Farm Girl

Farm Girl started as a small juice bar before growing into a full cafe on Portobello Road, and the Australian owned original branch still sets the tone for the wider brand: bright tiled walls, healthy brunch food and coffee that gets more praise in reviews than almost anything else on the menu.

The açai bowl and gluten free pancakes, served with combinations like baked apple, pear, rosemary and toasted cinnamon, are the dishes most people photograph, while huevos rancheros, Turkish eggs and a slow cooked chicken sandwich cover the savoury side of a fairly short but well considered menu. A long list of juices, smoothies and specialty lattes rounds things out for anyone not eating a full meal.

The room is small and always feels a size too busy for its own space, especially at weekend brunch hours when Portobello Road itself is heaving with market traffic outside and every table inside is taken within minutes of opening.

Service has a relaxed, unhurried style that some guests read as friendly and others read as slow, and a 30 to 45 minute wait without a booking is common on Saturdays. Portions have also shrunk relative to price over the years according to regulars, with a sandwich now costing around £10 to £11 for what is a fairly modest plate by that price point.

It remains a solid coffee and brunch stop in Notting Hill, but go in expecting a wait, a squeeze for a table, and a bill that outpaces the portion sizes on the plate.

Farm Girl has since opened further branches in other parts of London, and while the format stays consistent across sites, the Portobello Road original has the most character simply by virtue of the market setting outside, with stalls and browsing tourists forming part of the view from the window seats. Anyone visiting on a Saturday should treat it as a full outing rather than a quick coffee stop, given the market crowds add to both the atmosphere and the queue at the till. Weekday mornings, by contrast, are noticeably calmer and a better bet for anyone wanting to actually enjoy the food without competing for a table against the weekend crowds drawn in by the market itself.