E Pellicci

A Hundred Years of Eggs

4 of 5

E Pellicci has been on Bethnal Green Road for a century, and it looks like it. Wood panels, Art Deco lines, a room worn smooth by about a hundred years of elbows. The Kray twins ate here. So did half of East London since. It is an Italian-British family caff, and you will see the family working the room.

Order Have the Lot. Crisp bacon, blistered sausage, beans, the whole fry-up laid out on a plate big enough to feed a small committee. A ham and cheese roll is a plain thing done decently. The pasta is a side note. This is a breakfast place first and last, and the cooks know it. Nev, who is part of the family that has run the place, makes the room feel like a living room.

It is cheap, loud and full of regulars and tourists sharing tables without friction. Get there early before the room fills, and expect a short wait at peak hours. Do not ask for anything fancy. You are here for the one thing a good caff does, which is feed you well for not much money and send you out feeling like you belong. Few restaurants can do that. This one does it daily.

Order this: Have the Lot, A ham and cheese roll for the road, Tea, strong and plenty of it
The damage: $
Go: Early, when the regulars are in and the grill is loud
Find it: 332 Bethnal Green Road, London E2 0AG