Saturday 29 June 2013

Fry Up Inspector Recommended

Here is a list of my favourite places that display the "Fry Up Inspector Recommended" window sticker. I highly recommend you go visit these places for yourself! 
Find out more about the stickers here.


Harty's Diner, Norwich - Read about it here. 


Street Cafe, Norwich - Read about it here


The Plasterers Arms, Norwich - Read about it here.


The Longe Arms - Spixworth


No 33, Norwich - Read about it here.


The Ber Street Kitchen - Norwich. Read about it here.


 Bond Street Cafe, Norwich - Read about it here.


The Muddy Cup, Norwich - Read about it here.


Sunny Side Up, Norwich - Read about it here.


Olive's, Norwich - Read about it here.


Janey's Village Cafe - Hethersett, Read about it here


 Scooters Cafe - Acle, read about it here.


 Green Pastures - Bergh Apton, read about it here.

 
 Joe's Cafe, Brighton - Read about it here.

  
St Werberghs City Farm Cafe, Bristol - Read about it here.


E. Pellicci, London - Read about it here


Regency Cafe, London - Read about it here.


Blighty Coffee, London - Read about it here


Beppe's Cafe, London - Read about it here.


Maggie's Cafe, Lewisham. Read about it here


Cafe on the lane, South Woodford - Read about it here.


Frizzante Cafe @ Hackney City Farm - Read about it here


As well as places serving a Full English Breakfast I also recommend...



The Full Arlo's breakfast at Arlos Restaurant in London.
Read about it here.
  

Archers Butchers of Norwich!
 Winners of 2013 Battle of the bangers and now supplying their excellent sausages to The Street Cafe - Norwich.
Read about their excellent takeaway service here.



Grosvenor Fish Bar
My favourite fish and chip shop in Norwich.
Read about it here.

Friday 28 June 2013

Terry's Cafe - London by Neil Hall

158 Great Suffolk Street
London
SE1 1PE

www.terryscafe.co.uk

Guest review by Neil Hall
  You can find Terry’s Café just off a side street, a 5 minute walk from Borough Station.




 Your Condiments are on the table ready for you, Good Ketchup and Brown Sauce.




 The breakfast menu does the job, and is clear. For the Vegetarians they have food to cater for them. If you go in just before 12 [I was there at 11:50] they will do a Breakfast for you, but the breakfast menu will not be on the table, so ask for it or you can have a smaller All Day Breakfast, I went for the “Hamlet”





A Good Strong Cup of Tea with the tea bag still in the Cup and only at 20p the cheapest cup of Tea in London.



Wow, what can you say about this, I didn’t expect the owner to place bubble and squeak on there due to bad experiences in the past with it, but it was the best I’ve ever had I also had a bowl of chips, on the side.



The Finished Product



Everyone had been telling me about this particular café. I headed down there with my review head in tow and off I went. I found myself at Terry’s Café on a Tuesday afternoon ready to review.

Upon Entering - It’s based in a little side street
(Great Suffolk Street) off the main road. When I eventually walked into I noticed the wonderful exterior of Terry’s Café. I walked in and thought wow it must be good as you’ve got the tourists, the builders and the taxi drivers all in one place! What brought me to this place is that it has the cheapest cup of tea in London at only 20p and the interior is to die for. I thought E Peliccli in Bethnal Green was lovely this is beautiful!! Austin the owner then came and introduced himself to me (Lovely Touch0 8/10

Service - As soon as I sat down I asked if I could see the breakfast menu, which was tucked away as it was so close to 12. I asked for a cup of tea which arrived very quickly and a nice young man, after 5 minutes asked if I was ready to order. I went for the hamlet at £7. The owner then came over and said Do I not like Bubble? And I went I've not really properly had it, so he gave me some! 8/10
 
