Brunch at Lima Floral in Covent Garden

I’m slowly but surely drinking my way through the list of all bottomless brunches in London. I suggested Lima Floral in Covent Garden to my friend Dan who I hadn’t caught up with in ages and he was game. Lima Floral isn’t so much a bottomless option but 4 glasses of Prosecco for £10 is a damn good deal to me. They offer two weekend menu options, priced at £18 for breakfast and £30 for long lunch. Since we didn’t want to wake up early on a Saturday we went for the long lunch.

Knowing that this was a boozy brunch, Dan had driven into London to fix his car, much to my disappointment. This meant we had to be responsible so we shared a set of 4 glasses between us.

The interior is cute. It was such a breath of fresh air – like a colourful modern day Peru. My expectations built up quickly. We chose a table right by the window which also overlooked the restaurant. We were off to a great start and I even thought the blueberry infused water was a nice touch. 

The lunch menu contains 4 sharing starters, a choice of four mains, a few sides and desserts to share. First up was a very well made Sea Bream Ceviche in sour Tiger’s milk. They got this one spot on. My 2nd favourite was the set of vegetarian dumplings served with a chilli soy sauce. The remaining starters however didn’t have much flavour at all. The Huancaina Beef was overpowered by popcorn (and popcorn doesn’t taste of much..). The Tuna Tiradito was quite bland too despite the coriander and lemongrass.

Anytime I see lomo on a menu my eyes light up. I went for the Beef Lomo, cassava and vegetable stew. The beef was tender and delicious as always but the stew itself didn’t have the adventurous Peruvian element that I love. Dan went for the Chicken Pachamanca with salsa and cuzco corn – I got slightly jealous because his was very nice! Both meals came with quinoa, potatoes and vegetables on the side. Unfortunately we found that Dan’s dish was visibly raw inside and sent it back (I must have given it a bad eye). The manager agreed to take this off the bill.

Apart from the Ceviche, the other highlight was the dessert platter which arrived around 20 minutes after the mains. After our meal we were pleasantly surprised by how nice the desserts were. We got a platter of creamy and sweet Coffee Ice Cream, Aguaymanto which are dried Peruvian cherries soaked in syrup and traditional Peruvian Alfajores with dulce de leche inside.

After our lovely desserts, the waitress came by with the bill. Having been served raw chicken we were hoping that the manager would at least come back to hand us the bill personally, out of curtesy and of course for feedback, but he didn’t. Other than that the service wasn’t bad. Generally speaking the food was quite uninteresting considering its Peruvian. Lima Floral is the sister restaurant to Lima in Fitzrovia, a Michelin-starred Peruvian restaurant – naturally we expected better but hey you can’t win them all.

And on to the next one we went. We picked up Naz, our missing puzzle piece, and dragged her to come try custard tarts. I had been so eager to try out I love Nata in Covent Garden, anyone who has been to Portugal will know exactly what I’m talking about! We definitely still had space. Even if not, I’d make space for these any day. The tarts were creamy, crispy and warm – just how they should be!
Make sure you try them.

I love Nata
Latchfords Yard, Endell St, London
WC2H 9AJ

Lima Floral
14 Garrick St
WC2E 9BJ