Farmhouse Breakfast Week, from 25 - 31 January, 2009, is an annual celebration of the most important meal of the day. Here we pick 10 venues where breakfast is very much a pleasure to be savoured, and you can tell us about your favourite breakfast spots on our Word of Mouth blog.
1. Harbour Master Hotel, Aberaeron, Wales
On a crisp, sunny morning, there can be few better places to enjoy breakfast than the Harbour Master's cafe-bar on Aberaeron quay. Owners Glynn and Menna Heulyn are sticklers for quality local produce and regional character. The Harbour Master full breakfast (£6.50) comes with a good, meaty dry-cure bacon and a tasty pork banger, as well as - a rather more acquired taste, this - laver bread (seaweed rolled in oats and fried in butter) and, if you like, sweet, hot Welsh red mustard.
• Breakfast served 8.30am-11.15am; prices from £1.50. Pen Cei, Aberaeron, Ceredigion, +44 (0)1545 570755; harbour-master.com
2. Selly Sausage, Birmingham
The Selly's homemade pancakes (from £3.15) - topped, American-style, with endless combinations of bacon, maple syrup, fresh fruit or Nutella - are legendary among Birmingham's student population. This quirky independent insists on quality basics, too. If you go for the big breakfast (£4.80), rest assured you will find HP sauce on the table and Heinz beans on your plate.
• Opens 8am; 9am weekends; prices from 75p. 539-541 Bristol Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham, +44 (0)121 471 4464; sellysausage.co.uk
3. The Walpole, Ealing
Neither restaurant nor "greasy spoon", the Walpole - brown packing paper on the tables, ticketed service, chef Louis and wife Wendy Loizia dispensing food from a busy open-kitchen - is as Malcolm Eggs, editor of the London Review of Breakfasts, puts it, "the best of both worlds". Expect home-baked ham with your eggs; good Irish black pudding; and quality pork sausages sourced, after much deliberation, from Smithfield Meat Market (full breakfasts, £4.75/£5.95, inc tea/coffee). The Walpole attracts a real cross-section of locals, reports Eggs, "all brought together by their love of perfectly fried eggs, unbelievably tasty bacon and real home-made bubble 'n' squeak."
• Breakfast served 7am-2.30pm, 8am Saturdays; prices from £1. 35 St. Mary's Road, Ealing, London, W5, +44 (0)20 8567 7918
4. Picnic, Killyleagh, Co Down
The breakfast menu at this much-loved deli-cafe will prick the interest of even the bleariest of travellers. Spicy potato cakes with cream cheese, salami and harissa (£6.50) is a serious alarm call, while the popular hot chocolate porridge with raspberries (£3.50) pays tribute to local lad, Hans Sloane, an 18th-century doctor and naturalist (after whom Sloane Square is named) who helped popularise drinking chocolate. Walk off breakfast in nearby Delamont Country Park.
• Breakfast served 7am-12.30pm, 10am weekends, prices from 95p. 47 High Street, Killyleagh, Co Down, Northern Ireland, +44 (0)28 4482 8525
5. The Providores and Tapa Room, Marylebone
Peter Gordon's fusion restaurant isn't an obvious choice for breakfast, but its ground floor Tapa Room does a brisk trade in lesser-spotted dishes. Turkish-style poached (organic, free-range) eggs with whipped yoghurt and hot chilli butter (£6.20), and a breakfast porridge of brown rice, apple, maple syrup and miso, with a tamarillo compote (£6), are two of the more intriguing options. The less adventurous, meanwhile, can opt for a variety of fry-ups (from £8) or toasted sourdough bread with jam, Vegemite or New Zealand manuka honey (£2.80).
• Breakfast served 9am-11.30am, weekends 10.00am-3pm, prices from £1.20. 109 Marylebone High Street, London, W1, +44 (0)20 7935 6175; theprovidores.co.uk
6. Ego, Ludlow
Atypically trendy, for Ludlow - it's all exposed brickwork and iconic black 'n' white photographs of stars of stage and screen - this cafe-bar is a good place to peruse the weekend papers over a leisurely late breakfast-brunch (£6.50-£6.95). The choice is short and sweet: full breakfast; smoked salmon and good, creamy scrambled eggs; eggs Benedict and Florentine, and the ingredients all come from local farmers, Ludlow's three celebrated independent butchers and brilliant town bakery, Price's.
• Weekends breakfasts served 10am-2.30pm. Quality Square, Ludlow, Shropshire, +44 (0)1584 878000; egocafebar.co.uk
7. Bill's Produce Store & Cafe, Brighton
There are other purely vegetarian venues - Archie Browns in Penzance and Truro; or Lancaster's well-regarded Whale Tail, which includes smoked organic tofu in its full breakfast - which could have filled this slot. However, in terms of variety and quality non-meat eaters are rarely as well catered for as they are at Bill's veggie-friendly cafes in Brighton and Lewes. Both serve equally interesting meat dishes, too. Choices include a full veggie breakfast (£6.80) of poached eggs, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, homemade guacamole and hummus-on-toast, dressed with a sweet chilli sauce; grilled mushrooms with smoked cheddar and walnuts (£7.30); and buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup and ice-cream (£6.60).
• Opens 8am; prices from £1.25. The Depot, 100 North Road, Brighton, +44 (0)1273 692894, billsproducestore.co.uk
8. Kro Piccadilly, Manchester
Breakfasting out is usually a weekend treat, but Kro's budget breakfast (large coffee and a pastry or bacon butty, £2.50, until 11am) is popular with both commuters and visitors keen to avoid rip-off hotel prices. Despite its central location, this attractive, open-plan space, all clean lines and glass, maintains a serene atmosphere in the mornings. Full breakfast/ brunch also served.
• Breakfast served 8am-3pm, 9am weekends. 1 Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, +44 (0)161 244 5765; kro.co.uk
9. Craigie's, Edinburgh
Famous for its jams and chutneys, Craigie's fruit farm is also home to an exemplary deli-cafe. An airy, barn-style new build, perched high on a hillside, it offers stunning views across the Forth of Firth to the Pentland Hills. Honest, tasty food is the mantra here. Ingredients come from the farm itself or a tight network of local artisan producers. The breakfast menu - popular with mums, midweek, after the school-run - ranges from a simple sausage sandwich (£3) to the full Herds Choice blow-out (£6.45).
• Breakfast served 9am-11.30am, prices from £1.95. West Craigie Farm, South Queensferry, Edinburgh, +33 (0)131 319 1048; craigies.co.uk
10. Cafe Alf Resco, Dartmouth
A back street gem. Even on a drizzly, overcast day, Alf's covered and heated open-air patio area is an attractive spot. At weekends, particularly in season, it gets packed. There's plenty of choice at breakfast, from cinnamon toast (£1.65) to steak baguette (£6.95), and the fresh, locally-sourced food has a real spring in its step. Pastries come from the Sloping Deck bakery across the road; Alf's pork and sage bangers are made by Devon sausage specialists Westaway; orange juice is squeezed on-site; and Alf's notably good coffee, its own blend, is produced using a vintage Gaggia. Family friendly; live music 11am-2pm Saturdays and Sundays.
• 7am-2pm daily; prices from £1.65. Lower Street, Dartmouth, Devon, +44 (0)1803 835880; cafealfresco.co.uk
