BREAKFAST is described as the most important meal of the day, it also turned out to be my first and last of the day when I visited Binnies Café to try the ‘biggest breakfast in Bournemouth’.
Sifting through Facebook looking for potential stories can be an arduous task, but you do on occasion strike it lucky.
My editor happened to stumble across a picture showing what can only be described as a beast of a plate packed to the brim with the kind of breakfast offering that would make any builder purr.
It was captioned as both the ‘biggest’ and ‘best’ breakfast you could find in the coastal town, with several commenters seconding, thirding and indeed fourthing that motion.
“Do you want to try the biggest breakfast in Bournemouth?” she asked. I didn’t need to be asked twice.
Nestled between Wimborne Road and Balfour Road in Moordown, award-winning Binnies represents your classic morning caff with its chequered table mats, pavement seating, warm welcomes, and proper portions.
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It has its regulars. The tradespeople tucking into their hearty brekky before a hard day’s graft, the mums seeking a cuppa and chat, and a woman sat eating outside with her drooling dog by her side.
Welcoming them through the door is Andrea Thompson, who has co-owned Binnies with her husband and café cook Barry for more than two decades.
Having taken my seat and browsed the menu I knew there was only one dish I’d be tackling, the one customers had touted as the ‘biggest in Bournemouth’ – The Fat Boy Slim.
But it wasn’t Norman being cooked, it was in fact: two eggs on a bed of bread, bacon rashers, sausages, a beef burger, mushrooms, beans or tomatoes, bread and butter, toast, and four hash browns. I elected to wash this down with a cup of tea and an apple juice.
I took my first bite at 8.58am.
I initially thought the £10.95 price tag was a bit steep. But after eating for more than 10 minutes and barely making a dent, I soon realised I was essentially eating an entire farm and found it to be a quite conservative price.
The food itself was, simply put, very good. The fried egg yolk remained runny which is always a win, the bacon was the right kind of smoky and the mushrooms (of which I’m usually not partial to) were full of flavour.
By 9.12am I hit a wall, with one bacon rasher, half a sausage, three quarters of a burger, four mushrooms and two bread slices remaining.
Andrea came to check on me which is a general courtesy in the food service industry. However, because of the sheer volume of food and the fact that I looked dazed, this was probably more of a welfare check.
Despite this it was never a chore to eat as the dish maintained its heat and the cold apple juice helped counter the inevitable mouth dryness.
At 9.25am I was beaten, with just a couple of mushrooms and morsels of bread remaining.
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Having regained my ability to think, I chatted to Andrea about what keeps people coming back to Binnies.
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She said: “The opportunity came up to buy the café around 20 years ago and we are very happy here. The people we meet come from all sorts of walks of life and we’ve had people coming here since we opened.
“On weekends we get people queuing at the door and are extremely busy which is great but we’re here seven days a week.
“I like to think we have a friendly atmosphere and we try to provide the best quality breakfast at affordable prices and want to look after our customers – new and old.
“As much as you try, you can’t get it right all the time, but we would love to welcome new people to enjoy our breakfasts.”
Following my visit and upon stumbling back into the office, some colleagues said they thought the breakfast would look bigger. I almost took this as a personal insult.
I assume many readers will also share this view, to which all I can say is why don’t you put your money where your mouth is and try it for yourself – your belly will thank you.
Visit Binnies Café on Facebook for more information.
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