Frankie and Benny's - St Neots

Frankie and Benny's St Neots

Spin off

I have been for a Frankie and Benny's breakfast A LOT but seem to of missed the chance to write a blog on the experience so although I was missing the usual crowd I really wanted to do this blog.

Me and a couple of friends Hannah and Faye decided to meet up to take our little people (Evan, Myles and Stanley) bowling and before hand we met up at Frankie and Benny's for a slap up breakfast. I arrived first and got us a table, the gentleman servicing us was lovely and got Molly's high hair and took her buggy away to give us extra room. I ordered myself a cuppa and Evan an orange juice both arrived really quickly. When the others arrived and got themselves settled he was
back to take their drinks orders.

Now I already knew what I was having, there's not many places that do my favourite so triple stack pancakes with bacon and syrup was a done deal, and of course Evan doesn't say no to a breakfast that comes with ice cream!!! Hannah ordered the big breakfast and Faye ordered the poached eggs on toast, although she decided three poached eggs may of been one two many so swapped one egg for a hash brown. Stanley and Myles had a little fry up each. The food arrived and I was not disappointed
(I knew I wouldn't be), Faye's poached eggs on toast was massive I would say it was probably bigger than Hannah's big breakfast! I had ordered a tea re fill when we placed our food order which I had to re ask for when the food was served and also took a couple of attempts to get some ketchup but think that was the only negative points. The staff were lovely and very welcoming and can't beat a breakfast covered in syrup in my view.

Price - slightly above average on price although refills are free on teas, coffees etc which helps 7/10

Quality - Excellent quality, not greasy or fatty. 8/10

Quantity - Went a way full and happy! Although could always eat more when it comes to pancakes bacon and syrup 8/10

Dobbies Garden Centre - Peterborough

Dobbies Garden Centre Peterborough

Over the last few weeks with school holidays, work, weddings, babies etc we have missed our breakfast club gathering but we are now back in the flow. Sunday morning after sending out a couple of texts we were back in the swing of things but sadly missing Heather, Ross and our youngest member of the breakfast clubbers Owen.

We started off meeting in St Neots town hoping to eat at Barretts but sadly it didn't open till 11am (fail) so after a chat amongst ourselves and the fact Craig and Monika wanted to head to Kiddiecare we decided to go to Dobbies Garden Centre in Peterborough and what a treat it was.

We walked into the cafe and it was heaving but in a good way the place was full and buzzing with people. After some furniture rearranging and sending Craig off for a highchair hunt we managed to find a spot for ourselves and our expanding brood, once settled Craig and Monika headed up to get their breakfast first. It was a choice of a small breakfast 7 items or large breakfast 10 items or breakfast baps. They were soon back with their large breakfasts which even included potato cakes yum yum. Me and Lewis then headed up to get ours and of course Evans.We also opted to go for the large 10 item breakfast and Evan had the kids breakfast (4 items) plus a sneaky cake as they looked to good to pass on. Now this breakfast is a bargain 10 item breakfast plus toast for £4.49 and it was lovely not greasy or fatty and you literally get exactly what you want. Lewis had a latte and I had tea and not any old tea Suki tea (my absolutely favourite). The only down side I could see was by the time me and Lewis sat down Craig and Monika were finishing up their breakfast, but everything else was spot on.

Price - Excellent value for money. 9/10
Quality - Really good quality food not greasy or fatty and the food was piping hot. 9/10
Quantity - Perfect went a way full and happy! 9/10

Leonardo's Cafe and Pizzeria

Leonardo's Cafe and Pizzeria in Loves Farm, St Neots
Following a request/ recommendation off Facebook we all met at the little cafe in love farm. Now I have never heard of this place and I couldn't find anything about it on Google. So me, Lewis and kiddies arrived early to find it and direct the others in. Thanks to my great directional skills (yes great!!!!) Heather and Ross soon arrived followed by Craig, Monika and Oliver.

After thinking this place was going to be hard to find ( as not from loves farm) it really wasn't and was welcomed by a great big sign " Leonardo's Cafe and Pizzeria". The place although small is well equipped and had everything we needed even for our younger members of the breakfast club they had highchairs to hand and brought out a cup of boiled water so we could make up Molly's breakfast.  

Once we had all settled (again after some rearranging of tables and chairs) we then went through the menu, which had so much choice plus the breakfasts all came with tea or coffee included which is always a bonus to. They gave us a few minutes and then came over to take our orders, I went for eggs on toast, Lewis for a make your own selection, Heather had a veggie breakfast and the rest of the group went the tradition breakfasts (special and extra special). We didn't have a long wait until the food arrived (I was really impressed with the speed of service)  all piping hot and well cooked and most importantly the portion sizes were perfect, we were not going to leave hungry the only negative I heard was the black pudding was cut to thin but apart from that everyone enjoyed yet another good breakfast. 

