WHAT: Eggslut
WHERE: 19 Percy St, London W1T 1DY
PRICE: £7-15
OUR RATING: Skip It
After our latest venture to the British Museum we were quite ravenous, and spotted a venue called Eggslut, which we knew of as a popular chain in LA for famous ‘gourmet’ egg-laden sandwiches. So we readied our stomachs and prepared to get our egg on!
Eggslut actually started off as a street food truck in Los Angeles in 2011, then expanding into permanent sites not only in LA, but also in Las Vegas, Singapore, Kuwait, Seoul, Tokyo, and three outlets in London, including the venue in Fitzrovia that we visited. Eggslut is known for its busy outlets, and when we visited the smaller ground floor was definitely full, but the upstairs was quiet. The venue gave us an up-scale Instagram version of McDonalds vibe. It looked fancier than your average fast-food restaurant, but the tables we went to were unclean and sticky, and the service a bit lacklustre.
But we were there for the food, and our stomachs were keen for some butter, eggs and grease, so we were hoping we were in the right place! A few of us went for coffees, while others went for the overpriced orange juice, which was pretty good but we wouldn’t rave about. We first tucked into their famed ‘Slut’, which was a coddled egg on top of potato puree in a glass jar, with salt and chives and slices of baguette. The egg itself felt slippery, but with everything mixed together with the crunchy baguette, it was a fun little meal, although the texture threw us off quite a bit. It was also a little difficult to eat – but that was the start of our messy difficulties!
We also tried their Fairfax sandwich, with scrambled eggs, chives, cheddar cheese, caramelised onions and sriracha mayo on a brioche bun. For the more carnivorous of us, we also tried the sausage, egg and cheese brioche bun which came with an over-medium egg along with some honey mustard aioli. We enjoyed the scrambled eggs, but sensed more butter than egg, and oh boy was it a disaster to eat! The hash browns we ordered on the side were also pretty good, and offered a nice texture difference in relation to the very soft and creamy sandwiches, which themselves we felt were missing crunch.
Final Thoughts: Now, the food is acceptable here, and we’re not saying we had a bad time, but we were disappointed after all the hype the restaurant has around it. What makes this place harder to review are the exorbitant prices, with all the sandwiches and the Slut being between £9-10. We left the venue still a bit hungry and with much lighter wallets, which is never what you want after having a nice brunch. We’re happy to have tried it, but we wouldn’t go back…we’ll try our eggs elsewhere!
