On tour: Dulwich Pavillion Cafe

http://www.pavilioncafedulwich.co.uk/

This would look nice if it wasn't raining

Although not actually in Cambridge, most of the customers have just done Parkrun, and/or a few laps of the park on their moderately expensive yet unflashy road bikes. They may be taking their children to the gallery, or stables, afterwards. So it sort of counts.

Breakfast weighs in at £6.80 (£6.60 veggie), not including beverages, which I am going to claim is reasonable value, because it's quite good and for a few quid less you'd be in the cheapest-ingredients-we-could-find bracket:

Meaty

Veggie: that's a quorn sausage

The bread is thick doorstep. Yes it's pre-buttered. Brown=granary which can only be good. The tomato was noticeably tasty, and it's not often that happens. It had been lightly herbed. My carniverous associate assured me the bacon was good but under-crisped. Sausage looked high quality to me. Black pudding was two large discs so probably worth the £1.50 extra, if you like that kind of thing. Service gormless but fairly prompt and friendly. Think better-than-average National Trust.

It's also worth mentioning that there was an enticing display of cakes, including iced fingers and choc-orange bread and butter pudding in thick gloopy squares. Only a fear of order confusion prevented me getting some for later; come the afternoon, I bitterly regretted this decision.

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

B.L.D's

https://plus.google.com/115891209603192001776/about?gl=uk&hl=en
An unpretentious Mill Road institution offering classic fry-up fayre at reasonable prices.

B.L.D's

Seefud
A decade ago, in my Mill Road days, this was the only place to go on a Sunday with a hangover (often followed by a beer in the Beaconsfield). It's been frying bacon and eggs daily for years and frankly, it smells like you would imagine. But your nostrils adjust quickly and once we'd ordered it didn't bother me. The menu was okay and highly customisable, so I added black pudding to the traditional breakfast. The coffee's arrived swiftly with cutlery (+1 service) and the food followed pretty quickly after that. The filter coffee I ordered came with milk that I hadn't ordered. It was nice though and I should have guessed milk would be the default in this place though.

Troby's double espresso with hot water on the side

When the food arrived, I wish I'd added mushrooms instead of the black pudding though as the pudding was rubbish. The sausages (2) were of the lowest possible quality as well (I'd like to think 10% meat, or at least of animal origin, but that might be being optimistic). The rest was fine though and plenty of it. Nice to have proper cheap thick sliced white bread and butter as an option to toast, and a couple of eggs is always appreciated even if they were a touch over done. Other than that, nothing spectacular but nothing too bad either. Cheap and cheerful.

Troby's traditional with buttered toast

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

 
Troby
This is good value simple stuff - I had a few issues, one of which can be seen in the photo - bean contamination! Now, this is a contentious issue with fry up lovers, but I much prefer 'beans on the side'. My other issue was the pre-buttered toast. Had I been more with it, I could have easily avoided both these things by asking, so I can't complain. Not sure they would have accomodated brown toast mind you. The sausages however, were pretty bad, I guess I could have swapped off for more bacon. Anyway the service was good and friendly, the food was hot and fresh, and came quickly, and it's a great quantity of food you're getting for the £5:45, all well cooked.
A bonus was the coffee - a really good double expresso, with hot water on the side, hit the spot this morning, for the same price as the filter coffee.

• Food          3
• Value         5
• Service       4
• Ambience      2  
• Coffee        4

Pastries
I went veggie which meant 2 circular hash browns and a reasonable pile of mushrooms with 2 veggie sausages - of the carrot 'n' peas rather than linda mcartney variety. Contrasted favourably with the evil-looking meaty ones. Pretty good for a cooked veggie breakfast. Nice coffee. Matt beans. Rubbish bread. If you were getting this for a few quid less you'd be very happy, but then, we are in Cambridge.