Price - great value. 7/10

Quality - good quality food a step above your average cafe but the black pudding was a little to thinly sliced. 7/10

Quantity - Great portion sizes and we were very happy tea and coffee was included with the breakfasts 7/10

Ambiance Cafe

 Ambiance Cafe
 Website: http://www.ambiancecafe.co.uk/



Following a slightly heavy night celebrating Lewis 30th, plus Monika and Heather birthdays (I won't disclose their ages). We decided a second breakfast of the weekend was on the cards and where better than the beautifully placed Ambiance Cafe in St Neots.

Now, we have been coming here for years (me and Lewis) and as breakfast clubbers we have been her a fair few times (breaking our multi visit rule again) but we struggle not to come here when the sun is shining. For me, Lewis and Evan it is perfectly placed as we can walk there, which means Woody gets a good walk and Evan gets a good practice on his bike. 

Following our sobering walk, we arrived at Ambiance Cafe, we always get a table close to the play area so as soon as Evan has finished his food he can head over and play whilst still in sight. We were soon joined by Monika, Craig and Oliver (and Dixie aka black dog and Snoopy aka brown dog) and then Pete (who is becoming quite a regular to the gang). We sent the boys in to get drinks and menus and they soon returned with gallons of liquid to satisfy our dehydration, after a little scan of the menu we soon made our choices and sent the men back to place the orders. I'm not sure if it was double breakfast club weekend or the fact a few of us had enjoyed one to many glasses of bubbles and/or skittle bombs but our choices were a bit random. Now there is no changing Craig so he had a fry up however he didn't go for the biggest on the menu for a change, Monika had an omelette, Lewis has a bacon baguette with a side of hash browns of course, I had cheese on toast and sausages and Pete had the daddy of all breakfasts, it was huge!!!! This place has never disappointed food wise, service and location is spot on. Even though we sit the furthest away from the cafe itself the food arrives really quickly and piping hot every time. 

We finished this lovely breakfast club experience with Evan and Molly having a sit in Pete convertible (which Evan loved), Evan had a good play in the play area followed by a walk around the park and a good laugh at black dog and brown dog after going head deep in the bog and Craig having to chuck them in the river to clean them followed by a few apologies to people who may have been caught in the doggy mayhem. 

Price - really good value for money. 8/10

Quality - good quality food above average for sure. 7/10

Quantity - Great portion sizes it's very handy that you have a lovely park to wonder round after to burn some of it off.  8/10

Sandy Cafe

Sandy Cafe, Market Square, Sandy


After meeting up with Craig, Monika and Oliver in Sandy town centre to try out a new little cafe we were very much disappointed as we didn't even get in the place it was rammed full (hopefully a good sign for when we do get to sample the goods) so we decided to go to another old faithful Sandy Cafe. This place has plenty of room for our little lot and again with a bit of rearrangement of their furniture we were in. 

This place is a little like Moores Walk Cafe in St Neots its a proper good old fashioned cafe. Once we all got seated and spent a few minutes browsing the very extensive menu they were soon over taking orders and apart from Lewis (who had an omelette surprise surprise!) and Evan that had sausage chips and beans we all went for variations of the good old British fry up. The food portions here are amazing and Craig's was huge it came with the works including chips, beans and two of everything else. Me and Monika went for the same (mine without beans as they a yucky) it included sausage, egg, black pudding, bacon and bubble and squeak which was all very nice. Sandy Cafe is a bargain I think for mine Lewis and Evan it tallied up to around £16 including drinks they are also very accommodating and even gave Evan a lolly as we were leaving. 

The only thing this place is lacking is a WOW stand out factor however you really can't complain value for money is excellent and service is good.

Price - Excellent value for money   8/10

Quality - Typical greasy spoon quality food . 6/10

Quantity - You will leave satisfied if not a little uncomfortable stuffed, excellent portion sizes 8/10

Danish Camp

Visited: The Danish Camp
Website:Danish Camp Website

Following our exciting couple of weeks of special occasions we decided we would continue with a special breakfast club breakfast and meet up at the Danish camp in Willington. The old group were together again and we had one guest member Pete.

The setting here is picture perfect and we picked a beautiful day to enjoy the scenery too and found a lovely spot in the sunshine on the terrace. All was going well and the place was slowly packing out, as you would expect on bank holiday Monday.  We all picked what we wanted off the menu and went up to place our orders. Now this isn't the cheapest place and Monika and Craig's breakfasts including a hash brown side and x2 latte came to over £24, ouchie! 

