Brunch Club - November: Karpo and The House of Illustration

So we sort of combined brunch club for October and November. I really wanted to visit the Quentin Blake exhibition at the House of Illustration, but we didn't have much free time in October and it was closing in early November, so we booked it in for the first Saturday of the month and decided to skip October. Having decided on the museum venue all that was left was for me to pull up my handy brunch-spot spreadsheet and find an appropriately-placed one to visit. Karpo, in King's Cross, it was...

There was a bit of a kerfuffle when we first got to Karpo as they couldn't find our reservation details (the usual story), but that was soon rectified and we took our seats. We were sat right by the open-kitchen window, which varied between being frustrating as we saw all the delicious-looking food come out and fascinating as we eyeballed the chefs doing their thing. Feeling piggy and already in holiday mode we both decided to order the £10 cooked breakfast (scrambled egg with sausage, bacon, portobello mushroom, beans and sourdough toast). Upon arrival it looked just as hearty as I was hoping, although being a MASSIVE piggy I could probably have done with an extra sausage. Everything was cooked perfectly and it tasted like the ingredients were all well-sourced; very flavourful indeed.

After all that it was definitely a good thing we had an afternoon of walking around planned. We headed to the House of Illustration for the Quentin Blake exhibition (which has now finished its run), walking through the newly-developed areas of Kings Cross. Can I just say how in love with the whole area I am - the day we visited was that freakishly warm Saturday at the start of the month, and so all the outside spaces were being well used and it was lovely to see families and students hanging out in the area. There are loads of cool restaurants in the area now as well, so I will definitely be returning.

The House of Illustration is small, but the QB exhibition was so well thought-out and detailed that this didn't really matter. It was amazing to see how much influence QB himself had had on what went into the exhibition, and fascinating to see what he had chosen as the work that most characterised his career. There were explanations as to why each piece had been chosen, and the friendly tone of this really worked well in the intimate setting of the gallery. It was great to be reminded of some Roald Dahl favourites such as The Twits, and definitely got us talking about our favourites when we were small (mine was Matilda, obv, as she reads all the books). There was also a lot of time dedicated to Michael Rosen's Sad Book, which I wasn't aware of but really pulled you in - from the initial email Michael Rosen sent to his publisher to the first sketches by QB to the finished product - this was a really simple, sweet, heartfelt and heartbreaking book.

I really loved my first visit to the House of Illustration, and even though this exhibition is now finished I would definitely return in the future for a different one. I imagine it would be a good place to visit with kids as well - there are things they can associate with, and the fact it isn't too big will help! 

I booked Karpo on OpenTable, during a time that meant it counted as a 1000-point booking

Both Karpo and The House of Illustration are in walking distance of King's Cross station

Brunch Club - September: Tom's Kitchen and the Docklands Museum of London

Last Sunday was our next planned brunch club - this time it was my better half's turn to choose our exhibition for the day. Being a boy, he went for the Bridges exhibition at the Docklands branch of the Museum of London, and so I chose Tom's Kitchen in Canary Wharf for brunch.

We headed for food first (of course) and arrived just before the midday rush; it was nice to have a few minutes in relative calm before it started getting busier. I started off with a cucumber, apple and mint juice which was delicious. I am a huge fan of fresh apple juice, but it can often be a bit sharp and so this was a perfect combination as the cucumber and mint tempered any sharpness. For food we both decided to go for a bagel - mine with poached eggs and sausage and his with scrambled eggs and bacon. We also opted to share a couple of slices of toasted brioche, although this didn't arrive until we had almost finished our bagels which was annoying. I found my food fine. There was nothing wrong with it and you could tell all the components were of pretty good quality, but it didn't really taste of a huge amount. My poached eggs were also slightly overdone, but when I say slightly I mean literally 20 seconds so perhaps I am being picky.

We then headed to the museum. Neither of us had visited before so weren't sure what to expect, but the museum was actually much bigger than we had imagined. We headed up to the third floor to where the bridges exhibition started and it was actually much more interesting than I anticipated, particularly as someone who has never shown a massive amount of interest in the history of the bridges over the Thames! Each section of information was really detailed but without being either overwhelming or patronising and I definitely learnt a few bits and pieces. One thing I would say though, is that the whole museum seemed a bit higgledy-piggledy - it wasn't clear where one exhibition finished and one began, and I understand that the point of the museum is that it is a sort of rolling history of London, but we went from reading about bridges to reading about slavery without realising we'd gone from one part to another. It also felt that the bridges section seemed to peter out at a certain point - there was information about the last century, but it was interspersed with sections about other parts (WW1 and WW2 for example), which wasn't exactly what we were expecting or had come to see. That being said though, it was all really interesting and would make a great place to take someone who wanted an overview of London from the last few hundred years.

Entrance to the museum is free. It is walking distance from a couple of stations but we went via Canary Wharf, which is on the jubilee line and the DLR.

Brunch Club - August: Canteen and the Festival of Love

Although I do enjoy pottering around an exhibition, I'm much more likely to get out of bed on a Sunday to visit if there is also going to be food involved. So, with this in mind, we decided to initiate Brunch Club - where we go for brunch and then go to an exhibition, in a nutshell, with the idea being that we take it in turns to choose an exhibition to visit and then pick a brunch spot nearby.

The Festival of Love is the Southbank Centre's summer program, and seeing as summer is nearly over (sob!) we decided to visit this one first while we still had the chance. Of course, the obvious choice for brunch then was the Royal Festival Hall branch of Canteen.

As I already knew exactly what I would order at Canteen we power-walked over there as soon as we arrived in town. I've had the bacon, eggs and bubble & squeak before and loved it, so I didn't even need to look at the menu - the other half had a classic sausage and onion butty. I've already documented my love for Canteen so I won't go into it again - all I will say now is that it was the usual relaxing and delicious time I've come to expect.

The Festival of Love centres around the seven different types of love - the love of humanity; family love; love which endures; self-respect; shared experience; flirting, playful affection, and romantic and erotic love - with each weekend across the season focusing on one of these and hosting a range of activities to suit. There are certain parts of the festival which you need to pay for, but the majority of things are free of charge and this is definitely a family-friendly festival - the petting-zoo for one was pretty popular with all the younguns we saw running around! Our favourite bits were the tunnel of love - a love-heart scented tunnel plastered with pictures of hearth-throbs past and present, that leads into a room with, amongst other things, a game of giant twister - and the Museum of Broken Relationships. This was something that I had read about with interest before and so was super-excited to visit. It contains a collection of various tokens and keepsakes from failed relationships, with the accompanying story behind them. Funny and heart-breaking in equal measure this is a definite highlight.

The Southbank Centre (and Hayward Gallery) is one of my favourite London attractions and I'm really pleased we got round to visiting this. This season is finishing on Sunday 31st August, so there are only two weekends left to visit - make it a priority!