It’s not often we get invited to a press event at a traditional British ‘greasy spoon’ cafe, but when the offer of a free breakfast at the Polo Bar cafe at Liverpool Street came our way, we were there in a flash.
We’re glad we made the journey too, as it’s the kind of old school cafe that appeals to our tastes.
The family-owned restaurant is situated at 176 Bishopsgate – smack bang outside Liverpool Street station – and it’s been serving up no-nonsense British ‘caff’ food for nearly 50 years .
We opted for the cooked veggie breakfast option (which starts at a very reasonable £4.45) and it was a delight.
Decent toasted bread, proper veggie sausages (none of this cheapo supermarket stodge) and tasty hash browns, swilled down with some good coffee, all for just £4.55. A right propah bargain!
Meaty things
If your breakfast preference is for things that once shuffled about this land, there’s several meaty feasts on offer, including the house speciality, the “‘Polo Bar special.”
Billed as the “E Type of breakfasts,” this fills your plate with egg, bacon, sausage, baked beans and toast for just £4.55.
For the fry up cognoscenti, there’s the option to mix’n’match the ingredients to get the precise cooked breakfast your raging hangover demands.Want an extra fried egg? That’ll be 75p, squire. Two extra rashers of bacon? £1.35 to you, son…
Comfy seating at the back.
The chef takes a break.
Open 24 hours a day, this is a traditional cafe well worth supporting, with good, honest food at great prices, and it comes highly recommended.
Polo Bar
176 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 4NQ
Open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day
Phone number 020 7283 4889
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Spent many early morning in there drinking tea waiting for Liverpool Street station to open.
Remember waking up in there with copper sitting around me eating breakfast hoping my eyes didn’t look to big 😀
Top marks back then if there was free tables never pushy to get you out or make you buy more food.
Not strictly true. This cafe used to called Ponti’s, and was a genuine traditional (24-hr) cafe run by an Italian family, and with red leatherette booths, but was bought earlier this year by the present, eastern European owners, who promptly ripped out the booths and installed tables and chairs, and created that retro-styled wall with posters etc., which admittedly looks quite good, but the point is that it is all artificial, an attempt to copy the likes of S&M around the corner in Spitalfields. It is pretending to be a traditional cafe, when in fact the owners, from a completely different culture, ripped out the cafe’s traditional character along with the booths. It is almost a theme cafe now. Just wanted to correct the impression given in the article. No wonder they were giving away free breakfasts – knowing they’d get a good review and thereby bolster the image of the cafe as “traditional” etc
Err, the only reason I gave the cafe a good review was because the food was good and I liked the premises. It’s a little bit insulting to suggest that I give out good reviews based on a free breakfast too.
It’s hardly unusual for cafes to undergo refurbishments, and I can only review what I saw – and that was was a decent, clean cafe serving excellent food.
I was introduced to the owner who certainly didn’t seem to be of Eastern European heritage either, but perhaps you’re right and he was an imposter brought in to fool journalists.
I’ve just had my dinner at the Polo Bar and very nice it was too. Ham and cheese omelette, chips and a dollop of coleslaw with a mug of tea. £6.30 – smashing. The food’s cooked fresh, the staff are friendly and it’s very comfortable (even if the decor is a little contrived). Add to that the fact that it’s open 24 hours and it’s rapidly becoming a favourite of mine.
@Myles
“This cafe used to called Ponti’s, and was a genuine traditional (24-hr) cafe run by an Italian family,”
Ponti’s is a chain.
I work up the road and often lunch there, it’s a great place. Personally I’d recommend the sausage and mash – but everything’s good. The best cafe I know.
They didn’t give you the whole toast! 😉
Thanks for sharing guys…just what i was looking for.
@A Dashing Blade – Polo Bar was the original Pontis café before the family grew the business into a chain.
Sono di Venezia, e questo è il mio bar preferito a Londra… comunque sia , se ho tempo oppure no, una colazione, un caffè, o solo sedermi al primo piano e guardare la Liverpool station mi fa star bene… (dopo aver mangiato un piatto speciale ovviamente…) se ci andate, chiedete di Filippo, il Direttore, e dategli un mio saluto…
I am from Veniceand “Polo Bar” is my favorite bar in London … Anyway, if I have time or do not have, a breakfast, a coffee, or just sit on the first floor and watch the Liverpool station makes me feel good … (after eating a special dish of course ….)