The Alma Cafe
Alma Café, 2-3 Rocks Lane, Barnes, London, SW13 0DB
Nothing beats a good brunch in my opinion. A lazy Sunday morning spent sipping coffee and flicking through the papers always feels like a treat, and if you’re holed up in a cosy café and someone else is tasked with poaching the eggs - even better.
At the weekend I braved Storm Brian and meandered along Barnes’ pretty high street, past the duck pond and the church, and when I got to the end I took a right because tucked around the corner on Rock’s Lane is the pretty Alma Café, serving up breakfast, brunch and lunch.
Housed in a characterful Victorian property overlooking Barns Elms Playing Field, Alma is a chic little spot that looks modern and stylish. There are shelves of carefully arranged olive oils, artisan coffee and Alma’s very own homemade granola, natural light floods in through the vast skylight overhead and there are lush hanging plants, well designed wooden furniture, and an opulent marble deli counter adorned with pretty cakes and dozens of beautiful salads worthy of Ottolenghi himself. It’s an attractive, bright and airy space with plenty of inviting tables to choose from and even a juice and smoothie bar that you can sit at. It certainly looks like the kind of place I could happily while away several hours, but I wonder how it tastes…
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It’s a Sunday morning so it’s busy with the brunch crowd but it doesn’t feel stressful, mainly because the service is so slick; there’s a small army of friendly staff buzzing around in smart uniforms equipped with tablets for taking orders, and we were quickly offered a lovely table with banquette seating and plenty of comfy cushions to sink in to. The coffee arrives promptly and I get stuck into the menu, which I am thrilled to find covers pretty much everything you could want in a hearty modern day brunch. There are pancakes, all sorts of eggs, fresh fruit, pastries, the obligatory Avocado Toast with Chilli and Lime mixed with a few more unusual options too such as Wild Mushroom Ragu on Toast, as well a mouthwatering selection of freshly made juices and nutritious smoothies.
To start I opt for a ‘Barnes Body Warmer’ juice made with apple, carrot, lemon and ginger along with one of those on-trend dishes that I have only ever seen on Instagram and never in the flesh - a Pitaya (dragon fruit) Bowl loaded with banana, toasted coconuts, granola and bee pollen, of course. The juice was delicious – fresh, zingy and guaranteed to absolutely obliterate any whiff of a hangover (should one be suffering, that is…), and the smoothie bowl was a revelation - not only did it look completely gorgeous but it tasted divine too. The bright purple chilled smoothie base was refreshing and delightfully fruity, whilst the toasted coconuts and Alma’s seriously tasty homemade granola gave it a sweet, satisfying crunch.
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My healthy start quickly descended into naughtiness, as any self-respecting Sunday brunch should. My Eggs Royale was exactly as it should be - fluffy English muffin, buttery smoked salmon and two perfectly poached eggs that were still piping hot when they arrived at the table, all covered in a wonderfully light, ever-so-slightly sharp hollandaise. My brunch date opted for the Azerbaijani Eggs also known as ‘Pomidor Cigirtmasi’ (remember the unusual dishes that I mentioned?) – described as scrambled eggs with chopped vine tomatoes served with wheaten sourdough. I have to be honest and say was that it wasn’t the greatest looking dish (imagine a rather fleshy pink substance…), but what it lacked in looks it made up for in flavour; the zingy taste of ripe vine tomato running through the creamy scrambled egg was absolutely delicious – it tasted light and fresh but indulgent at the same.
The only very minor disappointment was the supposedly ‘seasonal’ fruit salad, which was overripe and distinctly average in comparison to all the other super fresh and delicious dishes that we had devoured.
The coffee was flowing, our complimentary carafe of water with fresh mint was attentively refilled and the hours seem to slip away as we lazily enjoyed our friendly and stylish surrounds, as well as the Sunday papers. I had heard through the SW London grapevine that Alma had become something of a destination for brunch, and it’s easy to see why.
