Cambridge Patisierie

Nestled near the round church, just down a bit is the Cambridge Patiserie. I think it's changed owners a few times, and always has a sign outside with breakfasts / bacon rolls deals, so we gave it a try.

The large underused pavement dining area doesn't get a lot of sunshine in the morning

Troby:
On this particular morning, I felt much in need of some scrambled eggs on brown toast, after some over-participation in the 'works drinks' the previous evening. The staff were welcoming, attentive, and polite, although not keen to go to far off-piste on the menu selection. It was decided I should be charged for the "Punters breakfast" which also included bacon and mushrooms for a fiver, so possibly a win / win. I ordered a black americano as well. I thanked them for accomodating my slightly fussy order (no butter on toast, and eggs scrambled). There were smiles all round, and some self depricating talk of their English not being very good. We sat outside in the crisp bright Cambridge ambience.

Pretty views of the gothic St John's Cathedral (probably)

 with an element of dark forboding

Coffee came soon, and was acceptable. The food arrived in ok time.
Scrambled eggs are easy to do, but there's a whole spectrum of gloopiness/wetness/creaminess/fluffiness/dryness/rubberyness. Plus they continue to cook after out of the pan, so keen timing is required. Maybe they're not that easy to do. Below is what I'd hoped for versus what I got.

What I'd hoped for

What I got

Disapointment set in straight away. Not only was this some method of cooking eggs that I'd never seen before (egg frisbee disc?), but the toast was buttered against my instructions. I turned out that the language barrier may have been an issue after all. I considered complaining, but didnt' have the gumption this morning, so made my best effort at eating it.
Egg: Rubbery as can be
Bacon: Tasty enough, but limp and boiled
Mushrooms: Ok, cooked with lettuce?!
Tomato: Uncooked, but well presented
Toast: Undercooked, buttered against my wishes
Heat: Not piping.

So overall, a big disappointment, kind of fitting for one of those mornings where you feel rough, but also happy to be alive.

• Food     1.5
• Value    2
• Service  3
• Ambience 4
• Coffee   3

Seefud:

Despite cycling past most days for 18 months, we'd never tried this place. For reasons unclear to me, I had low expectations. It would be a nice place to sit outside if it got any sunshine in the morning. Maybe afternoon teas are better. It seems to be staffed by non natives. Around Cambridge that bodes well for service, but they really ought not be let loose in the kitchen on their own to prepare a full English. I went for the Rowers breakfast I think, which supposedly came with unlimited refills on filter coffee or tea. About £8.

It arrived in reasonable time, as did the coffee which was nice enough for filter. The service was cheerful enough and the cutlery was delivered simultaneously. Result! It was all downhill from there though. The toast was almost bread, but there was plenty of it. The sausage was low quality. The bacon was a total fail, kind of chopped up, and the cooking method might have been boiling. The shrooms were okay, as was the egg and the beans were beans. The tomato, however nicely carved, was raw. It's a key ingredient in a "cooked breakfast", NOT A FECKING SALAD GARNISH!! I made my displeasure clear in a very English fashion.

Oh, and unlimited refills of coffee? I wasn't ever offered a second cup. Oh, and if you're going to serve breakfast outside in the shade on chilly Autumn morning, you could at least warm the plates. I will not be going back.

• Food     1.5
• Value    2
• Service  2
• Ambience 2.5
• Coffee   2.5

The Tivoli - Wetherspoons

The Tivoli

It used to be a cinema back in the 1920s probably, and it's a lovely building, restored by Wetherspoons, now on three floors with many of the art deco features retained. It also serves a budget breakfast, and you can get a pint at 9am - what's not to love?!

Troby

We've had a few budget breakfasts recently - the Bailey Rooms, and Joy, but this one is even cheaper! For £2.59, you get egg, sausage, bacon x2, beans, hash browns and tomato, along with toast. Along with the 69p refillable coffee, this value really can't be beat. But is it any good?

I normally prefer to be in the dark regarding the calorie count of my fried breakfast

I was also worried that for £2.59, there might not be much of it, and was tempted to go for the larger breakfast but was a bit put off by the calorie count! - In the end I needn't have worried, the quantities were good. Particularly nice were the beans, which I usually could take or leave - quite tomatoey. The bacon was dry and leathery, but I'd prefer it like that than to be underdone. Hash browns crispy, egg was good and runny, and the toast was sort of singed rather than toasted but also ok.

Sausage a bit unflavoursome, but can't complain for £2.59

The biggest letdown is the sausage, but was certainly not the worst we've had on our breakfast quest (pardon the pun).

Free refills filter coffee was a bit weak, but also great value, and tasty enough. I had their machine coffee before, and it's quite nice.

Bean close up. They were tasty. Campfire toast in the background

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

Seefud

that's an attractive centre piece

It would be fairly easy to knock this breakfast but at £3.28 including bottomless coffee, why bother? They've made a pretty decent breakfast from what were always going to be relatively cheap ingredients. I don't think I even grumbled at the hashbrowns and baked beans. I could have done with some mushrooms but they were available if I'd upgraded to a large breakfast. And 69p for unlimited refills of totally acceptable filter coffee? I don't think I can make my own at home for that price!

The service was pretty good, I had a wife and some children with me, and the barman came over with a high chair without being prompted. The ambience is fine. There's sultry foreign looking women reading novels and drinking coffee, builders fueling for a day of labour and football fans gently starting their 2 day bender on a Friday morning.

I'm starting to feel slightly better about the breakfast options in Cambridge. We need to find more places like this! It's all just "fine", except the service which was good and the value, which is amazing.

