Tuesday 23 June 2015

Jacey's Coffee House - Ipswich

1 St Stephens Lane
Ipswich
IP1 1DP

Breakfast served
Monday to Saturday - 8.30am till 11.30am
Sunday - 10am till 12.00pm




Jacey's Coffee House can be found beside Buttermarket Shopping Centre on St Stephens Lane in Ipswich.



The counter and kitchen are on your left as you walk in, pay here at the end.



Choose a table and the waitress will soon be along to take your order, the service here seemed very efficient.



A giant teapot housing a plant pot and etched glass windows.



A fairly straightforward and reasonably priced breakfast menu, quite a poor vegetarian option though.



Maybe another time I'll check out the cream teas.



I loved how everything you will need arrives on a tray giving you time to prepare.



 Plenty of sauces and a cafetiere of house coffee costs just £1.95.




The coffee was served with cream and I squeezed 3 cups from the cafetiere!




When the breakfast arrived I was pleasantly surprised.



A slice of toast, crispy hash browns and deep fried mushrooms.



The egg looked impressive.



 The yolk was spot on!




I loved the bacon, really nicely cooked.



The beans were underneath everything else.



A pair of different sausages, the one on the left I didn't really enjoy, the one on the right was quite nice though.



I was back in Ipswich again but was really struggling with where to go for breakfast next. Jacey's Coffee House had been suggested a few times in the past so I decided to give it a look. I got there a few minutes before they opened and was quite amused by the customer waiting outside tutting and shaking his head as they were opening one minute late, some people eh! As the door opened I joined the small group that had formed outside and headed inside...

Upon entering - It was much bigger inside than I was expecting with some seating beside the counter as you walk in and even more seating further back in a large room. Beyond this were steps down to another seating area in the basement so no end of places to chose from! The decor throughout was very traditional with plenty of things to look at on the walls, nice table clothes on each table and good solid tables and chairs. It certainly had it's own unique feel, was nice and clean and felt welcoming, first impressions were good. There's full table service here so chose a table and decide what you want from the menu, there's one on each table. Somebody takes your order and later returns with a tray containing drinks, cutlery, sauces and sugar. This is a great idea as it means you can set everything up ready for when the food arrives, no messing around with having to later ask for things. On the way out simply hand the person at the counter your bill and pay. Everything feels well thought out here and seemed to flow really nicely. 8/10

Service - I was greeted as I entered and served efficiently, the staff here seemed really on the ball and quite friendly with it. Once my order was placed the tray soon arrived containing everything you could possibly need to accompany the breakfast. By the time I had sorted everything out on the tray the food arrived, the timing here couldn't have been much better! Nobody asked if everything was ok with the food but I was bid goodbye on my way out after paying. 7/10

Contents - 2 sausages, 2 bacon, 1 eggs, 2 hash browns, mushrooms, beans, half a tomato and a slice of buttered toast. 7/10

Presentation - I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived, everything looked nicely cooked and an impressive looking egg topped it off nicely. I did wonder why the sausages looked different to each other and where the beans where but later discovered they were underneath everything. 7/10

The food - The bacon was excellent and cooked just how I like it with a lightly browned rind. The sausages looked and tasted completely different to each other, one was quite plump and nice but the other was slimmer and quite chewy, not half as nice. The hash browns, beans and tomato were fairly standard and the mushrooms deep fried and quite oily. The fried egg was spot on with a lovely runny yolk, I enjoyed this on top of the toast. Certainly an enjoyable enough breakfast but the sausage situation was a bit bizarre and enough to deduct a point on. 6/10

Value for money - The big breakfast cost £6.95 and a cafetiere of coffee £2, the price certainly seemed reasonable enough to me. 7/10

Veggie option - Yes, but don't expect a veggie sausage.
Hash browns, tomato, mushrooms, beans, egg and a slice of toast for £6.35.
 
Overall - Out of the three cafes I've visited in Ipswich this was my favourite so far, it certainly has plenty of character and offers a fairly decent breakfast. A shame about the odd pair of sausages but at least the bacon and eggs were spot on and the price seemed quite fair too. With friendly service and efficient staff everything flows nicely, the way everything arrives on a tray was a real bonus and coffee in cafetieres was a nice touch. So a good option for a no frills nicely cooked breakfast in Ipswich, certainly better than Central Canteen but not a patch on the stunning Woolpack breakfast. 7/10

9 comments:

  1. "Veggie option - Yes, but don't expect a veggie sausage." - GOOD!

    Just as with the meaty breakfasts, a poor veggie sausage can ruin the whole thing. Veggie food doesn't have to have a centrepiece. Personally I'd much rather some homemade bubble than a freezer-to-pan veggie sausage..

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    Replies
    1. Fair point but to offer nothing to replace the meat is just lazy and not a proper veggie alternative. This is a breakfast after all, you expect a sausage of some description

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    2. Without wanting to get into an argument (unlike me, I know), as a veggie you tend to move away from the meat-and-two-veg model completely. If we have a substitute (a LM pie or whatever) then yes, it does resemble that - but most of our meals don't have a centrepiece. Fave veggie breakfast is huevos rancheros - soft tortillas with black beans, avocado, fresh salsa and fried eggs. Which is why I'm not fussed about sausages :=)

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    3. I see what you're saying but to offer the breakfast without the meat and call it vegetarian is the least effort any cafe can go to. I find this more annoying than places that offer vegetarians tuna thinking they must surely eat it.

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  2. Being veggie, I love having a nice veggie sausage with my brekkie & it is, I agree, sheer laziness not to come up with the goods..!

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  3. One of your sausages had been held hot whilst the other was cooked fresh, or possibly had been cooked previously and left to cool and reheated to make up a pair. Freshly cooked sausages are plump and moist because they're full of water, but the longer you leave them, the more they dry out, becoming skinny and tough. There are advantages to hot holding or reheating, but I always thought it best not to mix it up with the same product! Now bacon is much better cooked and reheated, most people like it drier and crispier, so you need to get rid of the water they pack into it.

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    Replies
    1. This very thought went through my mind as I tried the sausages. A freshly cooked and lone from last night heated up. It was an unfortunate sausage combo for sure!

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    2. I'm not sure 'most' people prefer dry bacon, I grew up in Ireland and you would never serve a dry rasher, Scotland the same...dry bacon is like leather. Also I refute a GOOD butchers sausage is full of water, homemade sausages are made from meat, rusk, fat and seasonings with no added water. Of course the cheap ones are but they will never taste nice no matter when they are cooked.

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  4. Not bad, nice looking bacon, but deep fried mushrooms is a pet hate...I just dont understand why!!!

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