During my April visit in London, I decided to skip the traditional fry-up breakfast included in my hotel deal, and head for a different experience instead on a Sunday morning. For a small-town girl from Finland, who knows more of less every café, eatery and restaurant in her hometown, the endless choice in London is quite overwhelming. That’s why I’d done my homework online before leaving, and found just the place for me. For a long time, I’d wanted to try an acai bowl for breakfast. Acai, you know, the hailed “super berry” from Brazil, which surprisingly grows in palm trees and not in bushes or on the ground as other berries. The Huffington Post even called these bowls “The World’s Best Healthy Breakfast” a couple of years back. As these berries are not easily available in Finland, I decided London would introduce me to this wonder food.
THE GOOD LIFE EATERY, 59 Sloane Ave, London SW3 3DH
I chose this café for the location – I love the area around Sloane Square! – and for the good online reviews, but, most of all, for having acai bowls on their breakfast menu. On a sunny Sunday morning, I took the tube from Pimlico to Sloane Square, and then walked leisurely along the very quiet streets, admiring the blooming spring trees along the way.
In a side street from the Kings Road, I found The Good Life Eatery, small and cosy, with a welcoming smell of freshly baked scones and rolls wafting to the pavement through the open door. Mmmm, spelt croissants! I knew I’d chosen the right place.
Inside, the café was furnished in the typical, rather minimalist, modern style. The brick walls, old-looking wooden tables, lines of hanging metal light fitments and colourful, patinated metal stools pleased my eye. Service was efficient and very friendly and all in all, I can warmly recommend this eatery to anyone who is after a slightly different breakfast experience. The clientele seemed to be mainly young women in their 20s-30s, having breakfast in twosomes. Most of them seemed to go for bread topped with lots of pureed avocado and either salmon or a poached egg. Interestingly for a Finn, the bread seemed to be dark rye, just like at home! Even though all this looked really tempting and delicious, I had made up my mind, and ordered a cappuccino with an acai bowl, as planned.
Being an English teacher, I can’t help eavesdropping on people’s conversations whenever in an English-speaking environment, to pick up all the latest catch phrases and popular sayings. Sipping my coffee, waiting for my breakfast, I quickly noticed that the male waiters’ favourite seemed to be ‘cool’, which can apparently apply to anything positive, and also mean the same as ‘OK’. The young ladies, on the other hand, gossiping about their Saturday night events, kept repeating “… and then he was like…”, “… and then I was like…”(I gather meaning ‘he said’/’then I said’), with a fashionable, Ozzie-like upwards tilt in their accent. Aren’t languages just so intriguing!
And then my long-awaited treat arrived. A big bowl full of cold, velvety, thick smoothie-like, purple acai puree, decorated with strawberries, chopped banana, whole acai berries and some bee pollen. It was heavenly, and definitely lived up to my expectations! The taste reminded me of a mix of blueberries and maybe blackcurrants (mind you, I think the colour affected my tastebuds a little bit, too) but I didn’t get the hint of dark chocolate often associated with these berries. After slowly savouring every last bit, I felt well nourished, energised and ready for a day of London sight-seeing. I probably looked a bit younger, too, as, apart from many other health benefits, acai berries are also claimed to have an anti-aging effect. I wish I could find frozen acai in Finland to prepare this at home!
July 8, 2016 at 5:39 pm
That looks like a nice place. Language is so very interesting. Some of the words used by the British are foreign to us in North America 🙂
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July 8, 2016 at 5:45 pm
Yes, I know! Speaking British, I was often misunderstood when I lived in Virginia for a year. For example, how would you interpret ‘Could you give me a lift?’ 🙂
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July 8, 2016 at 5:48 pm
To me, that would mean – Can you give me a ride in the car? 🙂
We have learned a lot of British words by watching British TV 🙂
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July 8, 2016 at 5:53 pm
OK, you knew it. I can remember when I’d first arrived in the US and asked people this, they wouldn’t understand what I meant 🙂 Here in Finland, I must say that people hear more American on TV and in films than British. Most of my teenage students sound more American in English.
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July 8, 2016 at 8:52 pm
What a lovely post, I really enjoyed reading it, and your breakfast looked delicious. The Sloane Square / Kings Road area of Chelsea is one of my favourite districts of London.
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July 9, 2016 at 7:08 am
Thank you for your nice comment! I like this area, too.
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July 10, 2016 at 8:07 pm
I have never tasted an acai bowl, it sounds yummy! I do chia seeds myself but now I need to find out if this is available in Helsinki. Lovely post!
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July 10, 2016 at 9:50 pm
Hi Suvi, I’m sure you’ll find acai bowls somewhere in hip Helsinki. Not here in Turku… I do chia seed puddings for breakfast quite often, and have got the whole family to like them.
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July 20, 2016 at 10:07 am
Hei Sinikka – so happy to have found your blog! I’m a Finn living here in London and I absolutely love The Good Life cafe, so glad you found it on your trip here and got a chance to try the acai bowl. Lovely post!
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July 20, 2016 at 10:37 am
Hi Karoliina, so nice that you found my blog 🙂 Yes, The Good Life cafe was such a great find! Although we live in Finland, we often visit Britain as my husband is British, and our daughter has studied there and will probably settle there, too.
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