Now Shoreditch Is Getting A Porridge Café

Ben O' Norum
By Ben O' Norum Last edited 109 months ago
Now Shoreditch Is Getting A Porridge Café
This is porridge.
This is porridge.
And this.
And this.
And this.
And this.

A café dedicated to the nation’s favourite hot, oaty breakfast fodder will open in March, just down the road from its cold-serve counterpart the Cereal Killer Café.

The menu will be somewhat more elaborate than its name suggests, with sweet and savoury options including blueberry, ginger and cashew butter; slow-cooked beef ragu with feta; and roasted pepper, chorizo and chilli.

Err… chorizo porridge?

The thing is, founders Nik and Elly — also behind street food operation Bow Street Kitchen — are using the term porridge quite loosely.

They’ve chosen 11 different grains to base their dishes on, all of which are used to make a form of porridge in some corner of the world. These include arborio rice, rye, polenta and quinoa (which we wouldn’t really think of as porridge) as well as the humble rolled oat.

Several of the dishes sound a lot more like risottos or grain-y casseroles to us, which makes toppings such as poached eggs, slow-roasted chicken and capers sound less alarming.

They say:

Lots of the research led us to articles that show how amazing Porridge is as part of a balanced diet. It's high fiber, high protein, low GI and eating it regularly can also help reduce stress due to the presence of magnesium in many grains. We discovered the huge amount of grains that are used to make Porridge all over the world along with the different methods to make it.

The café will serve from 7am-6pm daily after its launch on Paul Street near Old Street station on 2 March, competing with Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium, board game café Draughts and Cereal Killer Café for the title of east London’s quirkiest eatery. It’s running as a pop-up initially, but has no set end date — if it proves to be a success, it’s likely to become a permanent fixture.

See the Porridge Café website or follow them on twitter for more information and updates.

Does the sound of it leave you Quakering with anticipation, or are you oatso tired of breakfast-themed cafés? Let us know in the comments below.

Last Updated 13 February 2015