The great thing about Hackney City Farm is that feeling you get of being in the countryside (and the smells to go with it of course) without having to take a train anywhere. It feels a bit like you're camping, without having to commit to a night out in the freezing cold. The annoying thing about Hackney City Farm is the screaming children and the cots you trip over while going to get your cutlery. It's to be expected really - if I had a young child, I would want to spend every weekend here too
Another thing that could be improved about this place is the choice - you don't really have any when it comes to the breakfast. There's an array of other tasty homemade dishes, but you can't have black pudding instead of the mushrooms, for example. Not like at Pellicci's...
Pellicci's is an east-end institution, and they have masses of choice when it comes to the full English - I love making up my own perfect version, which always includes black pudding, bubble and squeek and beans. Unfortunately, last Sunday, I "popped in" for a quick breakfast with Anna and Rob, hungover and on the way to my haircut appointment, and ended up having to run to Shoreditch (a good twenty minutes away) with no breakfast and a splitting headache, in order not to miss it completely. This is not a fast food kinda place. They have an Italian attitude to time I'd say, which is all very nice and relaxed, if you are not cramming too much into your day, like I tend to do. Needless to say, the lovely staff did not make us pay for the uneaten breakfast. Sadly, the founder, Joe Pellici, died last year (with a massive east end send off), but his legacy continues...
