Brunch at Poco

We are brunch enthusiasts but even we’re sick of the variations on avocado on toast and flat whites that grace most menus. A new tapas restaurant, Poco, on Broadway Market offers something different. Don’t worry, we’re not talking tapas first thing in the morning here: the food has a Moorish influence and the pick of the menu is the Moorish and Moroccan scrambles: harissa beans, chorizo or merguez sausage with scrambled eggs and chilli on sourdough toast. These dishes have more punch than we were expecting. The most thrilling item on the menu here, however, is the churros. We’ve never quite understood churros and whilst we’ve wanted to love them on holiday in Spain, they’ve often tasted overwhelmingly of the oil they are cooked in. These churros are a different matter: both light and crisp, they are rolled in a cinnamon sugar and a dipping pot of melted chocolate is offered alongside it. It’s probably not the sort of thing you should eat every day but you should definitely try them as a treat. The chocolate in the pot happens to be made by Divine (although Poco also use Mast Brothers chocolate in other dishes) and the produce across the menu is almost wholly organic, seasonal and has been carefully sourced as locally as possible. This was part of the thinking behind the original Poco, which chef Tom Hunt set up in Bristol in 2011. At Poco in Broadway Market, ingredients will include own-made cheese from Kappacasein in Bermondsey and fruit and vegetables from Organic Lea in the Lea Valley. This is pleasing, of course, but what really matters is that brunch here tastes so good.