March 2023
You’d have been lucky to find anywhere open for breakfast before 9am in these parts. And if you want the full English you’d either have to cook it yourself or go to a motorway service station.But all that is changing as cafes, pubs and restaurants are waking up to the idea that there is a market in breakfasts for early risers. So hats off to the Red Lion for jumping on the trend. ‘Breakfast from 8am’ reads the sign as I drove past last week. So I decided to swing by and see if I could order a croissant and a coffee. To give them a bit of a chance to get all prepped for the morning rush, I left it to 8.30 to call in. It was already quite busy with people tucking into eggs and bacon. A good sign! I ordered a glass of orange, a coffee and a croissant. First problem, the croissants wouldn’t be ready for half an hour. That’s not a good start because if you really want to offer a full breakfast service, I’d have put the croissants in the oven right from time I opened up round about 7.30, not an hour later. Next, the orange juice. As you can see from my photo, it looks watery and weak. It was. I fail to understand how any self-respecting restaurant could serve something that looked and tasted like it had been made from a powder. My coffee was OK and the toast and marmalade I ordered in place the of the croissant was tasty enough. Oddly, the manager asked me if I wanted butter with the toast. Maybe the whole idea of toast and marmalade was not one he was familiar with. Overall I’ll give 5 marks out of 5 for being open so early, but only two more for the food service. So 7 out of 10. Room for improvement!