The best breakfast in Kennington?

As regular readers of this blog will be well aware, Kennington has establishments that cater for most needs, but its one relative weak spot has been places to have breakfast or brunch.

Vergies is the nicest of a number of local cafes that offer fry ups in the greasy spoon mould (although it’s anything but greasy in there).

Toulouse Lautrec serve freshly baked French pastries, freshly squeezed orange juice, freshly pressed orange juice and the creamiest of scrambled eggs on weekends and Bank Holidays, but the service can be a little frustrating (some of the staff have limited English and speaking French to them doesn’t seem to work either).

Brunswick House do a good but short brunch menu.

Tea House Theatre’s breakfast is reviewed here.

Sally White do some breakfast options but add star anise to their granola – why why why?

So it’s with some excitement that we annouce that we now have a new candidate for the title of best breakfast in Kennington – The Tommyfield, who serve breakfast between 8.30am and 11.30am on weekends.

One of us had a homemade granola served with Greek yoghurt and a summer berry pot:

Homemade granola, Greek yoghurt, summer berry pot at the Tommfield - Kenningtonrunoff.com

And the other had a serving of buttermilk pancakes which came with blueberry compote and mascarpone cream:

Buttermilk pancake, blueberry compote, mascarpone cream at the Tommyfield - kenningtonrunoff.om

Both were excellent, but the lingering smell of drains which has percolated through the Tommyfield for a while now was more bothersome at breakfast time despite a sash window wide open next to the table.

Even if you’re not staying overnight at the Tommyfield Hotel, you can still enjoy their fragrant breakfast of a weekend, menu here.

Rooms at The Tommyfield – Kennington’s newest and nicest hotel

Another of our Kennington Predictions for 2014 has come true – Ace Hotels have opened their latest outpost in Kennington.

Errrrr……OK, that’s not 100% true (yet), but Kennington does now have its own super-bijou boutique hotel in the form of six hotel rooms above The Tommyfield pub on Kennington Cross, and they’ve been decorated in a rather refined shade of industrial chic that isn’t a million miles from the Ace Hotel aesthetic.  Our room was all white-washed brick walls, a chair that we’ve definitely seen in the Conran Shop, and a typographic ‘We not me’ print on the wall from the Changethethought collective.

We Not Me print at Tommyfield Hotel - kenningtonrunoff.com

Lovely bathroom too, with marble topped double sink and huge walk-in rain shower:

The Tommfield Hotel rooms shower - kenningtonrunoff.com

They launched without any fanfare at all in mid-May, and we were the first guests to stay in Room 3, although we have it on good authority that Russell Kane will shortly be lounging on the very same Super King Hypnos bed shortly.

A launch price of £119 per night per room (including breakfast) is reasonable for rooms that can more than compete with the very best that Airbnb can offer locally, minutes from the geographic centre of London.

If you stay on a week day it’s a DIY breakfast in your room from a pick of porridges, muesli, fresh fruit and juices, and our favourite Teapigs teas, plus a Nespresso machine.

Tommyfield Hotel DIY breakfast - kenningtonrunoff.com

At the weekend, guests breakfast downstairs in the pub from a more extensive menu, available until a very civilized 11.30am. But more of that later.