Where? Victoria Place, Brightlingsea, CO7
What? Traditional small town cafe
How much? Bargain. Full breakfast and drinks for two well under £15
Contact: https://www.facebook.com/Caf%C3%A9-Chic-coffee-house-413857118747251/
During a heady blast of nostalgia for the good old days where you didn’t have to prebook everything and Saturday morning nutrition was based entirely on how much beer was consumed celebrating Friday, the Mr and I head out for pastures new last weekend. I say pastures new, I mean our very own Cinque Port of Brightlingsea where we had decided to spend all of our weekend pennies due to existential fatigue and major roadworks on the way out of town. Sadly our old haunt of choice is under new ownership (doing swimmingly btw well done) and no longer offers a morning meal and thus Cafe Chic was the next obvious choice. Because it’s the first place we walked past on the way into town.
I’ve been a coffee-and-cake patron here numerous times before but on reflection it is rather the obvious choice for a start to the weekend’s eating. Conveniently placed on the commercial hubub (wink emoji) of Victora Place it’s hard to miss this traditional small town cafe. By which I mean it is bright, well located and simply comfortable- it is in no way some kind of 80s nightmare greasy spoon. They have made all the expected adaptations for the current pandemic without losing any comfort factor and as a bonus discovery for the climate a rather cute courtyard seating area at the back.
Their hot food menu is more extensive that I would have expected, warming up with the obvious full english and bacon rolls but then sliding into a varied array of veggie options and the thrilling heights of halloumi and smashed avocados for you trendy types.
Their standard filter coffee is really good but the man on the next table had a huge iced coffee which gave me instant diner envy that threatened to ruin the entire weekend. Well played, Iced Coffee Man.
I was entirely satisfied with smashed avo on toast with a couple of eggs and a hash brown but the Mr won the morning with their veggie cooked breakfast and a valuable reminder of one of my favourite foodie lessons ever: Order The Obvious. Don’t get chips from the Chinese. Don’t travel two hours to a renowned fish restaurant then order the chicken (I’m looking at you, Mr). Only psychopaths get a salad from McDonalds and if you’re in a lovely, unassuming spot like Cafe Chic you should go for the traditional cooked breakfast to set you up for the day. You wont go wrong, and you shouldn’t spend more than a fiver. Bonus points because their additional side options of hash browns and extra mushrooms and whatnot are not offensively priced. And those hash browns are perfect- you know the ones, the generic rounded triangular ones that have been fried to within a millisecond of being over done. Bravo!
I wont go on, it’s a decent cafe with a banging breakfast a ten minute walk from the beach huts. Check them out if you’re in town.
Food. Boom. 