Category: coffee

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Breakfast once more at the Fox and Goose

I was in London and staying again at the Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. 

On my last visit there I had a great breakfast and some good coffee. So I was expecting another great breakfast and the good coffee.

The breakfast was superb. It consisted of pork sausage, Mrs Owton’s bacon, Hampshire black pudding, grilled tomato & field mushroom, hash brown, Heinz baked beans, and two poached eggs. 

Alas the coffee machines were broken, so they had to revert to standard breakfast coffee, which was disappointing. Well the breakfast was excellent.

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Breakfast at the Fox and Goose

I was in London and staying at the Fox and Goose close to Hangar Lane. This is a Fullers Hotel and is part of the same chain at Drayton Court, which I have stayed at for a few times now. When I was staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I had an excellent breakfast.

The breakfast plate was beautifully presented. The three rashers of bacon were cooked to my liking, not overdone, full of flavour. I enjoyed the sausage and the black pudding. The poached eggs were perfectly cooked, and had runny yolks. The field mushroom was delicious, though I would have liked my tomato a little more cooked. The beans and hash brown were nothing to write home about, but did help complete the breakfast plate. I really enjoyed the breakfast and is one of the best breakfasts I have had at a hotel. 

I did make one criticism of this otherwise excellent breakfast, which was about the coffee.

However one criticism, was the quality of the coffee, which was standard filter coffee, and not very good. 

I would have appreciated better coffee to go with such an excellent breakfast.

So when staying at the Fox and Goose, part of the same Fuller’s chain, I knew (and hoped) I would have a similar excellent breakfast.

Upon arriving in the breakfast room, I was given a warm welcome and shown to my table. I ordered the full English breakfast and they also cooked the toast, so no need to mess about with the breakfast room toaster that I normally have to contend with.

Coffee was from a machine, but was so much better than the filter coffee that was on offer at Drayton. I could have my morning double espresso.

I also had a nice pot of Greek yoghurt before the main event, and dressed with some honey, delicious.

The breakfast arrived and it consisted of pork sausage, Mrs Owton’s bacon, Hampshire black pudding, grilled tomato & field mushroom, hash brown, Heinz baked beans, and two poached eggs. 

Well as with Drayton Court, it was excellent. It was a great start to the day.

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London Pride and Coffee

I was staying in London at The Fox and Goose in Ealing. Having checked in I grabbed my luggage and headed to my room.

There was a free beer in the fridge, a bottle of London Pride. Nicely chilled.

Yay!

I do like it when my hotel rooms have a fridge. I also like it better when there is a beer in there.

The fridge comes in useful for keeping drinks cold, but also fresh milk. Though saying that the hotel provided small bottles of milk for tea and coffee. Though it is part of the same chain at the Drayton Court Hotel I was a little disappointed that, whereas the Drayton Court rooms came with a Nespresso machine, The Fox and Goose rooms didn’t. However in a stroke of luck I had my coffee machine in the boot of the car. So at least I could have decent coffee during my stay.

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Waiting for a plane

Starbucks

So there I was at Dublin Airport and I had a long wait, over five hours! So it was time for a coffee, there were a few choices.

The main reason I went to Starbucks was that there were power sockets. This meant I could drink coffee and charge up my phone and laptop.

I ordered a flat white and took a seat, plugged everything in and then drank the coffee.

I am not a great fan of Starbucks coffee, but needs must and in the end I thought it was alright. I certainly made it last though, so I could maximise the charge on my devices.

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Airport Coffee

Well to be honest I had quite low expectations about the coffee I ordered from Soho at Bristol Airport.

However in the end it was okay, even quite good. I didn’t have a huge amount of time following a long queue in security. So with no queue at Soho and an imminent announcement about the gate, I ordered a macchiato.

It was prepared well, good coffee and some foam. I enjoyed it. It did mean that I didn’t need to order a coffee on the plane! Now that would have been a very different story.

