Addenbrookes Hospital

http://www.cuh.org.uk/addenbrookes-hospital
(suspicions proved to be spot on)


Special report from roving reporter Blesséd. Going to great lengths to review breakfasts.
 
All day breakfast available at the Clinical Decision Unit unless you're deemed to be Nil By Mouth.

The first thing to comment on is the overwhelmingly clinical nature of the ambience. The constant bleeping of machines was a distraction but the comfort of the furniture and the attentive nature of the staff were well above the standard of other local breakfast venues.


After the order was taken the food was very prompt to arrive, so promptly my suspicions were raised about a probable microwave re-heat.
The lifting of the presentation plate cover revealed a sausage, one rasher of bacon, beans and sautéed potatoes. Tea or coffee were available on request. (I opted of Tea as I find it more thirst quenching of a morning.)

Pros: The food was prompt and warm and came with an anti-bacterial hand wash napkin. The beans were separated from the rest of the breakfast and there was an endless supply of hot drinks upon request.
No bill was presented at time of departure.

Cons: My suspicions proved to be spot on, the meal was microwave reheated. The bacon was half hidden by the omelet, (no other egg options available) as a result half of the bacon was soft and incredibly salty the other half as hard as very salty leather.
The ingredients as a whole were low value and as a result the breakfast was a little bland.

In conclusion:
Bland but filling.
Great value.
Incredible service.
Clinical slightly cold by very clean ambience.

I'm not sure I'd plan to dine there again.

The Bailey Rooms

Most people will probably be unaware of this place tucked away under Park House on Castle Park. They don't advertise as they're council run, primarily for council employees but open to the public. But it's a proper nostalgia trip for us this one, as this is where "Friday breakfast" all began. Several years of a fry-up on Friday mornings in the same place. Good times! It was never amazing, but it was always great value. But having now tried many of the places available in the rest of the city in the search for fry-up nirvana, how will this stack up in comparison?

Hidden away in Castle Park

Seefud

The answer is, it's basically the same as it ever was, but I appreciate the value even more now. There is little atmosphere to speak of, but the staff are friendly if you go in there regularly. Service is counter style with table delivery, and totally fine with frustrating exceptions like the toast arriving several minutes after the food sometimes.

The food is okay, but nothing is spectacular as you might expect at this end of the market. The horribly economy sausages are the biggest drawback, but at this bargain price you can't really expect more. The staff are usually willing to swap them for extra bacon but then you can end up with 4 rashers and it all gets a bit bacon heavy. The bacon is fine though (in moderation) and the eggs are generally nicely done. Tomatoes are usually very good, as are the mushrooms if there's any available (a regular stocking issue on a Friday it seems). Another slight problem though is that this really is the home of bean-juice contamination. They microwave a big plastic jug of the stuff, and they dump a load all over the plate with a genuine generosity that unfortunately backfires. On one occasion I couldn't actually see either of the nicely fried eggs underneath it all, and that really spoiled my day I can tell you! Still, £4.60 for a large breakfast and £1.20 for a decent coffee can't be wrong, even with economy sausages!

Large bean portion just to the left of the picture

• Food     4
• Value    5
• Service  3.5
• Ambience 2
• Coffee   3

Troby

Yes, breakfast memories. And fond ones at that, many a groggy Friday used to start here. The value is superb, I used to go for a small breakfast, which was egg, bacon, sausage, mushroom, beans and toast for £3.20. I'd swap off the sausage for an extra bacon though. Today we opted for the large, which IS big: 2 egg 2 sausage, 2 bacon etc etc. I went for beans on the side, which means loads of beans as well. Even though the sausage is economy, they'd cooked it as well as they could have. Coffee is bean to cup machine and not too shabby. Apart from the cheapness, the other good thing about this place is being welcomed by the friendly staff. I do miss this place, but am glad that we now are searching the ~whole~ of Cambridge in our ongoing Breakfast Review!

Above average coffee - but only just.

Yes, breakfast memories.

