We Went To A London Cafe That Just Sells Bowls Of Cereal

MATILDA EDWARDS, an Australian living in London, went along to Shoreditch cereal cafe Cereal Killer, which boasts a variety of cereals and toppings from around the globe. Read her review below.

I’ve done pretty well at not missing Australian food since I fled to the UK six months ago (bar one packet of Tim Tams brought over by the most excellent of friends). I haven’t thought once about Vegemite, a lamington hasn’t passed my lips and I’ve done a grand total of zero Weet-Bix.

What I have been craving – usually on slow Sunday mornings – is Aussie cereal. There’s not much more satisfying than a bowl of Milo cereal almost overflowing with milk to lift your spirits, and I thought I was doomed to live out the rest of my days without its chocolatey delight – but that’s where Cereal Killer comes in to save the day.

You’ve might have heard about it in the news because of its hugely mixed reactions from around the world. Cereal Killer is a brand new ultra-hipster café in the ultra-hipster Shoreditch area of East London opened by a pair of ultra-hipster twins (known as the “breakfast brothers”), serving nothing but delicious breakfast fare.

And it’s good – it really is, even if a tiny bit overhyped.

Even three weeks after its opening, a Saturday midday stroll down Shoreditch’s Brick Lane still revealed a snaking line outside the tiny café front. A good 45 minutes later and we were crammed into the café and another 20 minutes passed before we could order. This one might need years before the lines die down.

It’s definitely an experience that’s fun to have once, but upon exiting you can’t help but feel like your cereal cravings might have been better lived out from the comfort of your own bed, pouring from your own box of cereal and not listening to the chatter of the surrounding crowd. A large bowl of Milo cereal (at last!) with regular milk – they have just about every flavour you could imagine – and no toppings (too many to choose from) set me back almost $7AUD, while two toasted Pop Tarts verged on $4AUD.

The décor is fun – with all sorts of cereal memorabilia from the quirkiest vintage ads to boxes of blueberry marshmallow cereal (what?) and cereal lip balms, it’s a one-of-a-kind novelty that really was a good laugh. How long it will last after the all the visitors have finished with their soy-chai-cornflakes-with-quinoa-and-kale is the question; unless the situation was desperate, I’m not sure you’d get me paying $7 for that beautiful Milo-ey goodness again in a hurry.

They do have Nutri-Grain too, though….

(Lead image: Terren In Virginia/Flickr)