Instead, we're getting places like Napket, that self-confessed 'daring reinvention of the urban café', popping up in Piccadilly. I'm sure their wild rice salad with pomegranate and pine nuts is lovely, but where's the egg, bacon and beans?

It's not like I'm against a caff with a twist. The Mona Lisa down the wrong end of the Kings Road serves up tonnes of parma ham with their scrambled eggs, and there's a comforting amount of builders cracks and broken noses on display too. Cachao on Regent's Park Road may be in chi-chi Primrose Hill, but they do the best pancakes and bagels this side of NYC. And if it's a cuppa you're after, Royal Teas in Greenwich is well worth a look-in for its loose leaf infusions and exposed brickwork cosiness.