Ahoy hoy.

So, I decided to go back to ‘Babs. If you want to read what I wrote about it the last time, it’s over here! The tl;dr of my first visit can be summed up as follows:

• kebab – small, alright but not mind blowing
• cup of tea – mind blowingly small

And so I said I’d give them another visit at some point when they had settled down a bit to see what the place is like now. To be honest, I was gonna give it a year or so, because there are still some top places that need reviewed, but then ‘babs on the twitters posted this and jumped up the queue:

How could I refuse? As a long standing advocate of people having kebabs for breakfast and/or lunch, let along both at the same time, this seemed like a genius innovation that required a-testin’, so off I went.

‘Babs do this menu, hopefully visible immediately above where I’m typing, from 11 till 4 of a weekend. I arrived at quarter to four, in a panic, because I’d slept in. Turns out the only thing better than a kebab for breakfast is being asleep when you’re meant to be eating a kebab for breakfast – I regret NOTHING, apart from possibly having to run into town when I’d realised what I’d done.

“But wait!”

“What is it, narrative guy?”

“THAT’S NOT A KEBAB.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Look at it. The tweet what Bab’s gone and done. That’s sausages and eggs, that is”

Well, maybe. One man’s kofte is another mans banger, I guess, but lets not forget that all kebab means is “a dish of pieces of meat, fish, or vegetables roasted or grilled on a skewer or spit” (thx google), and this was definitely that, so up yours.

Anyway.

I went for the Che Babs & Spicy N’Duja Sausage. Here it is in the wild:

Hang on a minute. Let’s look at ‘Babs’s tweet again.

Let’s see what James Burger from his blog got.

No salad garnish? No capsicums??? No blobs of… I’m not entirely sure what those are blobs of? *checks menu* either cream cheese or garlic yoghurt?

To be honest, I’m not too fussed about this – one, my own stupid fault for coming in about 15 minutes before they stop doing brunch, and two, I’m not convinced I would have particularly liked cream cheese or garlic yoghurt – but my plate looks less interesting than theirs, that’s for sure.

But what of what it tasted like? That’s the important bit, right?

It tasted like this: FANTASTIC.

The che babs (lamb kofte) were amazing. Perfectly seasoned, juicy, not too salty, “melt-in-the-mouth” little bits of genius. The consistency here was spot on as well – properly made – didn’t fall apart off the fork or in my mouth – and it wasn’t too spicy either.

The eggs? Well, they’re just eggs. It’s hard to mess up with egg. I am pleased to report that they were very nice too – I was worried initially that “baked eggs” as opposed to “fried eggs” might be all kinds of rubbish – but no! Probably healthier too.

The sausage? The more astute of you reading this may have noticed that there don’t appear to be any, unless you take the kebabs which granted look a lot like sausages. You’d be wrong. There is sausage here – and it’s hidden. The thing that really makes this brunch isn’t the kebabs, nor is it egg. No! It’s the stuff that the eggs are cooked in – the tomato marinara. It was in here they hid the sausage (fnarr) – finely chopped n’duja (think chorizo) with some really ripe tomatoes really made this dish what it was, a good hearty breakfast dish.

Oh, and there was some bread.

But what of the tea? The last time I was here, they served a comically small cup of tea (it was literally the size of an espresso).

This appears to be sorted: 

Brodies of Edinburgh do the tea, and it’s not a bad cup at all.

All in, very impressed with this, and I demand that you make your way slowly down to West Nile Street to eat this.

‘Babs – West Nile Street

Che Babs £9, Cup of tea £1.50

9/10