Towpath Café

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The Towpath Cafe, located in the eastern part of London, at Regent’s Canal and very close to Haggerston and Victoria Park, is the perfect place to get breakfast and spend some time people-watching.

With several tables situated along the cafe’s two bars, less than three meters from the canal, the Towpath Cafe serves food throughout the whole day, but possibly the best time to go would be the early hours of the day, for breakfast or brunch.

This was one of the first businesses to open in this part of Regent’s Canal, which now is very appealing, but even a few years ago many people wouldn’t dare to come down here. The founders of Towpath Cafe are Lori de Mari, a food writer, and the chef Laura Jackson.

The menu, written on a chalkboard on the wall between both counters, tends to be concise and centers around local, seasonal ingredients. For breakfast, there’s usually sourdough toast with homemade jams — these jams are so good — plus granola with seasonal fruits, yogurt, scrambled eggs, or eggs on toast with other ingredients like coconut, chilis, or aromatic herbs, as well as muesli, along with options like cheese with sweet quince or tomatoes and mojo verde, a chili garlic sauce. The coffee is excellent, and they also have cookies and some other pastries.

The atmosphere is very relaxed, and they treat you like family. To order, you have to get in line at the bar-counter; although the dishes are served at the table, for coffee you have to wait at the bar, for which there’s another line. There are only four tables, so it’s fairly normal to see strangers sharing tables.