Coffee Tree

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Coffee-Tree-Cambridge/267788913401445

Histon Road has never been overly blessed with coffee shops. At one stage the best option was the machine in Kwikfit. A few years ago the Nasreen Dar started doing coffee, but with the best will in the world, it’s still a shop that sells coffee, rather than a proper coffee shop. So when an independent coffee shop opened in June this year it was probably long overdue for an increasingly middle-class residential part of Cambridge. Commuting past it fairly regularly, it first it looked like a coffee and cake place. Then it started advertising bacon rolls. Then a beguiling “bacon, sausage, beans, and egg”, and then finally, recently, they came out and proud with “Full English” on the board. Time to investigate…

English Breakfast at Coffee Tree

Seefud

It’s a fresh clean place inside with ample, if not generous, seating and a few tables on the pavement. There was some very good, and homemade looking cakes on the counter and the usual array of coffees. I didn’t explore the menu much more than that as we knew what we were after. Black coffee and Full English. The “small” i.e. normal sized coffee for £2 was pretty tasty and good value. The service was pretty good, and friendly. The breakfast was solid but unremarkable. It all seemed pretty freshly cooked and there was plenty of toast. The sausage was non-economy, slightly herby, style which was fine, but not a stand-out feature. The bacon could have done with being slightly crispier maybe, and the egg slightly less cooked. But there was the right amount of beans (and not too much juice) and the tomatoes were done fairly well. I think the presence of some nicely cooked mushrooms and maybe upgrading the bread for the toast could have me coming back here regularly. But I will be back for the coffee and probably a go at the homemade cake.

• Food     3
• Value    4
• Service  4.5
• Ambience 3.5
• Coffee   4 

Troby
"Bog standard". The breakfast was nice, and the ingredients were ok. The thing i liked about this place most is the "homemade" feeling, like it it had been made with love.
I would have liked mushrooms though, and my sausage was just on the tepid side of warm. I was jealous of the breakfast that got served next to us, steam rising and piping hot, with tomatoes slightly blackened. I recon it'll get better here though, and I wish them success. Overall the experience was good enough that I'd like to go back again. I think they need some greenery in the cafe, but mebe that would spoil the 'clean lines'.

• Food     3 
• Value    4
• Service  4.5
• Ambience 3.5
• Coffee   3.5

Lazydayz cafe, Wimpole

http://www.lazydayzcafe.com/

A roadside greasy spoon, bit of a rare beast these days. Conveniently situated for Wimpole parkrun...

Free WiFi!

 ...although I didn't see any runners, or cyclists, or bikers for that matter, hanging around. There was a steady trickle of not-conspicuously-athletic regulars, but it didn't get crowded.

Too much food. 1.5 Tomatoes

Fried slice is on the menu by default - Hallelujah! As well as the never-before-spotted cheesy bubble and squeak, which proved irresistible. I ordered the 'Tasty Tenner', which cost seven pounds (not a tenner. It's a mystery).

A word about ordering. Swaps are not allowed by the chef! So choose a breakfast you like and add extras. This includes Lorne sausage, which looks terrifying. There are some pretty good value options, and discounts can be printed out from the website (which I was not equipped with). Also the default coffee with the breakfast is instant or possibly jug: espresso-based drinks require a £1 upgrade.

I sat outside and the food arrived in about the time you would expect to cook it from scratch, which it appeared to be. Streaky bacon was a good mix between crispy and pliant. Lincolnshire sausages warm all the way through. Bubble and squeak moist and oozy. The fried slice was a fried slice. We're not talking gourmet ingredients but it's decent.

• Food 4
• Value 4.5
• Service 3.5
• Coffee 3
• Ambience 3

Cote Cambridge

http://www.cote-restaurants.co.uk/Cote_Restaurant_Cambridge.html

As far as dining in Cambridge goes, Côte is usually a safe pair of hands in many respects. You're generally not expecting to be blown away, but you're also not expecting to be let down. Like many of these chain places, that can see key kitchen and waiting staff turnover fairly regularly, it can suffer from inconsistency. "Life is like a box of chocolates..." etc. Would we pull a green triangle (Mmmm!) or a strawberry cream (eugh!)

Classic Cambridge window seat view

Seefud

GREEN TRIANGLE FOR THE WIN! Thank you Côte, it can be done!  An almost faultless breakfast experience!  Maybe... no, I have been suffering from sub-par breakfasts recently (cough... Bill's) but I don't think that's why I enjoyed this so much. I think it was genuinely a great breakfast. Maybe not 11/10 amazing in any one department, but just very good in all departments.

Firstly, it's a nice atmosphere and you can almost always get a window seat for breakfast. The service was spot on, a very professional waiter and service and delivery time was very acceptable. The menu is pretty good with the "Formule" offering being the stand out value choice. A Full English, choice of apple or orange juice, and choice of coffee for £9.50. The coffee was good and hot if unspectacular, the apple juice was pretty nice and iced. There was water bought to the table too, and life was good.

Côte has breakfast beverages pretty well covered!

Then it just got better when the food arrived.

There was a couple of rounds of nice wholemeal toast with butter in a dish go with it. Initial concern that the eggs were overdone was unfounded, they were just well basted but with runny yolk. The sausage done just how I like it, and a nice breakfast banger, porky and only a little herby. The tomato was lovely too, once I'd scraped off a slight excess of dry herbage. The only slight issues were the bacon was a bit old and rubbery, and I could have done with more mushrooms and the other half of the tomato. But very tasty overall, and not at all heavy with grease. I even had enough toast left over to have a couple of pieces with the good quality jam that was already on the table in a jar (nice touch). One happy boy!

