I’m a sucker for a beautiful floor. Polished concrete, shiny oak, cool marble, textured tiles, I love them all. So the first thing that snared me at Lima Floral wasn’t the food, but the floors.
The tiles are wonderful geometric shapes, a little reminiscent of art deco tiles of the 30s. In fact the decor at Lima Floral is quite something, and on this early Autumnal Thursday morning, threatened to upstage the food I’d been invited to try.
Lima Floral is in a tucked away patch of Covent Garden, not yet flooded by tourists seeking busking experiences and overpriced cupcakes. Its sister restaurant, Lima, was the first Peruvian restaurant to receive a Michelin star in Europe last year, so it has good lineage. But good lineage for breakfast/brunch? Hmmm. Not sure.
It’s hard to review this in a way that will be useful to you guys because what I tried, as part of a promotional event isn’t actually offered as part of the weekend brekky/brunch offering. Maybe they’ve tweaked it in such a way that it works better. I just couldn’t help feeling that they were trying to shoe-horn their restaurant into offering something which extended their operating hours, but didn’t really show off what they do brilliantly - Peruvian food.
I think the problem is that breakfast just doesn’t naturally feature as a meal for Peruvians. So the things that worked well at that time of day - the wee muffiny scones and the breads - were more European in nature (but not especially good examples) and the specialist Peruvian stuff just didn’t really work for breakfast (think quinoa pressed into service as a porridge).
It was a pleasant morning and I enjoyed catching up with other food bloggers - the event was arranged by Zomato - but I wouldn’t put it on my Brunch Hitlist based on what I had.
I’d save up for a lunch or dinner experience and give the food a chance to wow as much as those beautiful tiles.
http://www.limalondongroup.com/floral/
14 GARRICK ST
COVENT GARDEN
LONDON, WC2E 9BJ
What Next?
Have you read our review of
Portland Restaurant?