The Electric Cafe

Best-Value Restaurants in South East London: Cheap, But Not Cheap Eats | Eater London

"Truly, there are only so many ways you can fry a sausage, so the real make or break for a greasy spoon connoisseur is the choice of carb to form a buffer between the solids (bacon, sausage, black pudding) and the gloops (egg yolk, beans). Toast is compulsory so it doesn’t count, therefore the standard options are chips (for lunch and for children), hash browns (for Americans and for children) and bubble (correct). Bubble is the aficionado’s choice, and those who subscribe would travel a long way for a breakfast based around it — to Tulse Hill perhaps. Electric has been going since 1932 and like the other great London caffs — Pellicci, Regency, and Alpinos — is run by a proprietor with origins outside the U.K., in this case Stavros Tsoukkas whose Greek-Cypriot family has owned it since 1978. The bubble here shows a little bit of that Mediterranean touch, intensely herby with big enough chunks of Savoy cabbage to stave off scurvy for a day or two, all moulded into a big soft patty fried to a char on both sides that cuts through the oil and fat like a strong cup of tea. Eat it in a setting that feels like is hasn’t changed for donkey’s years, surrounded by wooden signs and assorted arcana from halcyon days, old boys with old accents tucking into liver and onions, and feel grateful that at least someone is preserving it." - Jonathan Nunn