Greggs - Norwich

18 White Lion Street

Norwich

NR2 1QA

Breakfast served daily till 11am

Website

 

 There are a few Greggs to choose from in Norwich but I decided to try the White Lion Street Branch.

 

A breakfast with no eggs seemed a bit wrong but I couldn't resist trying it anyway.

The seating area at the front is quite small but is the best place to sit as there is some natural light.

The area towards the rear has no natural light but there is further seating upstairs.

You will spend a long time standing here.

 It seemed like you were getting quite a lot for £3.95 but was it any good?

 Err.. no, it was awful!

 The sausages were really small and seemed different to the ones served in the breakfast rolls.

 Trying to cut through the overcooked hash brown required lots of patience.

The best part was the toast and the coffee was ok too .

I visit Greggs quite regularly often getting their breakfast roll (bacon or sausage) and coffee deal for £2.60 which is always quite nice and good value for money. I am also very partial to Greggs pasties and bakes as well as their bread pudding and split fresh cream Belgium buns. They are pretty good and very affordable so perfect if you want to buy a snack but not spend a fortune. I didn't ever expect Greggs to offer a cooked breakfast due to the limitation of them just having ovens and a microwave. One day recently though I was stood in the queue about to order a coffee when I noticed a poster for their new £3.50 breakfast, it looked very minimal on the picture and there were no eggs on the plate. I then remembered they already baked sausages and bacon for the rolls, sold toast and served beans with jacket potatoes, I also remember months back an elderly lady asking for 2 hash browns. So although unable to fry eggs it looked like they were going to offer the items they had and that would be the Greggs breakfast. I wasn't expecting the breakfast to be great but figured even without the eggs it might be at least ok and decided I was going to have to inspect it...

Upon entering - There are a choice of areas to sit, upstairs looked quite nice if enjoying a coffee with its comfortable looking chairs but downstairs seemed more practical if eating a meal as the tables were higher. Wherever you choose to sit though you will may well find dirty mugs, plates and cutlery along with used sugar sachets from previous customers on the tables as although they do eventually get cleared it can take some time. The area downstairs at the rear has no natural light and can feel quite claustrophobic so far better to sit nearer the front by the entrance. The menu system in Greggs is quite unclear with various meal offers scattered about on different posters. There are two counters, one for take away and the other for eating in, you will spend quite along time queuing so ensure you are in the correct one or you will have to start queuing all over again. The counter facing the door is for take away and the one beside it further back is for eating in. Place your order at the till, pay and select your sachets of salt and pepper before sitting down, you will be given cutlery. There didn't appear to be any ketchup and I wasn't offered any.  4/10

Service - When I finally got served the lady didn't seem to understand what I meant when I asked for the breakfast "You mean a bacon roll?" she snapped back, I replied "No the breakfast displayed here" pointing to a small poster inches from her head. With a hassled look on her face and a light sigh she went about preparing everything . The lady on the till was a bit friendlier preparing me my coffee and taking my money. The breakfast was eventually placed before me on a tray. 3/10

Contents - 2 sausages, 2 bacon, 1 hash brown, beans, 2 slices of toast and butter. 3/10

Presentation - The dark overcooked hash brown sat beside the cremated looking bacon. The quite sorry looking sausages were holding back a mass of beans, not very well though as the beans had manged to escape onto the bacon and hash brown. The toast looked quite nice but a random bean had even managed to stick to the underside of one of the slices. Not much thought had gone into how everything looked on the plate, it had simply been thrown onto the plate. 3/10 

The food - The small squashy sausages were a bit of a shock as I was expecting the same sausages served in the breakfast roll, these seemed a different type though. They reminded me of larger versions of the ones found in tins of beans and sausages and didn't taste much different. The bacon was very overcooked and tough but not half as much as the hash brown, I struggled to cut through it and was surprised I didn't lose any teeth eating it. The beans were just err.. beans that had been zapped in the microwave, quite a nice consistency but just hot beans. The highlight was the toast which was ok but when the best part of your breakfast is the toast then the situation isn't good at all. 3/10

Value for money - I paid an extra 49p an added a hot drink so total cost £3.99. What seems like a good price soon becomes a waste of money the moment you see the breakfast for the first time. You would be better paying £2.60 for a breakfast roll and hot drink but better still go elsewhere for a proper breakfast with eggs. 3/10

Veggie option - No


Overall - Not a place to bother with for a cooked breakfast as they don't offer eggs (you need eggs with your breakfast!!) and everything is heated quickly and popped on the plate with little care for presentation. I was expecting a bit better as I have often seen jacket potatoes and toasted sandwiches being served here that look quite acceptable. Pop in for a hot pasty or cake to take away but go elsewhere for breakfast or you will just waste your money and leave disappointed like I did. 3/10