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It’s back…

I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoyed Lidl’s Italiamo Italian Style Coffee Ice Cream. So I was pleased to see that it will be back next week (from the 22nd September 2022) in their stores, along with the lemon and amaretto versions as well.

Italiamo Italian Style Ice Cream Coffee

Still good value at 99p a tub.

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Breakfast Time in Wimbledon

I was staying in Wimbledon at the Hotel du Vin and staying overnight I had breakfast a couple of times.

Unlike a lot of hotel chains, there wasn’t a full buffet breakfast. You helped yourself to toast, croissant, fruit, and so on. However for hot food though you ordered off the menu. It was a similar story with hot drinks.

I did like the fact that I could order a “proper” coffee of my choice with my breakfast, so I went with a double espresso. This was much nicer than the filtered coffee you usually have at hotel breakfasts.

There was a fair few choices on the menu, Eggs Benedict, Avocado on Toast, Grilled Kipper. In the end though I went with the Classic Full Cooked Breakfast. This was Cumberland sausage, sweet cured bacon, black pudding, grilled tomato, mushroom and eggs (cooked to your liking). I went with poached eggs.

Having taken my order the breakfast was cooked to order. The kitchen was in the Orangery at the hotel, so I could (if I was closer) see my breakfast being cooked. My breakfast then arrived on the table.

Classic Full Cooked Breakfast

I have to say I was a little disappointed. The bacon didn’t look that appetising. However it was nice and fresh, and did taste delicious. I enjoyed the tomato and mushroom, the sausage and black pudding were good, and the eggs were cooked well.

On the second day I was there, I went with the same classic breakfast and this was much better.

Classic Full Cooked Breakfast

The bacon this time looked a lot nicer, but otherwise it was much the same as the day before (consistency is a good thing).

Overall, despite my initial (minor) disappointment, this was a nice breakfast. The continental selection was good, nice choice of jams  and butter. Excellent coffee as well.

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Another nice espresso

Was in Bristol having a walk in the harbourside in the sun. We went to the MShed for a drink.

I had a very nice espresso, accompanied with some chilled tap water. What I did like was that the tap water was chilled. Recently at various places when I have asked for a glass of tap water, it hasn’t been chilled. So it was nice to have a chilled glass this time.

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Espresso amongst the plants

We were at Banwell Garden Centre looking at plants, and decided to stop for a tea.

Well I actually had an espresso with a glass of water. This was a decent espresso and I enjoyed it sitting in the sun.

Service was excellent, we ordered our drinks and they bought it to us at our table.

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Coffee and a pistachio swirl

I decided to drive to work. Well there was a train strike, so the train was out of the question. I drove down the M5 and headed into Bristol on the A369. As I approached the junction with Bridge Road, I could see that Rownham Hill wasn’t moving due to loads of traffic, so I headed down Bridge Road to cut down Burwalls Road, with no luck. So, I turned around and headed back to Bridge Road and crossed the Suspension Bridge. There were lots of police and fire crews. There were signs saying the bridge was closed, but it was open when I crossed it. I headed down Sion Hill and then hit more traffic. 

Later I found out that there had been an issue, the police were concerned about the welfare of a man, so had closed the Portway and other roads around the Cumberland Basin, which was causing all the issues I was having.

Having given up at this point, I parked and headed into Clifton Village to get some coffee. I went to Spicer & Cole and at the counter ordered a flat white. They had some nice looking pastries so I added a pistachio swirl to my order.

I had my pastry, took a seat and waited for my coffee. I did seem to be waiting for a fair while, so much so, I went back to the counter to check. They had been prioritising takeaway orders over my coffee.

The coffee was actually rather good and I enjoyed it. The pistachio swirl was quite nice, I did feel that it was slightly dry, and there was an excessive amount of icing sugar, but there was a nice taste of pistachio. 

Overall it was nice place for a coffee break, a little more pricey than other places I frequent, reminded me of London prices. If I am back in Clifton Village I would certainly visit again.