Princi

Style over substance? Form over function? All fur coat and no knickers?

In some respect yes. But still, Princi delivered one of the best breakfasts I've ever had.

I'd just been cycling along the Thames with a bunch of gentlemen. From Friday til Sunday morning we'd slept rough under a large Chestnut tree one night and in a barn the next. Although we were dressed in gentleman's attire, we looked a little on the scruffy side and were more than a little wiffy. We also just had a bottle of Prosecco whist on the train to Paddington, great as an aperitif, but maybe not at 9am on a Sunday morning. So we staggered into Claudio Silvestrin's palace smearing our shitty trousers around his immaculate black granite & polished metal and released hell in the toilets, but the burning incense couldn't mask the fury of our burning anuses.

Princi is another concept dreamt up my the master restauranteur Alan Yau, in a collaboration with the Milanese baker Rocco Princi. The concept is simple; exhibit the food, and watch it being cooked in a wood-fired oven for all to see. People love it, it's almost theatre. The interior design was by an other Milanese chap called Claudio Silvestrin, his design almost has dominance over the food.

You may notice the shiny bronze lettering on the business card above, it's deliberate, it matches the bronze sheets which clad the tables and doors in the bakery/restaurant. Every tiny detail has been 'aesthetically' thought about in this place. From the Funktion One sound system delivering audio as clean as the toilets, to the extended counter which breaks through the window and on to the pavement, It all seems a little pointless if the food doesn't match up to Princi's massive shiny bronze bollocks. Well, actually Princi has a big shiny bronze dildo to match its bollocks and tears off the fur coat to produce a sensational orgasm gushing with flavor. Right in the mouth.


Rather than writing in obscure sexual riddles I'll explain why the breakfast was so good. Basically they don't compromise on the quality of the ingredients, apart from the tomato being a bit unripe, which is strange for Italians, the other ingredients included -



Tuscan sausage - meaty, tastes gamey like wild boar.
Tuscan pancetta - thick and smokey.
Cannellini beans with onion & tomato sauce - how baked beans should taste.
Portobello mushroom - big and full of juiciness.
Egg (I had scrambled, you can have  boiled or fried) - rich dark yellow and perfectly cooked. Wish they did poached.
Toast - thick slices of white artisan bread (tasted like sour dough) with perfect crust and soft airy crumb, served with very good butter.
Tomato - not ripe and needed a much longer cooking time.


Coffee - I had a Flat White which was surprisingly good for Italian coffee as they usually use a ton of Robusta bean which makes it taste vile.


Almond Croissant - Bad. Very bad. Had a much better one in Climpson & Sons, great coffee there too.


The Princi Hot Breakfast was £8.50
Coffee was £2.40
An Almond Croissant is £1.80




It may have been the sensation of comfort food after the hobo experience, but most likely it was the excellence of the ingredients that gave my taste buds the contrasting ride to which my balls and anus had that weekend. So despite Princi being a bit poncey, I like it.


Oh and it's pronounced 'Princhy'.