A wander up the Golborne Road

I'm always happy to have meetings in Notting Hill, today Bea (my lovely Business partner) and I decided we needed to have a catch up meeting too and what better place to hold it but at Lisboa Patisserie. We do generally see each other every week but due to the nature of our Virtual business we mostly work from our own homes so it's nice to catch up. We've had several new clients recently so we just needed to touch base on our progress with each one, also to dissect the morning's meeting. That's one thing I love about working for myself, I can hold a meeting anywhere, so much great work gets done over a nice Latte. I always found stiff meeting rather restrictive and not terribly creative. In my opinion its much more productive to have a brainstorming in a relaxed environment over a drink. Anyway...




Friday is a busy day at the market, not quite as well attended as the Saturday market but all the better for it in my view. The Golborne Road is rather exotic, Moroccan and Portuguese co exist in this street together with the Antique/Vintage shops it actually has become more vibrant and exciting than the Portobello Road. The Moroccan street food stalls are were packed with the Moroccan men that had just piled out of the Mosque, there wasn't a seat to be had despite the cold! The cafes and restaurants that line this road were buzzing even on a Friday. The Portuguese Cafe, Lisboa, is especially packed all day long, there is always a queue and there's a very definite reason for that. The coffee is excellent, the pastries, cakes and sandwiches are fresher than anywhere on that street. From the kitchens beneath the Cafe cakes are supplied to hundreds of other cafes/restaurants all over the UK, the most popular being the Pastel de Nata.




A lovely old fashioned greengrocer, with the weirdest items for sale!


The world famous Trellick Tower presides over Golborne Road.


I fell in love with this little armchair, didn't dare look at the price tag though!

The fantastic fish shop where today I bought all the ingredients for tonight's dinner.

One of my favourite Vintage shops in Golborne Road, the Dog's Bullocks quite literally!



For us, both being of Portuguese origin (but both born & bred Londoners) we like to have our regular fix at Lisboa Patisserie in the Golborne Road. Here are some of the cakes and sandwiches!




Across the road the Delicatessen is a meeting point for many local Portuguese and Brazilians, This is where I always buy my Prosciuto or as the Portuguese call it Presunto  - it's the cheapest place in London, I bought 16 slices for £2.64 today! they have a great array of Chorizo's, cheeses and all the other goodies imported in from Portugal and Brazil. Golborne Road is also the best place to get your North African spices and breads, Marrakech is my favourite, recommended to me years ago, it does do the best Ras El Hanout. It is one of the most colourful, vibrant market streets in London and worth making a special trip to. You can do all your shopping, get your haircut and have lunch all in a small stretch of road without fighting with too many tourists, who tend to keep to the Notting Hill stretch of the Portobello Road.


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