Westbourne grove is a trendy street in Notting Hill, stretching from Ladbroke through to Bayswater and crossing Portobello Road, most famous for its diverse markets. This street is a joy for strolling along, with wide paths that are relatively quiet for the area and filled with dozens of nice stores and cafes. One of the more kitsch places to visit on a Saturday or Sunday is 202 Westbourne Grove, a place that is both a fashion store and café in one.

The polished wood floors host the decently numbered marble and wood topped tables that are all set in the back half of this large store. They have a nice garden out back, filled with six tables as well as the sidewalk tables out the front of the store, under the terrace and Italians heaters that people no doubt enjoy the most during the summer months. Depending on what time you arrive, you are most likely to be waiting for a table, particularly if you are with a party more than two, but fortunately our party of four (consisting of Karl, Caroline, Nathan and myself) managed to beat the busy lunch period and secured ourselves a table within ten minutes of arriving.

The brunch menu is simple with no more than, maybe, eight different choices that you can also compliment with a number of sides. The items are modern breakfast dishes and you pay standard prices for them (up to about £8), as is the decently made coffee at £2.50. The prices for the juice and bottled water on the other hand, are especially steep with a large (i.e. standard tall glass) OJ costing you a hefty £4.24 and a 750ml bottle of water costing you just over £6. The 12.5% service charge is actually quite worth it in this place, with the white shirted and jeans clad staff being prompt and efficient without the over bearing or intolerable attitude you can find at just as trendy cafes. Take for instance, my situation this morning when I accidentally spilt a little bit of my coffee onto my plate of French toast and extremely tasty bacon. Although the incident was not too loud, a staff member upon witnessing the incident promptly offered me a napkin to soak up the coffee and a clean plate for me to transfer my now, slightly soggy toast. It was a lovely way to spend the morning and fill up on food for the day.

TheKua Rating: 7.5 out of 10