• Food     2.5
• Value    5
• Service  4
• Ambience 2.5
• Coffee   2.5 

Hitit Cafe

http://www.hititcafe.com/

A new cafe on Hills Road, where Cafe Avalanche used to be. Turkish based, but they do a full English too.

Troby

Quite a plateful, but those beans weren't to my favour

It's a pretty good breakfast - Not a budget one at £7 - but it's big. It's also a case of the Good the Bad and the Ugly!

The Good:
Within seconds of ordering, I could hear sizzling coming from the kitchen at the back. Service was good (there was only one other customer mind you). The breakfast came pretty quickly, probably in less than ten minutes, piping hot from frying pan onto plate. The bacon and mushrooms were particularly nice the egg was done perfectly. Tomatoes were also good and the hash browns were lovely and crispy, but a bit unflavoursome in the end. Presentation was nice, with some green stuff sprinkled over to make it look like they cared, and they did. All comes with toast and mini jam.

The Bad:
Sausages - budget, low on flavour, a bit weird let the side down.

The Ugly:
Wet beans, stealing important plate space, albeit separated by a sausage barrier, were not great.

I noticed they also do a Four Items breakfast, for a fiver, and I think I'd have been happy value and quality and size wise with just a bacon, mush, tomato, egg combo. Maybe next time.

Coffee was fine, from expresso machine.

Ambience slightly lacking as it was pretty empty, and annoying local radio playing weird music mix including some dreadful warbling Dexy's Midnight Runners b-side.

Views of the Price Regent, Hills Road.

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

Seefud

Yes, this was a bit of a mixed bag. On the downside, way too many beans for me, I'm rarely pleased to see a deep fried frozen hash brown, and the sausages were economy style. But the rest was really quite good, especially the mushrooms, which I enjoyed possibly more than Cote or Browns. It was nicely presented too, the service was good, and I did enjoy the coffee.

Ambience wise, it was quiet. And definitely more Cafe than Café. I get the impression the cook does care about food, but doesn't quite love a full english. It's not a destination dining experience but if I go back, it will be to try his Turkish Breakfast:

Turkish Beef Sausage (sucuk), Egg, Tomato, Halloumi, Olives, Feta Cheese, Turkish Bread, Butter - Jam

Cheeky!

• Food     =average(2,4)
• Value    3.5
• Service  4
• Ambience 2
• Coffee   3.5

Cote revisited

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

Breakfast at Cote is up there with the best of them in Cambridge. So we went back. This time with guests...

This is the same photo as last time. Today it was pi$$ing down with rain.

Michael McIntyre (guest)
The butter melted fulsomely onto the toast, like the heart of a Scottish headmistress who comes home from evensong to find a rain-drenched puppy in her garden.

The yolks of the fried eggs eyed their surroundings suspiciously, like a bridegroom waking to find himself handcuffed to a bicycle rack.

The bacon gladly yielded up its salty goodness, like the Dead Sea, only smaller.

Seefud

With their hypnotic piano music and 2-4-1 deal, breakfast at Browns last week would be a pretty hard act to follow. Fortunately the "Formule" deal at Cote is great value too at £9.95 for Full English, toast, coffee and juice. 

This is also a Cote stock image. But my coffee did look like this again today

It's not the most generous plate of breakfast you'll ever see. The quality is just lovely though., and the toast is good and plentiful, with jars of good jam on the table. I could eat this breakfast every day I think.

This is today's actual breakfast, complete with extra 1/2 tomato

When it comes to cooking a quintessentially British dish like a Full English, the French do have one advantage. They're not shy of using the butter or the salt. This is one well seasoned plate of breakfast. The only reason it loses 1/2 a mark for me, is because I could just murder another of those sausages. Or a little black pudding, naturally. My scores are almost the same as last time (good consistency), but I docked him 1/2 a point on Service for not bringing the toast until I was half way through my food. Grrr. Didn't spoil my breakfast though.

Given the choice, I think I'd probably go back here rather than Browns, despite the 2fer. Cambridge's current reigning breakfast champion I think!

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

Troby

I loved it! Was it the fact it was a drippy rainy day that made this so good? - I really thought the Browns breakfast was going to be unbeatable on quality/price, but this Cote breakfast had the edge for me. Even ambience wise, with the right sort of breakfast music, and great views.
For the food, the scrambled egg was great, some herbs, and wet enough but not scary. Bacon and sausage both great flavours, not some 'over smokey' bacon that's trying to grab your attention. The mushrooms too, although a bit tiny, we well seasoned and had some herb about them. Heat issues were a distant memory, as our perfectly sized platefuls arrived together nice and hot. As Sefud say, the late arrival of the toast was a shame as I really needed some to accompany my first few mouthfuls of egg, but great toast when it came! - warm, brown, seeded crumbiness, also a lot of it - Maybe they gave extra to make up for late arrival. There's also the fact that there's Jam on the table in case you like to leave on a sweet note. For a tenner you're getting a coffee, fresh OJ, cooked breakfast and toast, so this actually works out to nearly as good value  as Browns. Currently my number 1 breakfast.

Fine scrambled egg

All the mustards are available

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

Pastries
I was keen on something sweetish and not too meaty this morning so opted for 'Croque Madam':

Not photogenic but nice

This was a good choice. Quite substantial and gooey with nice ham. I would've preferred the whole thing to be dunked in egg and fried in butter and sugar, but you can't have everything. Only medium value - £6.50 or thereabouts without coffee. On which subject, I downed 2 and still felt like I hadn't had enough caffeine. Partly they're a bit small, mainly just on the average side. Good service but like Browns this is a sit down and relax for 45 minutes venue; my personal taste is for somewhere with a bit more bustle.

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

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