Wallace & Co

I was underwhelmed.
The service wasn’t great. I went in for breakfast/​brunch alone on a weekday, so it wasn’t that the staff were too busy. My order was pretty simple, (croissant and fruit salad, peppermint tea) but it took about 15 – 20 minutes to arrive. Same goes with the bill, took two staff members to actually get it to me.
I’d probably give it another try, perhaps order something more substantial, maybe they just don’t like lone diners?
So I tried again. Still 2 stars I’m afraid.
Rubbery pancakes that were hard to cut through. Ruining pancakes is an unforgivable offence in my eyes.

It’s been a while since I last came here as I wasn’t wow’ed by my first experience. I went back recently to give this place another try. Previously I had the full english and thought it was okay, really nothing special and plenty of other places around Putney that does a full fry up much better.
I went back for lunch recently and ordered the lunch special combo. I had the quiche of the day plus 2 salads — chickpea and chorizo with a pasta with pesto. I really enjoyed it and it was super filling. It was nice sitting in the back on a nice day where you can feel like you’re slightly sun bathing.
I should come back for dinner one of these days.

Wallace & Co.
146 Upper Richmond Road, Putney
London SW15 2SW, England
09 February 2013
For brunch yesterday — Saturday this weekend, it was Wallace & Co on London’s Upper Richmond Road, between Putney and East Putney stations — said to be the signature restaurant of Gregg Wallace — co-​presenter of BBC’s much hyped Masterchef programme. Our table, a group of five adults and two children.
Décor and surroundings neat and inexpensive. Atmosphere relaxed and leisurely and quite child-​friendly. Unlike in some other reviews observed, our experience as regards service was pleasant — found it efficient, courteous, impressively professional, and quick too. The restaurant is evidently popular, going by the numbers the place seemed to attract.
Fairly good choices on the menu — all three men in our group ordered the healthy Rower’s Breakfast — bacon and beans with toast and eggs any way you want, also mixed fruit and yoghurt. The two ladies indulged with sausages and scotch eggs in addition. Down to earth and practical. Range of coffee any way you want it too.
Prices found reasonable.
Maxwell Pereira/​New Delhi/​India

I really enjoyed going to Wallace & Co for brunch. It is a lovely sunny location, with plenty of outdoor space but also a nice bright inner area with conservatory windows.
They have some really great produce, its really very impressive. I got toast with my meal, and they brought me some of their homemade jam. It was absolutely to die for, and I’m not really a jam person! I actually had to buy the jar from them! (Jam was apricot and ginger).
Sadly I can’t get my partner to go again, as apparently the ‘full english’ breakfast is not their speciality. Too small and the bacon wasn’t cooked properly. But I’m sure to come back with my lady friends for jam and pastries!

Expensive for what it is — I don’t want to be cynical but is perhaps some trading in on Gregg’s name happening here?
I appreciate a nice cake display and knowing which farm the sausages came from. I liked that they could seat 10 very hungover hens at no notice whatsoever. I liked that the waiter was quite understanding about said hens variously leaving their food (and the table, ahem), ordering 3 drinks (to see which one ‘worked’) and changing their minds about how to have their eggs five times.
But I didn’t like:
streaky bacon with breakfast. STREAKY?! Just wrong. We’re not in America! Bring back back bacon!
paying quite a lot of money for a smoothie that was toothe achingly brain meltingly sour
no jam?!
In all, a nice place to have breakfast — it’s all wood and stuff, I didn’t take in much of the interior décor to be honest — but by no means ‘Masterchef’ special. I think Gregg himself might think the portions are a bit small, and really, I’m sure the man likes jam! Get some jam! And proper bacon! I’d go back to try a cake because they looked good and they had gluten free pastries and things apparently (my friend is wheat free).

Mediocre food (I had a cooked breakfast, my husband had a burger), slow service and uncomfortable chairs (1970s wooden primary school chairs). Nicely decorated, but that’s not enough to convince me. I won’t be rushing back.

Rustic charm and friendly service are the order of the day here.
The high standard of ingredients, décor and service justify the slightly toppy prices. I was very impressed with my food, as was my eating companion.
I would gladly return here the next time that I am in this part of town. And quite possibly I would make the trip especially!

