Note: This restaurant has now closed.

Wallace & Co.

Wallace & Co is the new cafe/restaurant (opened about three weeks) undertaking by Greg Wallace of Masterchef fame. You know, the self-proclaimed “cooking woman’s crumpet”. The happy chappy with the shiny skull and the big booming voice, who along with John Torode, came up with some rather memorable (or depending on your viewpoint – laughable) turns of phrase on the show. Wallace & Co is located in Putney, rather than the more competitive locales of Central London, and it looks the part of a wholesome neighbourhood restaurant. It’s cosy, airy and spacious, and decorated in warm green and beige colours, it feels so homely that you can’t help but want to go in and sip a cappuccino or two.

The centrepiece at the front of the restaurant is a huge wooden table, littered with scrumptious looking baked goods. There is also a take-away salad bar, and, something that should come as no surprise, vegetables for purchase (Greg is a wholesale greengrocer after all – his business is called Secrett’s Direct). Behind the front section is the split level dining area.

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A note from A Girl:

As you might have guessed from the name of my blog, ‘A Girl Has to Eat’, I am a firm believer that a girl has to eat. And it’s not because I’m trying to be exclusionary when it comes to boys, for I rather like boys. I like boys a lot. Past about the age of 13 (oh alright then, 12) when I kinda started getting use to them pulling my ponytail and yanking at my skirt, I sorta came to realise they weren’t ALWAYS so annoying after all.

No, it’s just that I love to eat. For me, food is more than just nourishment for the body, but pleasure for the soul, the backbone of every important family gathering and every great celebration with friends. But I suppose, eating isn’t something I can claim as being a prerogative belonging solely to me. And so, to reciprocate the gesture extended to me by a fellow food blogger, a boy, where I featured on his blog Londoneater with my ‘Storming into Tsunami’ write-up, I too have invited him to write here, on ‘A Girl Has to Eat’, for I suppose, a boy has to eat too…

Lantana, not just eggs, bacon and chips.

Coffee at Lantana

So the story goes about a girl from Melbourne who traversed the continents to show Londoners there is breakfast beyond the bacon sandwich, and then she blogged about it. Seriously, it’s called scrambling eggs, and she has affectionately named the café after an Australian ‘weed of national significance’. In the six months it’s been around, Lantana has bloomed into a significant café and now boasts a loyal following.

(Continue reading her story…)