Stars Cafeteria & Bar - Norwich

112-114 Magdalen Street

Norwich

NR3 1JD

Breakfast served

Monday to Friday

8am till 4pm

Website

Stars Cafe is located right next to Epic Studios on Magdalen Street.

This blackboard offering a big breakfast for £3.99 had caught my eye for some time now.

Place your order and pay at the bar.

I really liked the interior of this place, plenty of natural light floods in and it feels really spacious.

The prices are cheap and Stars is only open on weekdays.

A reasonably priced drinks menu, I usually always have a coffee with my breakfast.

Today was different though, I'd already had lasagne on Norwich Market for breakfast and was having a full English for my lunch, this called for a diet coke.

A selection of sauces can be found on the counter in sachets, just help yourself.

I've no idea why tomato doesn't feature on this breakfast, It's my least favourite breakfast item though so I wasn't overly concerned.

I guess a £3.99 breakfast was always going to include economy sausages.

Everything on the plate was pretty average but piping hot, for the £3.99 price tag a perfectly acceptable breakfast though.

The yolk was runny on top and firm towards the bottom.

The hash browns looked slightly underdone.

Underneath they were crispier though.

The breakfast offer on the blackboard outside Stars Cafe on Magdalen Street had caught my eye many times as I passed. The problem was I was always working when I spotted it and whenever I wasn't working at the weekends they were closed. With the Easter weekend fast approaching and some time off work I passed the sign once again as I returned from the city having already eaten breakfast. A snap decision was made that I could always have a full English for my lunch and I was through the door...

Upon entering - I loved the look of this place inside, very colourful, clean and modern. There's heaps of space, lots of tables to choose from and the huge windows allow plenty of natural light to flood in. The menu is quite basic here and reasonably priced offering two cooked breakfasts but no veggie full English option. Place your order and pay at the bar, collect sauces from beside the till and take a seat, the food and cutlery are brought over to you when it's ready. You can sit and watch the world pass by on Magdalen Street over a coffee in the relaxing environment of this stunning looking cafe. 8/10

Service - My visit here was incredibly swift, I ordered within five minutes, the food arrived five minutes later and once I'd eaten it I was out the door again having used no more than twenty minutes of my time. The lady serving me seemed very busy in the kitchen, she mentioned when I placed my order that it could take five minutes to cook. I'm used to waiting up to half an hour for a breakfast to be cooked so this seemed incredibly quick. The food arrived with some cutlery but I had to work out where the sauces might be myself as she rushed back into the kitchen. Although friendly enough when ordering there was no welcome and no return to the table to check everything was ok. I guess at these prices though I can't really grumble and other than not knowing where the sauces were I didn't really need anything else. 4/10

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

Presentation - For a budget priced breakfast the presentation was about how I expected it to be. The egg yolk was intact and the sausages were nicely browned, everything else looked acceptable to me. 5/10

The food - I'm not a fan of economy sausages but on a breakfast at this price their presence on the plate is inevitable. They didn't taste too bad actually and were nicely browned all over. The bacon was fairly standard and cooked on the griddle, underneath I noticed it was even crispy in places. The hash browns were slightly undercooked on top but golden on the bottom and certainly hot enough. The Mushrooms were rather tasty and the beans were slightly stodgy which is always a bonus. The fried egg had a runny yolk on the top but a solid yolk further down and the toast was a standard slice of white evenly browned. 5/10

Value for money - For £3.99 the big breakfast served here seemed like good value for money. The quality of the ingredients are quite basic but this is to be expected at this price. 7/10

Veggie option - No.

Overall - A really nice looking cafe serving an economy breakfast which I enjoyed more than breakfast at nearby Cactus Cafe Bar. It's a cheap no frills breakfast but if your only looking to spend under a fiver then it may well meet your needs. If you're willing to spend more though then you'd be much better off visiting Olives, The Plasterers or The Street Cafe, all within five minutes walk away. 6/10