I want to go back tomorrow!

• Food     4.5
• Value    4.5
• Service  4.5
• Ambience 4.5
• Coffee   4 

Troby
Hit the nail on the head!
We decided to go here as opposed to the greasier end of the scale today, and I'm glad we did. I've had a variety of different experiences at Cote, and today was one of the good ones. 
We got a great table by the window overseeing the hundreds of commuting cyclists - ambience is great here, with decent background music, and somehow a french feel, maybe a certain je ne sais quoi? Service was friendly and quick and our coffee soon arrived. 
There are a few options on the menu, I went for the "formule" which is full English with juice and a coffee included for £10. Slow service has been a bit of a bugbear recently, but the food came soon, while my coffee was still hot. The food was great. I went for scrambled eggs, fresh orange juice and brown toast, and there's also tomato 2 bacon, sausage, and mushrooms. All the ingredients were good, especially the sausage, which was a herby number, and the the bacon, which although was a bit overcooked had a nice smokey flavour. Another bonus was the toast, which was the seeded kind which gave good crumb. 
My only negatives were the small portion of mushrooms, and the scrambled egg was slightly rubbery.

Overall however, just what I wanted, a tasty and well valued breakfast served with panaché.

• Food      4
• Value     4
• Service   4.5
• Ambience  4.5
• Coffee    3.5

Mocha cafe, Saffron Walden

http://www.themocha.co.uk/

Another convenient bike-ride destination. You'll need to work up an appetite to tackle the 'Gannet': two rashers, one sausage, tomato, beans, shrooms, egg, fried potatoes

Only half that bread is mine

This comes in at £7.25, which includes a hot drink on weekdays but not Saturdays; smaller options are available. The tea comes in a mug. Cheapish ingredients but hot and fresh: they were busy and this came within 5 minutes. Fried potatoes are nicer than they look in the photo, more like stubby chips than saute potatoes. The bread is pre-marged sliced white. There wasn't any black pudding on the menu but plenty on people's plates so it seems you can ask for it.

The cafe itself is some sort of American diner greasy spoon cross. You order at the counter/open kitchen but need to give a table number - of which there are lots, some outside where you can keep an eye on your bike, some nice booths inside. They serve thick ice-cream shakes which I've sampled on a previous visit - including mint chocolate. But there are also daily lunch options like sausage and potatoes. There's a nice bustly feel with some radio station or other playing in the background. Papers are available.

Breakfast-wise this is right up my street and down my alley. Reminded me (favourably) of various Croydon haunts.

• Food 4
• Value 4
• Service 4
• Ambience 4
• Tea 3
• Milkshake 5

Bill's

http://bills-website.co.uk/restaurants/cambridge/

A popular city centre café cum restaurant with an attractive looking plate of breakfast. But is it good and is it worth the money? 

All that glitters is not gold

Seefud

A Bill’s Breakfast is an £8 breakfast, £9.50 if you add black pudding like I did. That's a lot of money so the product ought to reflect that. Good raw materials are a must and to be fair, apart from the sausage, they probably started off okay. And at some point, between ordering and the plate arriving on the table, the food was probably mostly in a reasonable state. But for some inexplicable reason, it took about 20 minutes to arrive it had all the hallmarks of having sat around under a hot lamp for half that time. What a shame! The mini sausages were dry and almost cold, the eggs were buffet style overdone with chewy orange yolk and the streaky bacon so crispy it shattered when I stuck my fork in. Maybe that’s how the bacon is intended to be, but that’s not how I like it. Anyway, the tomatoes were pretty nice and the toast wasn’t too bad. The coffee was fine and the service about typical for a Cambridge city centre place. I do like having water on the table so +1 for that. Having eaten here before I was expecting an average experience from Bill’s, but was left feeling disappointed and a little bit ripped off.

• Food     2
• Value    2
• Service  4
• Ambience 3
• Coffee   3 

Pastries

The food is good quality but as m'colleague mentions, there is an irritating variability in the serving time and temperature. Sausage heat seems to be a chronic issue which I've experienced on virtually every visit. On the other hand usually the food arrives quicker than today, and on some occasions it is sizzling hot. If you like bacon crispy it's pretty reliable here. I also like this place because it opens arly, especially on Sundays.

Now some issues. The table arrangement is infuriating, you seem to be everywhere right next to someone else, there are no cubby-holes. A policy of asking diners how the food is when they've only taken one forkful prevails. There's a Jamie Oliver vibe. And the coffee isn't that great.

I keep going back there though. It can't be that bad.

• Food 3.5
• Value    3.5
• Service  3
• Ambience 3
• Coffee 3     

Troby
Fir coat and no knickers! The food is nice, and well presented, but there's something missing - love from the kitchen. Quantity wise, it's good - two eggs, streaky bacon, 2 soughdough style toast, mushrooms, tomatoes plus 2 black pudding slices (optional extra). On first bite I tried a mushroom, they were slightly black and scary looking (which could mean they're old, or could mean they're exotic), but the main issue was the fact it was a bit tepid. This issue remained a theme for the breakfast. Nothing was cold enough to warrant sending it back, but the plate wasn't freshly made. The place wasn't that busy, and the wait was a little bit too long. The most dissapointing bit was the black pudding, it was great to get two slices, but it was so DRY! The ingredients here are of a good enough quality, and I enjoyed the crispy bacon and toast, but at £15 for a breakfast and two coffees, you are left wanting a bit better.
Ambience wise, I find the place a bit distracting to the eye, with signs and scribbly stuff all over the place.
The service was fine.

• Food 3
• Value 2
• Service 3.5
• Ambience 3
• Coffee 3.5