Hearty Farmer’s Breakfast

Recently, I pulled into Darts Farm Shop in Topsham, specifically to take advantage of their bank of Tesla chargers. I was heading off into Devon to visit some National Trust properties, but I knew if I got to Darts Farm before 8am I could get a cheaper rate on the Tesla chargers. Having plugged in with a minute or so to spare I headed into the farm shop to grab some coffee and breakfast. I had been up for a couple of hours and had only just had a coffee, before driving off from home towards Devon.

My original plan was for toast and coffee. However, thinking about the day ahead, I thought a good breakfast would be a good plan (and then I probably wouldn’t need to worry about lunch so much.

My first thought was to go for the classic farmer’s breakfast, however for £2 more I could go all hearty and get an extra rasher of bacon, another egg, and some black pudding.

So, I went with the hearty farmer’s breakfast, which was two rashers of bacon, two sausages, two fried eggs, tomato, mushrooms, black pudding & fried bread. I found it intriguing that baked beans was an extra £1.50. I actually prefer my breakfast without beans, so not a problem for me.

As I was one of the first people in the restaurant I didn’t have to wait too long for my breakfast to arrive.This was quite a substantial plate of food. 

Hearty Farmer’s Breakfast

The eggs were perfectly cooked and freshly cooked too. One of the rashers of bacon was a little overcooked for my, but what I would say about the bacon was that these were quite thick rashers. I was impressed with the black pudding which was full of flavour, but cooked really well, so was still soft. Sometimes I find black pudding can be a little dry, this wasn’t, it was still nice and soft. I really liked the sausages, maybe I was expecting full size versions, and not chipolatas, but even so they were meant and full of flavour. I liked the mushrooms as well. The fried bread was a little disappointing in that it was a little soft, not sure if that was the eggs, but it was proper bread.

This isn’t a cheap breakfast, but the quality was excellent. It was cooked nicely and the flavours were all there. I certainly would have this again the next time I visit Dart’s in the morning.

Awful tea, just like British Rail use to make…

I had a terrible cup of tea. It was on a train and was reminiscent of the tea that British Rail use to make!

It was on the buffet car on a South Devon Railway train from Buckfastleigh to Totnes.

South Devon Railway

I always think preserved railways have a real opportunity for on-board catering, however I am virtually always usually very disappointed.

The tea was foul and served in a depressing polystyrene cup. The milk was that awful long life milk in spring loaded containers; what’s wrong with serving fresh milk?

I was so disappointed that I decided I wouldn’t eat in the station tea rooms as I expected it to be just as bad, but on reflection that may have been a bit premature, as I was told the menu looked interesting and the food looked really nice.