Restaurant Review – Megan’s Clapham Old Town
(we used the Eat Out To Help Out Discount to dine here. Check out this post for more Clapham Common restaurants taking part in this deal)
Hello! Today we are off on hunt of Brunch. Well, more Br than Unch but off we headed to Megan’s in Clapham Old Town/Clapham Common
Where is Megan’s Clapham Old Town?
Clapham Common is in South London, on the Northern Line tube you could get off at Clapham Common station . If you are driving there are a few car parking spots out the front but they are pay for parking. Lots of the parking around the common is residents parking only so be sure you actually want to drive before taking the car.
Outside Megan’s Clapham Old Town
The road that Megan’s is on is a bit quieter as the actual main road is kept seperate from it. It is also a bit further from the common so doesn’t have a lot of people just handing around it.
Megan’s is on the north-east side of Common and has a few other shops and pubs around it.
Inside the Megan’s Clapham Old Town
Its a bit ‘instagram’ inside but you soon get used to it. Due to the old Pando’ they have removed some of the seating inside to give people more space. Sometimes I can find Megan’s to have too many tables so it makes for a much more enjoyable dining experience. Rather than mark tables as ‘out of use’ it looks like they have removed tables and that looks much better.
Megan’s is split into 3 sections and I’ve eaten in the other two sections before but this time we were near the big opening windows. Lots of light but a bit closer to the road so a little bit more road noise than you might want.
The Menu
What was strange is we weren’t handed menus, we were handed a piece of card with QR codes on on to scan and then read the menus from our phones. Seeing as we both had to handle the card AND it would have been handled by other people, I’m not sure what the benefit of that actually is.
As we were there for Brunch we checked out the brunch menu and the drinks. You can find the menu here.
The Food
Megan’s menu isn’t about volume or ‘stodge’ – they have plenty of light options for you to choose from. The Brunch menu has lots of options including a ‘full breakfast’ with a veggie offering.
The Mains Event
I had 2 poached eggs on toast with a side portion of Lamb & Feta fries. I do like a poached egg and having had their lamb and feta fries before, I knew it would be a good combo. They don’t look for the biggest slice of toast ever, for the poached eggs, but, with the fries, it would be enough.
One thing I will say is that although the eggs ‘looked’ great, they didn’t appear freshly cooked as they were colder rather than hotter, when brought to the table. I assume that Megan’s make the eggs in advance and then re-heat quickly before serving. It appears that they just didn’t re-heated correctly. I still ate them – they weren’t ‘cold’ they were just weren’t ‘hot’ in the way poached eggs should be.
The lamb and feta fries are amazing! They put some herbs/spices on top and when you add the saltiness of the feta it really makes the whole dish sing! They did tell me they were out of fries and that they could do it with sweet potatoes fries so thats what I went for. Its not the biggest bowl and the lamb may have more than a passing resemblance to the cuts of meat you find in catfood but the taste is excellent – get this dish!
The veggie breakfast was exactly as described. They include something called Shakshouka – which usually has egg in it – where they serve it just as a chunky tomato sauce. As part of a ‘breakfast’ it replaces the grilled tomato and neither of us thought it added anything to dish. A welcome addition to the breakfast is Halloumi – who doesn’t want some grilled squeaky cheese?
It is a nice plate of food but could do with something else on the plate. I’m not sure what, maybe a veggie sausage or something like that. I wonder if it is just worth getting a plate of scrambled eggs on toast with extra Halloumi and spinach rather than pay for the mushrooms and Shakshouka which don’t add anything. At least the shakshouka is kept in its own prison and not allowed to run ruin throughout the rest of the plate!
Cost of Lunch at Megan’s Clapham Old Town
During the old Pando’ there are two things affecting restaurant prices. We have seen a reduction in VAT (I covered this on this blog post) on food/drinks. On £20 worth of food/drinks this would work out at about a £2.50 ‘discount’. On top of this the government are offering a ‘Eat Out to Help Out‘ 50% discount (up to a maximum £10 discount). I knew that both of these would bring down the cost of our meal.
The total bill after the EOTHO was just under £19. This included the water on the table and a couple of hot drinks. Before the discounts this would have been about £30-35 so a healthy amount off.
The Reverend’s Final Thought
If you are looking for brunch while in Clapham then Megan’s is a great choice. There are a few Megan’s dotted about so if you see one you should pop in. It isn’t the cheapest but you aren’t rushed and it is nice to just sit and unwind. The ‘informal’ setting makes it easier to spend longer there chatting away and drinking. They do offer alcoholic drinks if you are looking for something to help you unwind.
The spacing of the tables at Megan’s was much better. A good 1.5 metres between the tables and there weren’t lots of people crammed in. While we were eating they opened the massive windows and this helped to get fresh air in. It also helps that the layout of Megan’s means you don’t really see everyone all at once and this gives you the feeling that it is a lot emptier than it really is. Will this continue after the pando’ dies down? I’m not sure as it will be hurting their bottom line not having as many people in the restaurant as possible.
Check out my other Clapham restaurant reviews here https://thereverend.co.uk/tag/clapham/
Check out my other restaurant reviews here https://thereverend.co.uk/category/food/restaurant-reviews/