We stumbled on Wallace & Co while visiting family in London, and so happy that we did. We had delicious (and perfectly cooked) scotch eggs and scones with clotted cream which are almost impossible to get in the US. We returned there several times to eat during the course of our stay for breakfast, lunch and even slipped in a dessert one day. The service was very friendly, and the food was absolutely divine. We will definitely return next time we are in Putney.

Another charming spot with excellent looking pastries. I went here twice and the service unfortunately was just eh. I mean they really tied and everyone was really nice but they messed up or ordered so we had to wait a looooong time for or breakfast with really no apology. I was a little annoyed when I had to wait forever for their obvious mess up and when I was asked if I wanted more coffee I said yes and when i was asked if I wanted another shot I said yes only to find out i was charged not only for the coffee BUT the double shot. At the very least that should have been on the house but maybe that is asking too much. Aside from that the food was very good and the scones were delicious.

So I went to Wallace & Co again yesterday and it was really super good! We had Eggs Florentine and a Full English with a latte and a peppermint tea for about £19. The eggs florentine had a thick creamy hollandaise and the spinach and poached egg were well drained (the worst way to mess up eggs florentine is with water all over the plate — happens all the time!)
The Full English came with beautiful streaky bacon and a choice of how you would like your eggs, which came out perfectly fried as requested.
We arrived with only 10 minutes left until they stopped serving breakfast so we made sure to get our orders in quick. Our food came out within 15 minutes of placing our order, not only was it the fastest I’d ever received my food at W&C but it was pretty darn fast by anyone’s standards.
I was there on the first day that W&C opened and had purchased a loaf of artisan bread at the time they were still trying to figure out how to use the tills but they were so nice. It is nice to see the place maturing from that first day. Hopefully W&C has only been going through the growing pains of being a new restaurant and they have started to work out the kinks.
I hope the service becomes more consistent because this trip was perfect.

I split the English Breakfast and a scone with clotted cream with boyfriend. Lots of food, perfectly prepared items, and incredibly fresh ingredients. I highly recommend!

We went to this restaurant today — 2^nd May 2011 — not just for the food, but hoping to bump into the man himself (Gregg Wallace)! Unfortunately Gregg was nowhere to be seen in person, but he has his stamp over this place!
Food was great — the simplest of foods made nicely. The salads looked very tasty. I had the English breakfast which was good — the chips were like wedges and tasted fabulous!
More like a café during the day, and would assume more like a restaurant at night. The place accommodates this well.
A nice bright environment with outside seating (at the front). One slight disadvantage is the noise level — quite loud if a lot of people are inside (what with the clattering of plates and background music too).
All in all, a good experience. Recommended. Will be returning — hopefully this time Gregg will be there too!

So Greg Wallace (the smily one from Masterchef who loves puddings) has opened his own establishment in Putney: Wallace & Co. serving simple seasonal food in a relaxed atmosphere.
Having driven past it a million times I decided it was about time I paid a visit. I don’t know whether Wallace & Co. is a restaurant, a café or a market stall — it’s somewhere in between all three! The upshot of this is that it is super relaxed and therefore a perfect place for a first date or maybe a chilled out brunch or spontaneous supper. There’s nothing pretentious about Wallace & Co. so this is the place for a genuine «let’s get to know each other whilst tucking in to good food» date, rather than a «let’s get dressed up, push nouveau cuisine around the plate and look for the next good looking person to come in» date
The staff (well our waiter in particular) were great. I felt like we were being served by a cheeky chappy straight from Covent Garden fruit and veg market, which is just how you want to feel when your eating in a joint set up by a vegetable dealer to the trade!
Seasonal food is what’s on offer. Simple and tasty. It won’t be the most inspiring menu you’ve ever seen but that’s not the point, it’s honest, and that’s the overriding feeling you get at Wallace & Co.
This is a great date for when you want to be low key and relaxed; the perfect antidote to a glitzy night out in the West End.

