Supermarket cafes are just the place for a quick and affordable breakfast before or after the monotony of a big shop. Morrisons have a good deal with two full breakfasts and a cuppa for £10 plus a variety of eggs (scrambled, boiled, poached or fried) on toast and cereals.
Asda offers the works with eggs, bacon, black pudding, hash brown, baked beans and tomato, or simple sausage baps - someone tell them it's a cob in Nottingham please - and bacon baps.
But neither have the extensive range of options that Tesco has to spice up the first meal of the day. When I popped into the Beeston cafe around 9.30am it was already busy with couples, grandparents looking after the kids, and bunches of workmen in their hi-vis jackets.
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A couple of the workmen on the next table have just had mango smoothies brought out to accompany their full breakfasts. The breakfast menu has 12 different options, served all day, with prices starting at £1.60 for a toasted teacake.
It goes without saying there's a fry-up, dubbed 'The Breakfast' for £5.25 and a vegan version costing £6.50. As well as breakfast baps there's the posher version of an egg and bacon brioche.
The beans on toast are also described as 'posh'. The menu doesn't go into details so I'm not sure sure what makes them a cut above normal beans and it's not the kind of meal bloggers post on Instagram so there's no photos to go by.
Of course there's smashed avocado on sourdough toast. Nearly every cafe across the county features the ubiquitous brunch, except for the traditional greasy spoons like Bobbers Mill Cafe.
The items that catch my eye are shakshuka, a North African breakfast of eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce, and loaded waffles with either bacon and maple or granola, berries and yoghurt. Something different from the norm, they sound very enticing.
It's an impressive choice but in the end I go for chorizo eggs, priced £5.50. Judging by the breakfasts coming out, the full English is the most popular, but I am looking forward to something different.
Around ten minutes later I'm tucking in. If you don't like greens at breakfast time, look away now. A round of sourdough toast is covered in smashed avocado and two eggs with runny yolks. A good sprinkling of fried chorizo adds a salty punch while a smattering of chilli flakes give a cheeky kick. A handful of rocket tops it off.
It might be a little too adventurous for those who don't want to venture beyond bacon and eggs, but it's a refreshing change for food lovers - and a tasty one too.
