hendybill posted: " 29/feb 2024 My Sister suggested meeting here as its a new venue for me, though she has been before and she quite liked it.I was a bt dubious as my experience of Cafe's in Garden Centres has been a bit wanting. They tend to be OK on Coffee and Cake but"
My Sister suggested meeting here as its a new venue for me, though she has been before and she quite liked it. I was a bt dubious as my experience of Cafe's in Garden Centres has been a bit wanting. They tend to be OK on Coffee and Cake but poor on Fry up.
However, we agreed to give it a go and we arranged to meet at 1130 but we had to bring that forward as they stop serving breakfast at 1130 during the week.
I found myself wandering round the garden area looking at all the plants and I knew I wanted some. I mean really wanted some.
My Garden at home looked good last Summer with all the Herbaceous shrubs and flowers in full bloom but when winter came it looked barren and uncared for.
I Need (I mean really really need some structural plants to carry me through. Ideally they would be evergreen but berries or scent would be a real bonus).
I was reluctant to make any purchases at Almondsbury as everything seemed super expensive.
As it turned out I bought a Skimmia Japonica (a Male, sadly as they didn't have any females or hermaphrodite plants in stock) for £7.50 at Iron Acton Garden Centre, rather than £15-24 they were asking at Almondsbury.
So I just walked around admiring the plants and imagining how great my garden could be if i had some serious money to spend.
I eventually found my way to the Cafe which is a new build on the site of the old Tropical Fish centre but it was a bit tricky to find and I was glad of the signage.
I was very impressed with the interior, spacious and clean with none of the drafts and leaking roofs I associate with Cafe's in Garden Centres.
There was plenty of seating and the tables werent so close to each other you had to listen to everyone else's conversations. Though whilst I was waiting for my Sister I hear the lady on the next table telling her friend about herholiday and sharing photos from her phone. This had clearly been going on for a while as the friend said, very politely.
"You have already shown me that"!
Once we were both seated we took the opportunity to look at the Breakfast Menu which was already on the table. It was precise with a selection of breakfast options that would appeal to the type of customer who would be buying plants on a wet Friday morning.
Looking round most of the customers appeared to be older, white and wealthy , except my Sister and I obviously!
We decided to go for the English Breakfast (£11.99) and the small breakfast at £7.99 with two pots of tea at £2.49 each. I asked for some Bread and Butter on the side but when it arrived they did Toast and put it on the plate with the rest of the food. Why?
It was my Sisters turn to pay so she went to the counter and ordered.
When she returned she held a Tray with two teapots, two cups and two jugs of Milk. A few extra knobs of Butter were loose on the tray and she had also picked up some sachets of Sauce, Pepper, Salt and some Saccharins.
We had a lot to catch up on as we haven't seen each other for weeks. So it didn't seem long till the food was delivered.
Full Breakfast
I have been trying to find a suitable word to describe it.
It was a Full English. It had no major flaws. It was well cooked and presented, It had all the necessary Items. The sausage was tasty (if a little undercooked). The Bacon was fine. The Hash Bran was crisp and dry. The Egg had a soft Yolk and a firm white. The fresh Tomato was well cooked and soft. The lone Mushroom was tasty and firm. Even the Beans were, well Beans.
Small Breakfast
The portion was reasonable ( just right for a pensioner)?
It was everything you would expect of a Fried Breakfast.
Some thing was just missing. Maybe it was just too clean, too safe. Maybe the Egg could have had skirt or the Bacon could have been Smoked. Anything just to give it a bit of character?
The toast was served up on the same plate as the rest of the food so it was hard to butter.
I Know, I say this every time, but they just dont listen!
That said we ate every mouthful.
My Sister was still hungry so she went up to the counter and bought a slice of cake to share but my Carb counter was in overdrive so I only had a spoonful.
Well actually it was a fork full.
Why a Cake Fork?
For some reason they provided small cake forks with the Tea instead of a Tea spoon, which made it a bit tricky stirring but came in handy for eating.
In summary this will be a great place for Jaki to take her Mum on a Wednesday and we enjoyed our food and the comfortable surroundings offered by the Cafe.
But I chose to buy my plants elsewhere and I think the same will be said about my next Breakfast.
No comments:
Post a Comment