Cuisine: British

Cost:

Rating:

Where?: 17 – 19, Regency Street, London. SW1P 4BY

Closest station(s): St. James’s Park, Pimlico, Victoria.

Telephone: 0207 821 6596

Website: N/A

In the heart of Westminster you will a café that has people queuing out of the door every day of the week. Clad inside and out in black and white Victorian tiles it has a certain charm that many a greasy spoon lacks – it does come however with the obligatory plastic bench seating, which though an eyesore again adds character.

The clientele could hardly be more of a mixture - students, builders, civil servants and business people often having to share tables to ensure that the hordes can be fed and watered. The food on offer is everything that a good British café should have from breakfasts to steak pie to liver and kidney to gammon and eggs.

The most novel aspect of any trip to the Regency is the ordering process. Upon entry you join the queue to order your food; having ordered you then go in search of a seat and await ‘the shout’. I have never met two people with such remarkable voices, the man and woman who divvy up the week working at the counter have voices that make Marlon Brando’s or Marianne Faithful’s look weak. When your plate of food is ready you will hear your order bellowed out at which point you scurry up to the counter to retrieve the searingly hot plate and return to your table to devour it.

The Regency is not pretentious or highbrow dining, it is not open in the evenings or for much of the weekend – however if you are in Westminster and fancy a fry up or other British staple then it is hard to beat. There are few finer places to beat away that hangover than the Regency Café.