Soul Food

26 Grains

February 8, 2016

I’ve been wanting to visit 26 grains since when they first opened last June. Following them on Instagram always made me instantly hungry and I’m glad I finally got there!!

As expected the place is small but perfectly formed. I was immediately greeted by some very capable young ladies who work that place like magic. You feel the energy of the food as soon as you step through the door and know whatever you’ll order you are about to do something very good for your body and on top really enjoy it too. Result!

With a very small kitchen unit, all dishes are made to order and you can feel the love that goes into each one.

Ah, now what to choose. I had read on their Instagram page that they’ve just added some new dishes. One of them was the 3 Grain Blood Orange & Cacao Crumble (Almond milk oats, barley and rye blend, blood orange compote, cacao crumble, greek yogurt).

I decided to first take photographs, have a peek at some of the dishes being served before deciding what to feast on.

Their menu is really quite extensive for such a small place and I particularly liked that you could have sweet or savoury dishes. Their drinks list covers everything from smoothies, lemonade, drinking vinegar to teas and coffees made with almond or coconut milk and turmeric tonic. There is even turmeric latte and hot turmeric choc.

26 grains rolls their own oats and in their savoury dishes they use stock to cook the grains.

I loved their simple system of keeping track of orders.

This here below is a Bircher muesli. How pretty is that? Oats and chia seeds soaked in almond milk, Coconut, goji berries and date syrup. Yum!

The very simple decor is charming and effective. Little touches here and there, a few cacti, a little painting and some hydrangeas give it that homely feeling.

Cucumber and lemon water is readily available.

As it was lunchtime and I always favour savoury over sweet, I opted for their Egg & Kale (Oats with Kale, Egg, Avocado and Chili Sauce). Now, that might not sound seductive but I knew it would be just the right dish for me and it was! As I wanted to try their homemade black tahini I chose that as an add on as seen in the photograph.

26 grains is a great addition to the increasingly health conscious London food scene. Can’t wait to return!