Agora at The Copper Kettle

http://thecopperkettle.weebly.com/
Another vintage Cambridge café with stunning views onto Kings College. But does the breakfast do it justice?

A pretty unique view from a window seat

Their version of a Full English

Seefud

The short answer is no, it doesn't. It's not a terrible breakfast by any means, but a location like this demands a higher quality breakfast, and a business this well established ought to be able to deliver. First though, the good parts. Service was professional if a little dour (is everyone a bit grumpy in Cambridge at 9am?). We were met promptly at the door and shown to a great table in the window. Our order was taken after just enough time to review the menu, which had nothing fancy on, but a few different options from the basic components. They were sufficiently well staffed that the coffee (strong but not that tasty) arrived promptly, and the breakfast followed soon after. Clearly the majority was precooked, but the toast and eggs were fresh. The tomato was probably the best thing on the plate for me, cooked to perfection.

Now for the not so good. No mushrooms! I didn't think it made much difference how you cooked a bottom-tier economy sausage, but it turns out you can overcook them. It was a good job the beans were in a dish as they were pretty soupy. But worse, the dish was right in the middle of the plate and pretty hot, so not a satisfying plate arrangement to tackle until it had cooled down enough to be handled. A similarly bottom-tier hash brown and a rasher of bacon (just one) were mediocre at best.

The ambience was pleasant and they seem to attract a fairly high quality clientele, but maybe it was a little too quiet for free conversation. Overall, could have been really nice, but was just a little disappointing. It wasn't expensive at ~£8 for breakfast and coffee, but still not brilliant value, even in such a good location.

• Food     2.5
• Value    3
• Service  4
• Ambience 4
• Coffee   3

A double shot Americano, both Troby and Seefud's standard coffee order

Troby
We were greeted by a bow tied efficient waiter, maybe all a bit over the top, but this is going to be one of the most popular Cambridge cafes, overlooking King's and all. I was impressed with the speed of service, but the whole plate was let down by two things. 1) the sausage, and 2) the shallow dish of bean soup. Now, I've been hoisted by my petard somewhat, as I'm fussy about bean contamination, but this rather large bowl in the middle of the plate reduced the angles of attack severely. The sausage was one of the worst yet in the breakfast quest. Not as scary as some, but the most tasteless.

The snag in question

The eggs were very good, and it's nice to have two. The tomato was also well cooked. Bacon was fine, but it didn't do enough to make up for the poor beans and sausage. The hash brown was forgettable. I wasn't offered the option of brown or white toast, but brown may have made this better. Coffee was fine but average. So, overall an agreeable enough place, kind of what you expect. The food was food, but not great food.

• Food      2.5  
• Value     3.5
• Service   4
• Ambience  4
• Coffee    3