Hidden away in the residential hills of Highgate sits Franks - a supper club pop-up and brunch hub. Specialising nearly exclusively in pre-dinner dining, Franks has a distinctly European flair with the likes of beef bourguignon and shakshuka both featuring on the menu. We visited for brunch at 11:30 on Saturday morning and it was packed!
The service, initially, was a little slow with later arriving tables served before us. Once we had decided on our food the service was much quicker. The wide, chunky tables are lovely but perhaps a little better suited to a venue with more space - while I am quite open minded when it comes to communal seating, tables of 4 equate to two couples which I found a little uncomfortable. Perhaps investing in thinner tables to give the option of tables of 2 would be a great move for Franks.
We began with two flat whites which were perfectly nice, creamy with a good amount of bitter rich coffee. Sadly the tops were left a little bereft with no latte art - which seems awfully middle class but I do like a bit of latte art. The orange juice I selected was perfectly balanced between sourness and sweetness, which was delicious.
For food we ordered beef bourguignon for Alex and poached eggs on toast with smoked salmon and homemade baked beans for me.
The poached eggs on both dishes were absolutely perfect. They had beautiful orange yolks with plenty of runniness and excellently cooked whites - well done chef! On my plate, the portion of smoked salmon was absolutely exceptional and in fact better value than buying a packet the same size in a super market! The watercress salad was also well dressed and cut through the richness of the dish as I had lots of big, protein-rich flavours.
The beans, homemade and bright red, were sadly too watery. The sauce needed to be much more reduced and the onions cooked down more into a sticky sweetness to have that sticky, moreish, almost creamy texture that I want from baked beans.
The story was quite similar with Alex's Beef Bourginon. The crisp fried bread was great under his poached egg. It was not at all greasy, really crisp and a lovely addition to the stew. The beef was, in part, quite chewy and slightly undercooked and the sauce again was quite watery and needed much more reducing to give it that sumptuous richness that comes from a good Bourginon sauce. The herb salad was refreshing and brought a lightness to this classically rich dish.
Overall while I enjoyed my visit to Frank's it's not one that I would rush back to. I would love to see the sauces reduced down more to really infuse the great flavours they had in them and let the dish really sing. I think the table situation isn't that big a deal if you're not bothered by sharing (perhaps I'm just picky) so don't let that put you off. It's a solid brekkie if ever you needed one.
Thank you Frank's for hosting this review. All opinions are my own.
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