Barge House

My friend and I went for a lovely Sunday morning stroll along the canal, with no particular brunch destination in mind but knowing that there were a number of options along the water in the Haggerston area. One of the first we encountered was Barge House, a place I’d never heard of, but which looked totally up our alley. We inquired if there was a table available, and were seated in a back «lounge room» that I think is the only place available for walk-​ins. The front room is an airy, sunny space that is busy and bustling, whereas the back looks like it is used for movie nights and has a strange array of small tables, sofas, and other non-​standard dining arrangements. In any case, we were hungry, short on time, and had seen some of the signature breakfast loaves come out so we took one of the last available tables.
Basically what they do is to take the equivalent of a bread bowl, which back home we used to fill with clam chowder, and instead fill it with all your standard brunch ingredients. There was a full English (though still with a lot of veggies!), and my friend went for the vegetarian option, while I got one with smoked salmon. Inside, we had cheese, spinach, tomato, mushrooms, leeks, and a runny egg, and I had smoked salmon (that ended up partially cooked because of the hot ingredients nearby) and she had avocado. It is served on a wooden cutting board and you are given a sturdy serrated knife to take on the task of eating it. It’s a tricky thing to navigate, but thankfully less messy than I imagined! We saw that some neighbouring tables had been served two bread bowls on one cutting board, and I think that would have been much more challenging.
I love the concept and I think this could be a great spot if we booked ahead and got a seat in the front room. I was also fairly impressed with the level of service, as we did not get forgotten despite the fact that we were away from the main action. They did, however, run out of most of their freshly squeezed juices and I thought the orange juice that we got, served with a ton of ice, was definitely not worth the same £4.50. Overall, I had a fairly enjoyable dining experience and I would give this place another shot.

Excellent location along the canal with great food and service. Def must check this joint out

Dear owner,
Find a better way to incentivise your staff.
10:52 on Sunday. Café looks open, clean and ready with staff enjoying a coffee out front. We try to enter the open door. «Sorry mate. We are closed».
Me: «when do you open»?
«At 11»
Me: «ok… Well go check out proud archivist»
«No worries»
Yeah… No worries for me either. We are 8 minutes early… And you guys are clearly ready and could easily seat us and take our coffee order. Or don’t and just get us in the door.
Your employees are just clocking the hours and we are not going to stand outside like idiots for 8 minutes.
Brunch at your main competition it is!

Adorable café/​restaurant/​bar along the canal near Hagerston. Very friendly staff and very relaxed atmosphere. Only came for a drink but the breakfast in bread looked delicious! Will definitely come back here for brunch someday soon.

Fabulous little bistro! We had the «surf ‘n turf» with delicious fresh crab from Cornwall (huge!) and a juicy ribeye steak. Made for the perfect entrée…of course to have room for the homemade tiramisu… YUM!
The staff are very friendly, always a good laugh and the atmosphere has a home-​like feel but yet still very shabby chic in its own right. Very clean and the playlist is awesome… at least that evening was a Motown kinda night :)
We love supporting local businesses and the Barge House is one we’ll go back to time and again. Definitely worth the search on the canal!!!

Generally I love the Barge House, it’s the perfect place to hang out and have a cider in the sunshine. Buuuuut I feel the food really lets it down.
We went there yesterday for brunch and the only things on offer on the menu were breakfasts baked into a loaf of sourdough. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to eat a loaf of bread for breakfast and pay £12 for the privilege. They have literally nothing else on offer on the menu at the weekend till 3pm. Well, you could order an entire crab for £28 but I think I’ll pass.
The bread bowl things are ok, I tried some of my friend’s vegetarian one and it was nice enough. I think it should be served with a side of butter though as dry bread is not exactly appealing. Also it just looks like a boob.

A beautiful sunny day. Stopped in for lunch whilst walking home and had a special salad of beetroot and goats cheese with mandarin. Also a Virgin Mary which was spicy but that’s how I like it!

Great friendly staff, wonderful food and lovely views. It’s not perfect but it is great to while away time. The steak is really tasty and perfectly cooked.
Drinks are expensive, though so don’t have too many bloody Mary’s.

Super friendly service with a delightful ambiance to come for lunch and drinks! We just had drinks here, but looking forward to coming back for brunch.

This place rocks! I love the simplicity of their breakfast. Basically there is no menu, you just choose from two options: meat (sausage and bacon) or veg (mushrooms spinach). They put these in a scooped-​out sourdough cob with cheese, slow roasted tomatoes and an egg then bake it. Delicious.
Apparently at night they change the menu up depending on what’s fresh (they were cooking up a rabbit stew when I was there for that evening). It sounded really good. Booze shelves are super full too and I reckon they could make a mean cocktail.
They make amazing bloody Mary’s. They infuse their vodka with chilli and cucumber and this makes for an awesome BM addition.
The room set up is great and in summer this place will go off. There are tables and chairs outside that overlook the canal which will be perfect when there is sun. The inside has spaces that are available to hire for functions. There is a potential disco room.
The staff are really great too. One of the owners/​chefs is French and an other is usually on the floor.
And, most importantly, they make very good coffee.

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river…
First order — how to get here easily (if you don’t just happen to be strolling on the canal): If you are walking north on Pitfield Street/​De Beauvoir Road and you walk over the canal, turn right directly after onto De Beauvoir Crescent, then the first right again to get down to the canal (sloped/​no steps), then turn left and you’ll see it just past TowPath, can’t miss it.
I surreptitiously stumbled upon the beautiful Barge House whilst making my way over to Proud Archivist for a bit of lunchtime working along the canal.
Unfortunately tPA was off their game entirely, and made me feel like an outcast (unfortunately while I like it there, the service is a bit scattered)…but really, luckily I had noticed this seemingly new spot and made a backtrack to it to see what might be interesting.
And interesting it was! A gorgeous refurb done and opened in November by a passionate family — the Barge House is bright, spacious, and brimming with excellent food and drink. Spread over several areas: outside patio, interior bar/​lounge/​tables, upstairs loft and back alcove, they’ve styled this wonderful location in a way that makes you want to tuck in for several hours, perhaps forever.
I opted for a bavette steak with potatoes, mushrooms and tomatoes (£15), which was perfect, as you can see by the photo below. I gobbled the entire thing. The chef even came out (once to ask me how I’d like it and another time to see how it was). Very nice and pleasant all around. The staff is gracious and welcoming.
If not a bit forgetful. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt (of course) as they are just starting to get busy (good!) but my sparkling water was forgotten entirely (but showed on the bill, making for that awkward bit of adjusting at the end) and I had to request my finale flat white a few times before it arrived. It’s not for lack of effort by any means, I think they just have a lot going on. A very small thing, that I think will be rectified as soon as they get into their groove.
Some other highlights:
*brunch on weekends.
*the entire menu.
*all the drinks.
*craft beers.
*nice people.
*swans in the canal.
*some kind of brunch delivery service?! (I’ll report back)
The verdict: Barge House trumps The Proud Archivist in terms of pleasantness and food quality. TPA wins for wifi and generally just a lot of things going on at all hours/​times/​etc. For a nice lunch I’d pick Barge House. For real work I’d pick TPA (stronger wifi and usually accommodating). If I need to feel welcome, def Barge House.
We all win because they are part of our wonderful community, so I’m pretty pleased to have made this a pretty stellar FTR Friday in February. Glad to put them on the Unilocal map and hope Unilocalers will give them a go – I don’t think you’ll regret it at all.