The Wolseley

A Grand Room That Still Feeds You

4 of 5

Piccadilly has a room that looks like a stage set and works like a canteen. The Wolseley opens at seven on weekdays and eight on weekends, and it handles breakfast the way a good railway handles rush hour: fast, polite, nobody left standing. Tall ceilings, serious waiters, tablecloths. It should feel stiff. It does not, because the people running it clearly like feeding strangers.

The menu is grand cafe in spine and English in habit. That means eggs done properly, something Viennese when you want to be fed rather than flattered, and a pot of tea that arrives hot. Nobody here is reinventing breakfast. They are doing the old version so well that you remember why it was the old version. For anyone who spent years eating room service in business hotels, a morning here feels like a small act of revenge.

Prices run high, so treat it as an occasion, not a habit. The kitchen stays open until late in the evening too, but the morning is when the room earns its reputation. Book ahead, show up on time and sit up straight. Then watch a hundred people who all want to be somewhere else pretend, for forty minutes, that they do not.

Order this: Whatever egg dish the table next to you is eating, Anything Viennese on the menu, schnitzel included, A pot of tea and a pastry, if you are only passing through
The damage: $$$
Go: A weekday morning, when the room is full and nobody is performing
Find it: 160 Piccadilly, London W1J 9EB
Website: thewolseleypiccadilly.com