In this series of reviews, Alfie Mulligan and Harry Warner will be delving into a world of cooked breakfasts and scrutinising Salford’s kaleidoscope of cafés and diners from Blackfriars to Boothstown, from Kersal to Cadishead all in the name of public service (and definitely not for their own personal enjoyment) to ultimately crown one of them Salford’s best full English.
We start this week’s hunt for the perfect cooked breakfast in the heart of Salford, at its shopping precinct. The Brunch Munch Café is our destination today and to get there it seems necessary to travel back 50 years back in time.
Sure, the café is outdated but it has a certain charm. Unintentionally retro with its vintage ‘No Dogs’ signs and mustard yellow walls, the decor somewhat matches its location and service it provides.
It’s the kind of place you would call a cafe rather than a café. Ordering screens and phone-charging tables are things of a greasy sci-fi parallel universe, and quite frankly, would undermine the true nature of Brunch Munch Café as a staple for locals to eat filling food at a fair price.
The menu stuck to the inside of the shop window shouts its platters of steaks to onion rings to cooked breakfasts, proudly. Its what I like to call ‘English tapas’.
It doesn’t take long to get served in this establishment, granted we arrived ten minutes after opening, we managed to order, sit down, and receive our food before you could say “hashbrown, beans, sausage, bacon and egg, please.”
We took our places by the large shop window, ideal for people watching, and sat just below a blue-tacked poster promising a £3.75 “traditional breakfast.” The price is indeed £4 now, with the 25p difference an effect of the cost of living crisis.
The food itself was, best simply put, average. The bacon was rather chewy and soggy, the sausage dehydrated from any juicy goodness and the beans lacking flavour and viscosity.
However this was all balanced out by a fantastically fried egg oozing with “golden liquid” (as Alfie described his yolk last week at Scrantastic), as well as a mouth-wateringly crispy hashbrown which left me disappointed I had not ordered an extra 10.
As someone who winces at the thought of a baked tomato on a full English, the fact it arrived on my plate as cooked as it was on the vine was a huge plus for me, even if it was never intended.
@likwid_media Brunch Munch Cafe – 3/5 – A quality and cheap little diner in the heart of the Salford Shopping Centre. Definitely recommend if you are looking for something quick and easy. Although authentic is isn't the best out there. Video filmed by Harry Warner and Narrated by Alfie Mulligan #Salford #Scran #breakfast #foodreview #salfordcity #fryup #english #englishbreakfast #Food #foodie ♬ original sound – Likwid Media
A nice touch is that all the food at Brunch Munch Café is locally sourced, even if it is from the Aldi at the end of the road. We discovered this when a lady burst through the doors with a shopping trolley full to the brim with tasty supplies.
Good on them to be honest, as a student all I eat is Aldi anyway, and the extra savings allow the café to provide for those who would struggle to pay the premiums of other breakfast spots or simply those who cannot cook for themselves.
Understandably then, Brunch Munch divides opinion. Fairly positive reviews are scattered across google with the odd stinker thrown in.
One visitor said: “People paying 5 quid for a full breakfast and expect the Savoy standard! Food is very good, the staff very nice and overall a great place.”
However, another customer was less impressed and wrote: “Nearly ate a hair and Barm was soggy.”
This noted, we left Brunch Munch Café pretty content with our morning’s escapade. Feeling a little fuller in the belly, we also felt a little wiser in the head after experiencing a place that felt simultaneously like a time capsule of the past, but also as a genuine piece of British culture.
Therefore, three stars out of five is a fair critique of what is a unique destination with friendly staff that serves food to a standard most could have cooked themselves.
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