Lydia

I have never given a bad review before but this place just worth it… POOR SERVICE it gave me the impression that this place is huge but has only one chef and two waitress (and plus one little girl serving…)… And they obviously have NO idea what they should do… Everything is super slow and they are all over the place… We have to wait 20minutes for a cup of tea… And then 1 hour for the food… I was so hungry that I wanted to kill people! These two stars not one star is because they tried to comfort us with free bread after a long waiting so at least they noticed their service was shit…
PLEASE HIRE MORE PEOPLE IF YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR BUSINESS AND TAKE SOME LESSONS IN CATERING/​HOSPITALITY MAYBE?

There are very few times I would write a negative review of an establishment but I gave Lydia a second chance and I was still disappointed in the service and quality of the food. I went in on a Sunday morning with my partner and we ordered the classic breakfast of Eggs Benedict with a side of hashbrowns, she ordered the soup. About 20minutes after ordering we were again approached by the waitress asking what we had ordered. Which is always a good sign. After explaining again what we ordered a further 10mins later we were approached again asking what we had ordered, I asked if they had even started making the coffee and they didn’t come back to me for a while longer and so we just walked out. The waitress apologized and said it was just too busy. Poor excuse.
I then went in on the Monday, happy to give them a second chance but after ordering and getting halfway through my Hollandaise drowned Eggs Benedict I came across an inch long black hair, with skin follicle and all. Tasty.

I’ve come here so many times, always thinking «maybe it will be better this time». So much potential– very cosy space decorated in a tacky Mardi Gras colour scheme (you know– purple, gold, green, all that New Orleans-​jazz), oriental rugs and mismatched furniture– it sounds ideal, right? BUT THE FOOD REALLY IS NOT GOOD AT ALL.
How hard can it be to make french toast, miss Lydia? Or TOAST? Or eggs benedict, or english breakfast, or… You notice I’ve tried many times here. The only success I’ve had was with the chocolate milkshake, which I can recommend whole heartedly. Which also sucks because I’m lactose intolerant.

I went to Lydia because I was really hungry and couldn’t be bothered to wait in the queue at my (and everybody else’s) favourite breakfast spot on Church Street, The Blue Legume. It’s some what lacking in atmosphere here; it is neither grimy east end café nor swanky Church Street eatery, however it’s a good place to grab a cheap eat and read or watch the world go by.
They passed my basic requirements for a decent fry up which are: the eggs must be runny in the middle and well-​done around the edges (not the other way round) and that the toast must have been buttered while hot because there is nothing more distressing in the world of breakfast than hard, cold butter on anaemic looking toast. Everything else is a bonus and I don’t expect decent bacon or sausages for less than £4 a meal, but they were actually quite tasty. I also stepped up my annoying customer status by asking for fresh orange juice instead of the tea or coffee the breakfast comes with and I got it at no extra charge.
I wouldn’t spurn any of my other favourite breakfast spots in Stokey to come here but as it’s the closest one to my house and very cheap, I will probably end up here again in the near future.

I went in here for lunch one day, and although the menu is fabulously cheap and relatively healthy with large portions. The quality of the food in is not that great though. The eggs were runny, the bread was not that great, and the vegetables could have been a lot better. I lost my appetite halfway through the meal. You might be safe with some of the simpler choices on the menu, like soup. All in all, I think it was worth the 3.50 I paid for the meal. The service was quick and friendly, but I won’t be back in a hurry.

This little café on Stoke Newington Church Street offers the best and cheapest fried breakfast in the area. It is a funny restaurant that you can’t quite work out when you first venture inside– an intimate, middle-​eastern restaurant that serves up hearty, traditional English breakfasts. Its identity crisis is confirmed by the fact that it seems to be forever changing the colour of its shop-​front.
Look out for the breakfast special on the board outside with sausages, hash browns, bacon, beans, toast and mushrooms with coffee and juice for 3.95– I don’t know of anywhere else as cheap that serves up as much food as this. Admittedly, the sausages aren’t that great and the mushrooms are a little tough but hey, they give you a lot of food, and it is significantly less greasy than most east-​end caffs. They serve up other breakfast/​lunch food like omelettes and jacket potatoes, but that isn’t really what Lydia’s is for– there are plenty of healthy restaurants further down the street, but none with such good hash browns.

This is a short review but the quality of the venue is inversely related to the quantity of my words.
The price of a dodgy fry up place, with the quality and ambiance of a good restaurant. Every meal I’ve had is great, the service is always tipable, and the general mood is relaxing and friendly. Simply the best value eatery on Church St. Love the scrambled eggs with peppers.