So you know that ‘food expert’ (greengrocer) from the TV show MasterChef, Gregg Wallace? Well, he opened a concept restaurant in Putney earlier this year that sells seasonal dishes at reasonable prices — breakfast, lunch and dinner. It also sells local and seasonal grocery items at the front (as one might expect). I figured, ‘Yeah, sounds like a good place to go since I live in the area’, so I did.
The restaurant itself is really swish in a but-we’re-only-simple-country-folk sort of way. The seating area up at the back is in a conservatory overlooking the overground railway tracks, and there’s something really soothing and quaint about eating your warming dinner on a bitterly cold winter’s night while watching the illuminated trains trundling by in the darkness just outside (but not ‘just’ outside so that people are looking at you eating your dinner; that would be weird).
Anyway.
Service: good. Friendly and just the right side of ingratiating. This is barring the rather confusing ‘a starter and main for £17.50′ deal that ended up being more expensive than the starter and main combination that all four people at my table ordered, yet they (management?) tried to charge us £17.50 per person by some clever jiggery-​pokery of the items on our bill (none of these items were the ones we actually ordered); I thought this was a bit shady, actually, but I imagine it was a mandate that came from above rather than from the servers themselves so I ended up just kind of feeling bad for them when they had to sort out the mess. Don’t get me wrong, the food was WORTH £17.50 (see below), but if you order something that is only supposed to be £16 according to the menu, that’s what you expect to pay.
Food: great. The seasonal menu during my visit was very fish-​centric, which I appreciated. I like it when a British restaurant is properly unashamed of its love of seafood; this is an island nation, after all. Everything was properly fresh and expertly crafted and presented without coming across as over-​the-​top.
But the most awesome part of the visit?
GREGG WALLACE ROCKING UP TO MY TABLE and asking me and my dining companions to keep the noise down jovially, then asking after our food and such. Very showbiz, that. You never expect, say, Gordon Ramsey to visit you tableside at one of his restaurants; hell, you probably don’t even expect him to have ever stepped foot in that restaurant. And, likewise, I didn’t imagine Gregg Wallace hung out in his concept restaurant that much, if I’m honest. Oh, how I was wrong, and I stand corrected.
‘Now that’s a good plate of food’, people.

The Sunday lunch roast beef (£14.50) was excellent. There’s not a lot you can say about this but it was good quality meat that wasn’t overcooked and actually tasted of beef. The portion size was so generous that the vegetables had to be served separately
Minor grumbles include the giant Yorkshire pudding being a bit doughy although this was mitigated by the fact that it was freshly made. The dining room was also a bit clattery but I guess it’s better for a restaurant to be too loud rather than too quiet.
With a round of drinks and a tip, the bill came to £20/​head. Not bad at all for Putney especially when you consider how many places serve smaller lower quality Sunday lunches for the same price.
Returning a few weeks later for brunch, I had high hopes for their Full English breakfast (£7.50). This was duly ordered and although it included egg, bacon, sausage, black pudding, tomato, mushroom, and toast, it lacked baked beans, which I had to order separately for 75p.
I’m a bit of a prima donna when it comes to fry-up’s in that I have to have my beans separate from my egg. The waitress said that wouldn’t be a problem and she made a note that the beans be served separately to avoid any possibility of bean-​egg contact.
So you can imagine I wasn’t best pleased that the beans were served on top of the egg. I couldn’t really give a toss if that was the only problem. But it wasn’t, the egg yolks were hard and the bacon burnt, which is pretty unforgivable in a cooked breakfast.
Paradoxically, my friend’s scrambled eggs were a bit underdone although they managed not to murder his bacon. Moreover with the exception of the excellent black pudding, the ingredients weren’t of a quality commensurate with a £7.50 price-​tag. In particular, we both thought that the sausage was below par. Oh and they served our toast ages before the rest of the breakfast, which meant it was stone-​cold by the time our fry-up’s arrived.
It was hard to believe that the same kitchen that knocked up such an excellent Sunday roast was responsible for our below par Full English. For all our disappointment though, a special mention goes to our waitress who offered an unprompted apology for the bean-​egg contact and was a star throughout. It’s a shame when decent front-​of-​house is undermined by a lack of care and attention in the kitchen.
With hot drinks, juices and a tip, the bill came to £15/​head. I’m hoping my experience was a one-​off, as given the poor quality of the breakfast it wasn’t particularly good value.
The 3-​star rating is based on this place being nearly 5 stars for the lunch and closer to 1 star for breakfast. I hope they iron out the inconsistencies cos there’s a lot to like about this place.