According to Bristol Live readers who recently voted in a poll, Abbott’s Kitchen is the best greasy spoon cafe in Bristol. That’s a high accolade considering how many places dish out a Full English every morning so I had high expectations as I queued at the counter.
By 9am, Abbott’s Kitchen was packed. A quick look around the room and I soon realised I was the only person not wearing a sweatshirt with the name of a local scaffolders or builders and also one of the few customers without a tattooed neck or a hi-vis jacket – I’ll have to look more the part next time.
Tucked away off Whitchurch Lane on the outer fringe of the city before it becomes fields, Abbott’s Kitchen is a modest little place. On the end of a short rank of units that include a Chinese takeaway, barbers and vape shop, it’s off the beaten track and yet people travel from all over the city for the breakfast here.
As is tradition with proper greasy spoon cafes, it serves more than simply a fry-up. There are hot and cold sandwiches, paninis, salads, jacket potatoes and daily specials such as pork chops, egg, chips and peas (£6.50) and southern fried chicken wrap with salad, cheese and a sauce of your choice for £6 or £6.70 if you add chips.
Visit on a Wednesday and you can order a mid-week roast dinner. It was roast beef the week I visited and it cost just £8 including all the trimmings and a mug of tea or coffee. That’s what I call good value and it’s clearly popular with the locals.
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But it’s those Full English breakfasts that people flock here for from 7.30am every day (apart from Sundays when it’s closed). There are three sizes of breakfast, priced from £5 to £7.50.
Most of the workmen were ordering the most expensive version – the ‘number three’ at £7.50. That comprises two bacon, two sausage, two egg, beans, tomato, black pudding, mushrooms, hash browns, toast or fried bread, tea or coffee – it’s a substantial plate of food for the price but a solid start to a day of hard graft outside.
There’s a vegetarian offering and also a ‘Healthy Breaky’ which features two lean bacon, grilled sausage, mushrooms, wholemeal toast, choice of egg, tea or coffee. Apart from the wholemeal toast, the ‘healthy’ elements are the fact the bacon is ‘lean’, the sausage grilled and you can order a poached egg rather than a fried one.
I went for the mid-range ‘number two’ (£6.50) – two bacon, sausage, egg, beans, hash brown, two toast and tea – and it was faultless. The bacon was perfectly cooked and there was plenty of it, golden yolk flooded out of the fried egg as soon as I cut into it and the plump and juicy sausage was a proper old-fashioned café banger.
The hash brown was crisp and piping hot, the beans plentiful and glossy and the generously buttered toast was the thin, sliced white stuff rather than posh artisan sourdough and perfect for wiping the egg yolk and smears of ketchup off the plate at the end.
Tea or coffee is included in the price and you are given an empty mug to make it yourself. If ordering separately, the tea is only £1 and the coffee (instant, nothing fancy) is £1.20, although most diners were washing their breakfasts down with cold cans of 7Up or Fanta.
Proper cafes like this are a sadly dying breed but the good ones are well supported and still busier than ever. And, yes, Bristol Live readers who voted for Abbott’s Kitchen were spot on for crowning it the best in the city – it’s a genuine greasy spoon gem.
Abbott’s Kitchen, 95 East Dundry Road, Whitchurch, Bristol, BS14 0LN.
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