being tacky and all of it looking quite Spanish, thought I am definitely not expert. The high tables and chairs we sat on were quite comfortable and as tiny as this place was, there was enough space that I didn’t feel like I was eating in a shoe box.

The breakfast offerings at this place is overwhelming with a number of variations of the English fry up, a few selections of Spanish food, and a huge number of other staple breakfast foods. The French Toast I had was definitely unique with banana and pecans sandwiched between two pieces of bread before being covered in the egg, and a wickedly sweet vanilla syrup substituted for the traditional maple one. I can’t say the bacon was as good as others I’ve had, it was still a great combination, well presented and definitely filling.

It’s always good visiting new places, especially if a lazy breakfast is involved and this one proved to be enjoyable both in service and cuisine. I can overlook the strangeness of this Kiwi-run Spanish restaurant serving English breakfasts because none of the elements detracted from the overall quality of the place and the company was as good as ever.

I’m definitely keen to check out the tapas they have on offer at sometime, but the breakfast is worth going for.

Details: The Providores and Tapa Room
Found On: 109 Marylebone High Street, London, England W1U 4RX
Highlights: Huge variety of breakfast – some traditional – some more unique
Improvements: Could fit more people in at a bigger location
The Kua Rating: 8 out of 10