Frizzante at Hackney City Farm

Family-friendly Frizzante Cafe at Hackney City Farm Photo: © Lucy Andrew

Big blue wooden letters span the railings spelling out ‘Hackney City Farm‘.

They are splattered in paint and decorated with children’s hand prints – an indicator of the clientele you can expect to find in Frizzante, the Italian cafe-restaurant nested amongst the farm’s land.

There are hay bales galore and free-range chickens running wild. We passed a pottery-making workshop on our way into the restaurant for Saturday brunch.

We walked into a buggy brigade. Toddlers’ tears dripped into the puddles of baked beans which had amalgamated on their high-chairs. Yelps and screeches pierced the air. It became clear why Frizzante won Time Out’s ‘Best Family Restaurant’ in 2004.

Incidentally, it was actually a threesome of trendy teenage girls who sprinted ahead of us to secure the last available table. Undefeated, we politely asked a middle-aged couple if we could share their table. They agreed, albeit reluctantly.

We plonked ourselves down, hopes high despite the havoc surrounding us. If you come to eat in the Hackney City Farm you can expect nothing less than the yummiest of mummies – ordering meticulously for their young, who can barely swallow home-made baby-food, let alone differentiate between the meat of an organic corn-fed chicken and a pig raised on grains and greens.

If organic is your thing – Frizzante is your place.

From a selection of veggie and meat breakfasts, butternut squash pot pie, braised neck of lamb and green lentils, amongst other delights, I opted for the soup of the day whilst my companion chose the Farm breakfast: 2 free-range farm fried eggs, char grilled English back bacon, two English pork sausages, sautéed champignons, roasted vine tomatoes with oregano, and two slices of granary toast and butter.

The menu states that all meat is sourced from independent farms in Kent and Essex.

After placing our order at the counter, said companion returns with two piping hot lattes.

I took a stroll around the cafe, eyeing up the home-made chocolate truffles on the counter sitting next to the deliciously creamy-looking gelato in a selection of flavours, which I imagined would be a dreamy companion to one of the freshly-baked cakes displayed in a glass cabinet.

I returned to our table and we waited for our food. And we waited. The couple sitting next to us were served three breakfasts instead of two – and the combination of breakfast bits were not as they had ordered. They were disgruntled, to say the least.

Our neighbours upped and left before even touching the rounds of toast in the basket and as I grew ever more ravenous and impatient, I was tempted to do my bit for the environment and eat their leftovers – to avoid food waste – of course. Fortunately, after gentle dissuasion, I relaxed and our food arrived.

My soup looked rather like a vat of gruel – unappetising and vast – but had the most pleasant of flavours and textures; the lentils and potatoes perfectly complemented by the sprigs of rosemary.

The hunks of granary bread were slightly toasted and there was plenty of butter to layer thickly on top before dunking it into the soup.

The food was scrumptious. We ate every last scrap on our plates and then walked back out through the farm’s entrance into the brightly shining sun and clear blue skies, which perfectly mirrored our moods.

Hackney City Farm
1a Goldsmiths Row
London E2 8QA

Telephone: 020 7729 6381
Email: farm@hackneycityfarm.co.uk

Reg. Charity No. 291211