• Food       3.5
• Value      5
• Service    4
• Ambience   2
• Coffee     3

Patisserie Valerie

https://www.patisserie-valerie.co.uk

Known as a purveyor of fine cakes and gateaux, they also do a full English breakfast. For £7.95 it's the classic mushroom, sausage, bacon, tomato, egg, beans combination. Eggs only poached or scrambled though.

Troby
"forgettable"
On arrival, the dining area appears a bit more 'low rent' than the exterior, with stuck down tables (I think), like a Wimpy Burger place, but brown decor. We were served by an excellent waitress, who took our drink orders, and took my various fussy requests in her stride. Coffee was pretty good.

Double expresso, hot water on the side

I chose the full English with scrambled egg, beans on the side. The breakfast arrived in reasonable time, but soon the disappointment set in - as feared, rubbery eggs! like a dry cloud, no clumping, hard to get onto a fork. Also, some heat issues - a cold plate means that after a short time you're left with tepid mushrooms etc. Overall the flavours weren't bad, nice enough bacon, warm crumby toast. The quantity was good. I had issues with the mushrooms, teeny tiny fungi that felt like they'd been boiled rather than fried. The sausage was fine, but forgettable.

Unfried breakfast. Good toast.

There's a possibility that nothing here is fried (suggested by the no fried egg option). Now, that's not a crime in itself, but a lot of skill, timing and good ingredients are required if nothing has been near the frying pan. I think the whole breakfast fell afoul of that. Even the service let us down towards the end as our waitress became overstretched with the other tables. Overall - there are much better breakfasts out there for a tenner eg Cote

• Food         2.5
• Value        2
• Service      4
• Ambience     2.5
• Coffee       3.5

Seefud
""
Firstly, the service. It started off quite promising, as the waitress was attentive and took our orders well. She didn't push back when Troby started customising either. But the place was initially quiet and I began to wonder how she would cope if she was stretched. Not perfectly as it turns out, she lost focus just as the four of us were finishing and wanted to pay.

I'd grabbed a take-away doughnut a couple of times from Patisserie Valerie but never sat in to eat anything. It exudes a certain class (for a bun shop) from the outside, but inside the seating area was a bit of a disappointment, and there was no real atmosphere. The coffee was okay, if a little smooth and mild.

I had suspected the food would be poor the day before when I saw the online menu and noted the lack of a fried egg. It's usually a sign there's no frying at all going on, probably just an oven/grill and microwave. I had scrambled egg and lo and behold, they were over-microwaved, crumbly and tasteless. The bacon was dried with no hit caramelisation, and sausage and tomato were very average. The tiny mushrooms were a disappointment too. The beans were beans and the toast was toast. That's about the best I can think to say. Oh no, wait, I thought they got the relative proportions of ingredients about right and overall the portion was good. WHOOOHOOOOOO!

• Food     2
• Value    2.5
• Service  3.5
• Ambience 2.5
• Coffee   2.5

Joy revisited

For a quick breakfast on my own I had to pop back to Joy to check it really was as good as I thought the first time. It wasn't £5.95 like we mistakenly thought it was last last time, it was £5.50 for Full English and coffee (or tea). And you get proper novelty squirty sauce bottles. Now you don't get those in Cote! Anyone needing a breakfast near Cambridge Station should give it a go.

Seefud

It's just as good as I remember. It's a good plate of breakfast. It's very good for the money. Given the low rent look of the place, you're expecting economy sausages, but no, they're pretty good. Bacon was nice, two fried eggs were spot on and it's all so fast from cooking to being on the table. I could do with a little more tomato (one wedge?!), and would always swap those beans off for mushrooms if they did them, but other than that I can't think of any gripes. Mushrooms aside, it's the best budge breakfast in Cambridge by a country mile.

• Food          4.5
• Value         5
• Service      4.5 (up 0.5 from last time, but couldn't tell you why!)
• Ambience 3.5 (ditto)
• Coffee       3.5