Contents - Egg, 3 Slices of Bacon, Huge Cumberland Sausage, Black Pudding 2 slices, Beans or Tomato’s I chose Beans, and mushrooms, and also I ordered a small bowl of Chips, + the owner added Bubble to it. 9/10

Presentation - Everything arrived on the plate in good order and it looked too good to touch. 9/10

The Food - First thing to say WOW! As you bit into the mushrooms you realised how juicy they were and the bubble was to die for, the bacon was so nice it was the richest bacon by far for me, the black pudding was bought that morning from the local market, the egg was so perfect it didn’t run and had the perfect yolk, as you cut into the big Cumberland sausage you feel how heavy it is, and you taste all the flavours and juices from it, I just wish I asked for a Fried Slice Now 9/10

Value for Money - If you want to pay £8 for London’s Best Breakfast come here! If you Want to  pay £5 and get a really nasty breakfast there are some cafes in London that will give you a nasty Breakfast, the staff are friendly and you won’t regret it. 8/10

Vegetarian Option - Yes they do.

Overall - This place was recommended to me as somewhere I have not visited before in the wonderful city of London, so I thought I might as well go and try it out. It’s got to be the best little café in Central London (the weblink for the café is at the top). The owner of the café took it over from his dad and he is a top class guy. His food is all cooked with local ingredients and really cooked well, the value is ok because the food makes up for it you can’t go wrong with it. So make sure you come here for the 40’s music and to kill an hour or more! I will definitely be back for the Fried Slice as well. 9/10


This review was kindly written by Neil Hall.

Wednesday 26 June 2013

The Glasshouse (Wetherspoons) - Norwich

11-13 Wensum Street
Norwich
NR3 1LA

Breakfast served daily from 8am till midday

Nearest Parking - Monastery Court

 

The Glasshouse is a few minutes walk from Tombland in Norwich City Centre.



Place your order and pay at the bar.



Inside is quite dark but there are seats by the windows.



 I wanted plenty of light for my photos so sat in this area.



The usual and varied Wetherspoons satchet selection.



The coffee cost just £1.15 but wasn't very special and it felt like I was in an egg and spoon race getting it back to the table.



I have tried many Wetherspoons breakfasts over the years, some have been reasonable and others quite nice for the price.



 When it first arrived it looked ok but it rapidly went downhill as I sampled each item.



 The hash browns were ok but the toast, sausages and dry bacon were not very hot at all.



The tomato was stone cold with lines on top to give the impression it had been cooked and the raw egg on the yolks was hard to stomache.


I wasn't planning on a fry up inspection but had planned on reviewing the bacon sub and coffee for £2 at Subway . As soon as I discovered Subway on Magdalen Street was halal and didn't serve bacon a back up plan was needed. As I passed The Glasshouse on Wensum Street I decided it was time to review Wetherspoons again...

Upon entering - The Glasshouse is really big inside with a quite large seating area outside at the rear. It has the typical traditional/contemporary Wetherspoons decor and furnishings inside with some tables looking out on to Wensum Street. When I visited there was hardly anyone else there so I chose a table and placed my order at the bar (there is a menu on each table), paid and collected sauces on the way back to the table. When the food is ready it is bought to the table along with some cutlery. 7/10


Service - The person taking my order seemed friendly and cheerful, not long after placing my order she brought the food over to my table. 7/10

Contents - 2 sausages, 2 bacon, 3 hash browns, 2 fried eggs, half a tomato, mushroom, beans and 2 slices of toast & butter. 8/10

Presentation - It looked quite nicely presented on the large oval plate when it first arrived, a bit of bean juice had gone astray but there was nothing majorly wrong with how it looked. Then I spotted the egg yolks with a thick raw egg white glaze, not a good sight at all.. 4/10