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

Urban Shed

http://www.theurbanshed.com
A 'retro' cafe decked out in upcycled/retro furniture, some of which is for sale. With an old record player and boxes of LPs you can create you own ambience. They serve 'breakfast-in-a-box' which is good value for around a fiver.

Retro stylings

Breakfast-in-a-box!

Troby
I put on some Sinatra to calm things down after an altercation with a grumpy OAP on the pavement. I really like this cafe - It's quirky, but not annoying. They cook their own pasties, sausage rolls etc, and the coffee here is good. This is style, with substance.
The sausage was tasty, and the bacon was to my liking. The muffin was a bit crusty, but this often happens to me as I won't have butter. I'm also a fan of beans on the side. I'd give an overall 4/5 rating.

Seefud
People and places trying to be cool normally wind me up. But this place gets away with it somehow. Maybe it's because of the dirty bbq pork sausage roll/pasty hybrid I had the first time. Just my sort of food filth.

Today though, we sampled the breakfast-in-a-box. The sausage was perfect, the beans in a pot were good and the shrooms were good, if only just cooked. But the bacon, which probably started off life quite nice, was leathery and the muffin/egg combo, good in theory, was totally overcooked. The fact that it's served in a box, with a balsa wood knife and fork only served to highlight the problem when I broke my fork trying to cut the muffin, and almost went through the bottom of the box trying to saw through my bacon.

The chilled service and chat, the coffee, the music, the airport/airliner seats and the hostile grannies outside all contribute to making this a place I'll definitely return to. But I'll probably stick to the pasty-rolls more than the breakfast-in-a-box. 

Food          3 (breakfast-in-a-box) 4 (dirty pasty-rolls)
Value         4 
Service      5
Ambience 5
Coffee       5

Michaelhouse Café

http://www.michaelhousecafe.co.uk/
A quintessential Cambridge location and not a bad breakfast. Between 9 and 10am Trinity Street is a constant procession of bikes and vans. But underneath St Michael's Church in the sunshine can't be a completely bad location for a Friday fry-up. Especially with a 2-4-1 offer on!

The view back down Trinity Street

Scrambled eggs on toast w shrooms, bacon and sausage

Seefud

+ Very nice location despite the busy road. Great mushrooms, sausage and scrambled eggs. Nice coffee too.

- The bacon was beyond over cooked, the toast wasn't fresh either. No tomato or beans left it looking pretty monotone and by the end it felt a touch greasy and heavy. Fairly surly service though and the food arrived before the cutlery (cardinal sin!). Not sure if it was the waitress or Troby to blame though to be fair....
Food          4
Value         4 (will be 3 if the 2-4-1 offer ends)
Service      2
Ambience 4
Coffee       4

Troby
It was just the sort of thing I was looking for, but in the end - too dry! I love my toast crumby, and I like my bacon well crisped, I also like my sausage cut transverally and cooked again. However without a tomato, or beans or something, this was positively arid! The breakfast we ordered comes with extra toast, so overall rather bread heavy (I like my toast unbuttered, so I emerged parched, but Sefud liking buttered, came out over greased) . Service was not prompt, and it would have been nice to have been offered sauce/mustard/cutlery but the location is brilliant and the overall quality of food also good.
I agree with Sefud's scores.

Gros Franck

legrosfranck.com
A good value basic breakfast - 2 eggs, bacon and brown toast, plus coffee and orange juice for less that £6! This really hit the spot this morning. The full English proved to be quite large, and the scrambled egg on toast option looked a little anemic.

A lovely geranium ambiance, with a touch of Hills Road

Seefud's Full English

Seefud

+ Another buffet style with fresh eggs and toast. Nice coffee. Food pretty hard to fault, but the eggs had uncooked white. What is it with hashbrowns in this city? And where's the black pudding?
- Weird pricing strategy. Not cheap for the full monty.

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

Troby
Value was good for 2 egg, bacon, brown toast, coffee and juice.

• Food          3.5
• Value         5
• Service      3
• Ambience 3.5
• Coffee       4