London gets first Porridge Cafe: 'Comparatively with the Cereal Killer Cafe we offer more value and less novelty'

The Shoreditch café offers 'healthy, interesting' porridge that hopes to widen people’s perspectives on how they look at the breakfast dish

If your need for an obscure breakfast-in-a-bowl was not satisfied by the Cereal Killer Café then look no further - the latest in healthy breakfast alternatives has come in the form of London’s first Porridge Café.

Breakfast lovers will no longer have to struggle to find the porridge for their dietary needs as the restaurant offers a choice of eleven different grains on a rotating menu. With both sweet and savoury dishes on offer, and ingredients include apple, cinnamon, chorizo, chilli, and leek.

Café founders, Nik Williamson and Elly Harrington, who previously ran street food company Bow Street Kitchen, site the Nordic revival of porridge as reason for starting up the café. While on a flight out to Sweden Mr Williamson stopped at Copenhagen where he discovered his first porridge café.

“I fell in love with the place. There seem to be places making interesting and unique porridges all over Sweden and Denmark and I thought it would be ideal for over here.”

The Shoreditch café offers “healthy, interesting” porridge that hopes to widen people’s perspectives on how they look at porridge. The café founder added: “People criticise us for doing something specific but fish and chips have been around since the 1940’s and no one bats an eye. The grains are what give us real variety. Even calling the savoury option porridge is a stretch; it is really a risotto dish. We’re hoping the product speaks for itself. We’re trying to steer away from gimmick and focus on making more and more porridge.”

Plans for the café began in September, months before the Cereal Killer Café, another Shoreditch based breakfast outlet specialising in cereals, was announced. “I was aware of the cereal bar, unavoidably they came into our consciousness, but it is a coincidence they are both happening. They are doing great and I think there is a real place for cereals. Comparatively with the cereal bar we offer more value and less novelty.”

The Cereal Killer Café recently came under fire for not being affordable for Londoners.

On his own café, Mr Williamson said: “I think it will be affordable to Londoners. We’re matching prices with chain restaurants that only offer the basics with their porridge.

“We’re not in it to make a fortune; we’re just trying to make some really great food. Our most expensive porridge is £7.

“We’re just trying to make a nice product that’s healthy and tasty.”

Porridge Café, based on Paul Street, Shoreditch, will be open from 2 March till the end of the month