Olives at the Station Valentine’s Brunch

‘For me, brunch is such a versatile meal since you can play on both the sweet and savory in your dishes’ – Marcus Samuelsson

*Our brunch was complimentary in return for an honest review*

Whoever it was who invented a meal between breakfast and lunch is quite frankly a genius. I’ve never been a massive breakfast eater, I mean I love breakfast food but my stomach doesn’t wake up until at least 10.30am so I just can’t manage loads of food so early in the day.

We’ve been to Olives at the Station a few times now, once to try their Gin and Rum festival and of course to include them in the Wine & Beer Metro tour (since they’re located right inside Whitley Bay metro station). We don’t normally do much for Valentines day, usually just cards and a dine in for two, so when we were invited along to try their valentines brunch, it felt like a real treat.

First of all, Olives is the perfect setting for a casual Saturday and there were lots of people already there tucking into their breakfasts, coffees and cakes. The offer included a sharing starter board with french toast, a blueberry muffin and yogurt with chocolate granola, plus a glass of homemade bucks fizz to wash it down with. Who doesn’t love a breakfast drink?!

The french toast in particular was amazing – like a thick fluffy pancake and the fact the muffin was warmed through was a nice touch. I’m not usually a fan of granola due to the fact that it usually contains raisins (which I don’t like) so to have chocolate chips in instead was inspired.

For main course I went for eggs benedict with black pudding and bacon and Dave the eggy bread and bacon and maple syrup (such a bloke!). The poached eggs on my plate were cooked perfectly with a beautifully runny yoke, the bacon nice and crispy and the black pudding had just the right amount of spice in it. I made the mistake of forgetting to ask for the hollandaise on the side, as I sometimes find it a bit too much and too sickly. And whilst there was a lot of sauce on my eggs however it was creamy without being too sickly.

Dave’s eggy bread was a sight to behold, made with thick doorstop slices of bread rather than normal supermarket bread and the eggs were cooked practically all the way through the bread. Again he wished the maple syrup had been on the side just so he could have monitored his own distribution but that really is just splitting hairs.

Although this was a valentine’s day special, it was a good representation of the kind of thing they have on offer on a weekly basis for breakfast or brunch. And since the gin and rum festival last year they’ve put together quite a catalog of events over the coming months so be sure to check out their calendar on Facebook. I personally can’t wait to sing, dance and drink the night away at their coming 90s night. Perhaps I can convince them to do some french toast canapes too!