Web site: within review

Telephone number: Cafe Monde (01962 877 177), The Cornerhouse (01962 827 779), Hotel du Vin(01962 841 414)

Date of visit: November 2009

Approx. cost per head: within review

Comments on wine list/beer: N/A

Review:

Winchester breakfasts
We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and also the most literally named. The first food that our body welcomes upon return from the land of nod does indeed break the fast of the night before.
All too often these days breakfast is a hastily conjured affair, a bowl of salt and sugar-laden cereal with suspect milk or perhaps a guilty purchase on the station platform. In my opinion however there remains no finer alternative than a brilliantly prepared and properly savoured Full English Breakfast, particularly now that the nights are drawing in and our bodies need that extra morning fuel to get us through the day.
Happily, Winchester is blessed with a wide, if variable variety of places that serve a Full English, at last count more than twenty different establishments. Apart from being a soul-warming start to the day, (and, if prepared from good quality ingredients thoughtfully cooked, not nearly as unhealthy an option as we are led to believe), a leisurely breakfast can also be an excellent platform for a business meeting, or mentally preparing oneself for an important day ahead.
So where to go? Over thirteen years of extensive research I have come to frequent three places which are attractive for different reasons but which each offer an interpretation of the FEB that are well worth experiencing.
Cafe Monde
Walking along Winchester High Street you will come across the Buttercross, a large ornate sandstone monument which fell from the sky in the early 18th century narrowly missing the beautiful half-timbered buildings nearby. Walk through the archway nearby and Cafe Monde is on your left.
Monde is probably a modern trendy sort of a place with ferny wallpaper and lime green bits, service is provided by attractive student types dressed in black, they are always polite and friendly and reasonably quick. You can sit either outside or in one of three cosy indoor areas. There are complimentary newspapers and some unobtrusive piped music.
The full English at Monde is a play-off between generosity of portion and quality of ingredients and cooking; the quality can be variable compared to the reviews to follow, but it is rare to see a plate return to the kitchen unfinished. The bacon is decent back bacon, by which I mean there is more meat than fat, although this has been cooked in bulk rather than individually. Sausages are of average quality pork which has been cooked and then finished on the griddle; satisfactory if not inspired, but the scrambled egg, tomato and toast are all first rate and very fresh. Mushrooms are not a strength at Monde, and they are often of the overcooked boiled variety, beans arrive as part of the package but are generally well positioned on the plate. Order a large cappuccino and some extra toast and you have a great start to the day that will leave you feeling full until well into the afternoon without the need for that 2pm pretend to stare at your monitor snooze that so often follows a heavy lunch. The food at Monde is well cooked and never greasy, so on the coronary stakes this only starts to really score points if you use both packets of butter on your toast. Which is needless to say highly recommended as nothing tastes better than a mouthful of scrambled egg on buttered toast at 8am on a Friday after a heavy Thursday night.
So visit Cafe Monde for a reliable, entry level sort of a breakfast, you won’t be disappointed but you also might not be tempted to write a review about it, erm.
£8-£10 including coffee

The Cornerhouse, corner of Parchment Street & North Walls
The second venue I have chosen is also the most recent arrival on the scene. The Cornerhouse breakfast is like a Cheryl Cole debut single, coming straight in at the top of the charts. Whether the Cornerhouse is married to a dodgy footballer I can’t comment, but I’m certain that this restaurant would stand its ground against Simon Cowell just like our Cheryl. The venue is great, it’s like a modern version of your favourite barmy aunts living room with big plants, standard lamps, rugs and comfy cushions. The breakfast menu is superb with a wide variety of things involving salmon and poached eggs that I’m sure are great if you aren’t a die-hard traditionalist like myself. The full English here takes a little longer to arrive than at Monde, but this is because the cook in the kitchen is taking fresh cold sausages and bacon from the fridge and cooking these to order, you can tell, the local produced pork is a taste sensation and accompanied by properly seasoned mushrooms, excellent scrambled eggs, beans and black pudding. I always think one measure of the quality of the ingredients of an FEB is how much brown sauce you see people using… at Cornerhouse the HP bottles will last a long time. The only negative here would be that toast is extra, but that’s a minor niggle, there are papers galore and from a wide spectrum of political persuasions, and the coffee is freshly ground and brewed. Booking is highly recommended especially at weekends when Cornerhouse is rammed with disciples of the sausage.
Breakfast & toast & coffee £10-13
Hotel du Vin
Now please don’t think I’m cheating, yes the Hotel du Vin is a hotel, but it is also a popular bar and restaurant and anyone is free to turn up to eat. In my experience it has always been possible to get a table at the spare of the moment for breakfast, but if too many of you start doing the same then this will of course change, so book anyway.
The simplest way to explain a breakfast at du Vin is that if the sausages at Monde are pre-cooked and then griddled, the sausages at Cornerhouse are proper bangers cooked well to order, then the sausages at du Vin have to fill in an application form, audition and be interviewed to be allowed in the building. These are seriously tasty bangers which you won’t want to offend with brown sauce, although this is available on request (and kept out of sight of the chef). Quite simply the breakfast here is flawless, two rashers of smoked back butchers bacon properly grilled, Bury black pudding, a confit tomato, a whole field mushroom seasoned and fried, and scrambled eggs which are finished with cream. You can have as much toast as you like, and the service is of course impeccable in the comfortable and peaceful surroundings of the bistro. This breakfast is a well kept secret and, at £14 all-in including freshly brewed coffee the ultimate start to a weekend or working day. Think of it as going to worship at the church de la petit dejeuner. Breakfast du vin £14 Southgate street.