It’s a sunny afternoon in Fulham and a heavy Friday night induced hangover has got us craving ALL the food. Luckily Hanger SW6 has the perfect antidote: a juicy steak brunch with bottomless bubbles.
The Venue
Hanger SW6 is a place with the best kind of split personality. Upstairs is bright and open plan; with blue leather seating, wooden planked walls, vintage photos of Fulham and a window with views straight into the kitchen. It’s relaxed and beautiful on a Saturday in Spring, and a glorious place to enjoy a chilled out brunch, lunch or dinner throughout the week.
Downstairs however, it’s a different story. Descend the stairs at the back of the restaurant, dip your head beneath a bright neon sign and suddenly you’re in Below The Cut. This intriguing and secretive basement cocktail bar is the place to be on a weekend, as you can enjoy a family serve style Basement Brunch for £35, with bottomless bloody mary's or prosecco and an incredible 2 course steak and egg meal before submitting yourself to an evening of cocktails and music.
It’s darker down here, with tables around the room for dining and comfortable sofas placed in the middle where you can sample the innovative and delightful cocktail menu. There are vintage vinyl sleeves decorating the walls and old posters from days gone by. The excited chatter of weekend revellers is fuelled by the drinks and food.
Broody and cool, this is the perfect setting for cocktails and brunch combined.
The Food and Drink
To get the full experience of Hanger SW6, we enjoyed our food upstairs and our drinks down, though obviously the Basement Brunch experience is exclusively below ground. The menu champions steak but still hosts a few of the classic brunch dishes Londoner’s would expect to find (because brunch isn’t brunch without avocado). With a side of smashed avocado we both enjoyed the two steak brunch dishes: myself the Steak & Eggs (£9.50) with oozy, golden fried eggs and a small heap of golden hash brown bites, and my partner in crime went for the Full Hanger (£10), all in all boasting steak with eggs, tomato, hash-browns and a few rashers of juicy, thick bacon.
Steak for brunch? Looks like Below The Cut are on to something.
The hanger steak (recommended medium-rare) comes sliced with its succulent pink middle on show. It's tender and cooked beautifully over a coal flame. The hash brown nuggets are the perfect ratio of crunchy to fluffy and benefit from a generous dunk into the accompanying sauce. The kitchen plans to add a few more classics to the menu in the coming months to satisfy those other brunch cravings you might have, but I have certainly been won over by the steak brunch concept. To wash it all down we started with a few mimosas which come as a bottomless option outside of the Basement Brunch offer for an extra £20 per head in a 2 hour sitting. Once our plates were scraped clean it was time to descend Below The Cut for cocktails.
Time doesn’t seem to exist where the light can’t reach, and before you know it you’ve spent your entire afternoon getting gently pickled on the outstanding cocktails curated by Charlie, the mixologist responsible for one of the most intriguing cocktail menus I’ve experienced in some time. Though tempted by the whole menu we were instantly drawn to the Hanger Old Fashioned (£9) which is uniquely made with bacon infused bourbon, bitters and brown sugar. The intense smokey bacon flavour is fascinating and achieved with some very clever techniques, and complements the meatiness of the brunch perfectly. It is garnished with a pork scratching and becomes smoother the longer you leave it in your glass to marry with the ice.
Their take on the old fashioned promises a smoky and intuitive blend.
Summary
Hanger and Below The Cut combined make for a perfect place to indulge away your weekends. The team have given a lot of thought to the brunch experience, putting a new spin on it with a quality meat based menu and sophisticated drinks. Below The Cut lends itself perfectly to bookings of small parties up to private hires. We counted three birthday celebrations during our visit and it’s easy to see why. With fine food and free flowing fizz this place puts Fulham firmly on the brunch map.