The food - The first thing to mention was how nothing (except the hash browns) was particularly hot. The average customer would most likely return it at this point but I needed to eat what they were happy to serve and base my score on that. The sausages (lincolnshire I think) were ok but the bacon was dry and tough, I had a feeling it may have been sitting for sometime before being served. The hash browns were the highlight and did at least seem like they had just been cooked unlike the mushroom that had almost completely dried up with very little flavour. The tomato was a huge shock, completely cold and uncooked with black lines across it to fool you into thinking it had been cooked, nice on a salad maybe but not what you want on a cooked breakfast! I buttered the cold toast and placed some of the lukewarm beans on top, then I maneuvered the eggs on top of the toast watching the raw egg white spill off as they landed. I took a deep breath and started eating the eggs and beans on toast, each cold and slimy mouthful made me realise this was by far the worse Wetherspoons breakfast I have had so far.. 3/10

Value for money - The awful breakfast and fairly bland coffee cost £5.65 and felt like a complete waste of money. 3/10

Veggie option - Yes, large £4.50 and small £3.19 (description in menu pic above)

Overall - A nice enough environment with friendly staff but it all goes down when the food arrives. To be fair I have had better Wetherspoons breakfasts than this one but they always seem to suffer from seeming like the food has been cooked and kept hot for sometime before being served. This is a shame because if everything was cooked nicely it would be a reasonable option for a place to go for breakfast but as it stands I would avoid and go elsewhere. 5/10

Sunday 23 June 2013

The Lifebuoy - Fowey by Sgt Sausage

Sergeant Sausage's West Country investigation

I've just been on a road trip to Cornwall, and while I was there I thought I'd give the Cornish Fry a try.  But before my partner and I left Norwich we thought we would just get set up for the long trip with the dish that keeps Britain on the roads, It would be rude not to!

  The middleweight at KO's diner on Hall road (£4.99 including tea and toast) is always a good choice, although I do like my eggs so I got an extra egg. Owner, chef and Norwich boxer Sam Sexton wasn't in that day but the breakfast still stayed the distance, for me the quality sausages are knockout on this plate 8/10



We were heading far west and decided to break the journey just outside Glastonbury and stayed at Beltane B&B, I'd chosen it because they offered a decent bed and good breakfast, the eggs were layed by these ladies.....



It was a very relaxing place to stay, although the owners were a bit fussy about electronic devices in the nicely laid out dining room. I managed to get a snap in though.....
Again the sausage was the star of the show, a good size and locally produced, as were all the ingredients, but I do like a bit more on my plate.  8/10



After a restorative visit to the Chalice Well and White Spring in Glasto, where we met some druids, we headed to Cornwall.  We glamped in a hobbit hut just near the Eden project in the Luxulyan valley, it was pretty neat, and all we had to bring were sleeping bags and clothes.
Willow the Hut



The view from the front door


 
It was a charming and really good site in an area of outstanding natural beauty and great vfm at only £40/night for our hut.



Naturally I was curious about the local fry-up and whilst looking for places to get one I came across the Lifebuoy in Fowey. It was only about five miles from the hobbit hut so we set off on a damp and misty day looking for breakfast. This is what we found in the steep and winding streets of Fowey (pronounced Foy)....
Ahoy my hearties! The Lifebuoy Café



Find a table and rest your weary sea legs, its waitress service



Mixed cutlery in a glass, traditional sauces in a traditional bread tin, all on the table when you arrive.




Welcome to Breakfast Club, there are only two rules…..



Which is when we fathomed out that our complete failure to get out of bed, (well we were on holiday) meant there was no Breakfast Club, it had stopped serving at half twelve…..
Luckily I spotted something rather special on one of the boards, and it seemed a splendid suggestion.



An excellent filter coffee, with sugar in a dinky little flip top bowl type affair.


 
  Plenty for the little ones to do…



  So I decided to tie up my knots knowledge, whilst I waited for…. 



 
The Hogs Pudding Bagel, four chunky slices of delicious local delicacy served in a toasted bagel of your choice.



The sweetness of the cranberry jam went really well with the herby flavour of the hogs pudding, and the richly buttered bagel was just right.



