Baudry Greene is a venue that wears a lot of hats.
If you’re after a breakfast, lunch, dinner, a snack, a quick drink, a coffee, a cocktail, a takeaway sandwich, or a simple choc ice then this place will furnish you with it, and it’ll feel like that’s precisely what it was designed for. Inspired by the continental cafes of Vienna and Prague (specifically the ones that give the word ‘continental’ that weight of sophisticated charm) it’s slightly smarter than a pub, and slightly more casual than a restaurant, while still managing to do the job of both.
And speaking of restaurants, it comes to us from the team behind both the wonderful restaurants Parsons & The 10 Cases – and the latter of those is where you’ll find it, slapped right next to the venue like a kind of wonderful bonus feature.
Inside, it’s an intimate affair, with half a dozen cafe tables tightly packed against the banquette seats that line the walls. It feels very continental too, thanks to leather-embellished bentwood chairs, a red marble bar, and an old fashioned wooden ceiling fan. Being so small means that it feels perpetually buzzing, with just a couple of punters adding atmosphere in buckets.
On the menu, the first thing you’ll notice is the fact that the dessert section takes up as much room on as all the savoury stuff combined. Which is no bad thing. It’s owing to the fact that head chef Kate O’Sullivan used to be the pastry chef at Noble Rot. Thus you can start yourself off with the likes of a flavour-packed Gilda, or a fiery ‘nduja sausage roll dipped in honey, or a simple soft pretzel with a side of taramasalata (the fresh white variety, not the supermarket pink variety).
Yes, that is a Baked Alaska.
And then you can find yourself drawn into the vortex of indecision that will likely pull you into the dessert selection. Do you get the honey cake, with its honeyed Chantilly cream? Do you spring for the blood orange & pistachio pavlova with its brown sugar meringues? Or the Baked Alaska, which packs limoncello and lemon curd ice cream? Perhaps a brandied prune choc ice? Or a scoop of blackberry sorbet drenched in liqueur? Luckily, there aren’t any wrong answers.
And that’s just the evenings – the place is open for breakfast every day (pretzel bagels with cured salmon, porridge, bacon baps, etc) as is their takeaway hatch, and they do a mean trade in coffee and cocktails, or indeed coffee in cocktails, which features on their breakfast menu too.
Just try to keep that under your hat.
NOTE: Baudry Greene is open now, Monday to Saturday, for breakfast, lunch, dinner, cocktails, coffee, and more. You can make a booking and find out more at their website right here.
Baudry Greene | 20 Endell St, WC2H 9BD
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