Now I don't know if I was just having an unlucky day but my breakfast ordering went badly, the menu said 2 eggs on toast - £4.50 so I thought perfect poached eggs on toast, sadly they said it was only a choice of scrambled eggs or fried eggs on toast so I went for scrambled which they charge an extra £1 for because they use an extra egg! 

Right, we all sat back down and our breakfast came out bit by bit Monika and Craig's first followed by mine, Lewis and Evans (all with long waits between) when the lady came out to give me mine and it had fried eggs, fine, so I said that I had ordered scrambled, she then went on to say that they don't offer scrambled when they are busy (would of been nice to of been told that rather than bringing out something I didn't order) we explained we had been charged an extra £1 then she went back to the kitchen only to return with the fried eggs again I decided to accept them and get the £1 refunded ( which was a separate argument with her as she said it had already been refunded) now this is were it went from bad to worse, she went to put the plate down and there was a great big black hair across the eggs, by this point didn't really fancy breakfast! She took the breakfast away and returned with another plate of fried eggs on toast hairless this time. I can't say her manner won me over she was fairly rude with no flexibility or apologies, however their only saving grace was the young lad that came out after and offered a complimentary cup of tea. Anyway by this time Heather, Ross and Pete had had there's delivered. Heather had croissants, same as Evan, Pete had the regular breakfast and Ross had the full breakfast (same as Monika and Craig) Lewis had a bacon and egg wedge but was charged for a bacon sausage and egg wedge but by this time it wasn't worth the effort to complain anymore. 

This place could of been amazing it's in a beautiful setting and because we picked a bank holiday there were loads of things to see and do afterwards including a viking village to look around, a bouncy castle and even a few animals which Evan loved . I understand mistakes are made and would never slate a cafe for it as in my view it's how they deal with it that is key and sadly the Danish camp dealt with it all badly. 

Price - Expensive paying a little over the odds for the beautiful setting is fine but your customer service needs to be as "beautiful" too, also the teas and coffee are not included in the breakfast prices.  4/10

Quality - the food is good quality and the bread wedges were a nice stand out item that I haven't had anywhere else  6/10

Quantity - Good size breakfasts . 6/10

Flitwick Manor - Love is in the air

 Visited: Flitwick Manor
Website: Flitwick Manor Hotel Website

 At the moment our life's seem to be full of special occasions and this was no exception. We spent the night at this amazing hotel following my sisters (Heather) and Ross (now official brother-in-law) secret wedding. So this is another special breakfast blog, but sadly we are missing Craig and Monika again but I couldn't miss an opportunity to do what I love most and write about a breakfast experience.

The wedding party was only small and for breakfast we only had 7 of us plus my little people Evan and Molly. So it was me, Lewis, Heather, Ross, mine and Heathers mum and dad (Lynda and Geraint) Ross mum (Cathie), Kevin and little Rach.

The lady that was serving us the night before told us that we were all set up ready for breakfast in the library (all very fancy). We all met at 9.15 where there was a little selection of continental food set up for us to dig in to, all of which was lovely and a young lady soon turned up to offer us our toast and tea and coffee. We were told to have a look through the menu and they would be back to take our order.

This was my type of menu full of fish and eggs but with the obvious choice of a full English too. Now the price scared me so it was a good thing it was included in the room price, £18.00 for a full English and £9 for the lighter breakfast options. It took me ages to decide between the eggs benedict, dippy duck eggs and scrambled eggs and smoked salmon but I eventually went with smoked salmon and scrambled eggs. Lewis, my mum and dad, Heather and Ross went for the full English, little Rach went with salmon with poached eggs, Ross mum also had the smoked salmon and scrambled egg (dairy free) and Kevin had eggs benedict . There were a few small hiccups on delivering the food to the table (a couple of wrong items on plates) but I really couldn't complain as I think I had pretty much half a salmon on my plate, happy days. The full English seems a little pricy to me but you are paying above average for location and service, plus we had our own special private breakfast room. Because we had our own special room the kitchen must of been a little way from where we were eating as the poor girl serving us looked like she had run a marathon by the end of it.  This was a lovely way to end a beautiful couple of days and would highly recommend a stay at Flitwick manor, especially in the room we stayed in, number 7 as it's the most haunted room in the house, good thing I found this out after my stay! As anyone that really knows me knows I'm the biggest wimp out there.


Price - I don't think the full English is worthy of an £18 price tag however as part of the room price you can't complain.  5/10

Quality - Lovely food, my salmon was excellent but nothing else stood out. 6/10

Quantity - The full English breakfasts were not vast, but I did get a lot of salmon with mine, there was a good supply of continental which you can full up on. 5/10