Brunch At Pedler, Peckham Rye

[dropcap]M[/dropcap]ate, look how pretty Pedler at Peckham Rye is. Just look at it. It’s officially my new favourite place in London. Go right now. Right this second.

Okay, cool. Review over. Done deal.

Nah, I’m kidding.

A little while ago citizenMag, citizenM’s little magazine sister, got in touch to ask me to show off one of the wonderful places to eat where I live. From the list of fabulous places, Pedler caught me eye.

You can read citizenMag’s review here.

I don’t know how much you know about Peckham. You could live there for all I know. But what I will say is that it’s pretty off the standard London tourist beat. It’s residential and multi-cultural and absolutely bustling with life, and also looks like it’s on the fringe of the same kind of gentrification that hit Shoreditch a little while ago. All sorts of little edgy bars and cafes are popping up. Pedler is no exception.

Ollie and I turned up, 10 minutes late, to brunch on Friday morning, and immediately found ourselves reminiscing about last summer and our two week trip to Bali. It’s that kind of place, with that kind of chilled out holiday vibe. It probably also helped that it was a million degrees outside.

How amazing do those doughnuts look? Unfortunately we were far too full to try them, after the mountain of food below, but apparently they came in Nutella or Pumpkin Cream flavours. Damn. Literally what more could you want?

Well let me tell you what more, actually.

Oll and I took forever to decide what we wanted. I’ll admit that a lot of it was me saying ‘okay but will it be pretty?’ but we’re going to gloss over that. The menu was insane. About 15 dishes, all locally sourced and home made in the cute little kitchen out back, just ready to get in my belly. In the end we settled on the ricotta pancakes, with peach, strawberries and maple syrup for Ollie, and the dutchie – basically a yorkshire pudding covered in cheese, bacon, maple syrup and gravy – for me. We also had two sausages on the side because Ollie wanted them and who was I to say no to sausages. On top of that lot were a cappuccino, which I’m informed was excellent, and a breakfast tea from an insta-worthy silver teapot.

Can I just say that Ollie’s pancakes were the best I’ve ever eaten. I’m not a sweet person. I never order sweet foods for breakfast and would happily turn down pudding. Pancakes, delicious as they are, just don’t make me happy the way a bit of gravy does. Until now. I don’t know why these pancakes were so fantastic, and I definitely hadn’t started drinking by then, but they were phenomenal. It’s worth going for the pancakes alone. My dutchie was also superb. The gravy was absolutely delicious and the maple syrup went so damn well with everything on my plate. Neither of us could finish our meals, although the sausages went pretty quick, because both of us were almost dying of fullness and deliciousness.

So what about the cocktails?! I hear you cry.

Last week, Ollie found out that he was officially going to be a fancy pant city lawyer and we hadn’t really celebrated. Not just the two of us, anyway. This brunch was a little bit of a treat.

Having eyed up the cocktail menu for about an hour, no joke, we thought we’d go for it. It was lunch time by then so it’s okay. Definitely okay.

I ordered The Perfect G&T, a g&t with a slice of fresh grapefruit, made with local gin, and Ollie ordered a gin and juice named Sippin’ On… for obvious reasons. Local gin, cucumber, mint, apple and all sorts of other things that Ollie can’t remember. It was delicious though. My g&t was actually perfect. I’m not a massive drinker and won’t pretend to know anything about how gin should taste, but it was definitely the best I’ve had. 10/10 would recommend.

I’ll be back to Pedler in a flash. Probably tomorrow. Definitely pretty soon. The vibe is perfect, the staff and owners are just wonderful, and I’ve never felt so relaxed while fiddling about with a camera in a restaurant. Thanks so much to Pedler for having us and for letting me take so many photos!

This review was sponsored by citizenMag. All opinions and photos are my own.