 
A fine selection of cakes too



We vowed to return the following day to sample the fry-up, after all, it was the whole point of the holiday!  


*************** The Second Wave ***************


Alarm clock firmly set, we managed to sleep in again, but this time got to the café just after eleven, plenty of time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast.
We sat at a different table this time where we found this old sea dog.



  This time I went for a lovely cup of tea, in a proper mug, all included in the price.



 
We were in no hurry, and it was the perfect place to do just that.



  Hello Sailor! The Fat Buoy of Fowey, well worth waiting for.


 
 
The locally sourced meats from Kittows butchers tasted fantastic.



The eggs were huge, rich and cooked just how I like them.



 
Full to the gunwales? Aye Aye!!




After that stunning breakfast we visited Kittows butchers which was a gastronomic treasure chest, next time I think will have to try the New York Cornwall experience!




Okay so it took two attempts, and that’s probably due to my inability to get out of bed, well I was having a good time! But I had been looking forward to this trip for ages and the opportunity to review a fry up for my favourite fry up inspector was not going to be missed.  Cornwall is very much geared towards tourism, and the local food is a huge part of that experience.  We had a fantastic holiday and the inspection in Fowey was just one of the things that made it really special.


Upon entering – They’ve really gone for the nautical theme in this small but perfectly formed café, its all very much in keeping with the place and not too overboard.  There are some lovely touches such as the old ice cream sign by the counter, and the ‘feel good’ signs on the walls, and its all very bespoke, not just like something out of a packet. It feels like a comforting and unique place to be eating breakfast and the décor just adds to the experience. Its an open kitchen so you get all the delightful breakfast cooking smells. Nice to see they have the same table cloths as Harty’s too! 9/10

Service – We missed breakfast club on the first attempt and the waitress was really apologetic that she couldn’t serve us breakfast, but it did mean we got to visit twice!  The whole experience was very laid back, life seems to just move at a slower pace down here. One of our fellow diners asked for the bill when they were ready, the chef remarked tongue in cheek ‘in about an hour’. We didn’t feel like we were being hurried along at all, but the service was efficient and we weren’t kept waiting. When we returned we were made to feel very welcome. It was all good. 9/10

Contents – 1 sausage, 2 bacon, 1 egg (I ordered an extra egg, because I love them!) , mushrooms, beans, hogs pudding, 2 slices of toast (not pictured) 8/10

Presentation – Big plate, big breakfast. It looked like a fry up, it was a fry up. Presented by a professional. 9/10

The food – You can’t go wrong with locally sourced products, especially when they are of such an outstanding quality.  The sausage was incredibly meaty, in fact I don’t think I have tasted such good quality before, it wasn’t at all spiced, purely porky (I’m very pleased that Kittows do mail order!) The bacon was thick and tasty, cooked so it just melted in your mouth, full of flavour and again top quality. The Rosedown Farm free range eggs were huge and tasted incredibly fresh, the yolks were so rich and went perfectly with the buttered toast.  Mushrooms, again perfect, juicy and flavoursome, beans at exactly the right temperature.  The Hogs pudding, which is a kind of spicy white pudding, had more kick this time round without the sweetness of the cranberry to temper it, herby and spicy this local delicacy is yummy. 10/10

Value for money – Great vfm at £6.95 including tea and toast, the extra egg was only 80p and worth every penny. 9/10

Veggie option – Yes, although we didn’t try it, I’ve no doubt it would be great.

Overall – Perfection is something we all yearn for, and I’m not sure we will ever find it, but the Lifebuoy comes damn close.  It really pushes the boat out and the quality of the ingredients, the service, and the cooking are all aboard. Norwich has got some great breakfasts, House being one of my particular favourites, but Cornwall is no light ship when it comes to fry-ups.  If you’re ever in Fowey, set course for the Lifebuoy. 9/10


Sgt. Sausage