Another fine one day weekend
spent with my girlfriend and not involving work in any way, which of course
meant another breakfast outing. It was Mandi’s choice this week, and not one
that I would have thought to make. I’m sure regular readers will know that I am
something of a traditionalist about certain ways, and breakfast is one of them.
However, this weekend I was encouraged and persuaded to forgo my usual full
English fry-up for something a little bit more foreign.
photo: Trip Advisor
To be honest, it wasn’t a
total departure from the norm. We took breakfast at Warsaw Diner, based in
Canning Circus. I’ve often wanted to use this place but it is hardly ever on my
route, based as it is on the top of the hill that leaves town, (or enters it
depending on which way you’re pointing I suppose). Canning Circus is a bit of a
strange area; it is on the cusp of The Park, a private estate containing a
variety of architectural styles, starting with Victorian. Due to the private
nature of the estate, planning permission isn’t required and so the place can
look like a bit of a mish-mash of new and old. Regarded as a posh and affluent
area, it is strange that it sits on the edge of Canning Circus, which is a bit
of a shit-hole on the surface. It was once the home of the Ben Bowers
restaurant, which changed hands and sadly became a short-lived grotty bar which
now sits rotting away like the other boarded up shops that line Alfreton Road
leading away from town. Alfreton Road is the first thing that visitors to
Nottingham see, (unless they approach from Mansfield) and it is a disgraceful
welcome. It has always had a reputation,
despite being a shit-hole, for fine bars and restaurants. Derby Road, which
meets Alfreton Road at the top of Canning Circus, is slowly on the decline,
having lost a couple of nice shops. I assume that these are considered by The
Park as the local shops, as they are (or rather were) higher end shops.
photo: Trip Advisor
Warsaw Diner has a good
reputation for breakfasts and last Saturday we decided to tick it off our list.
I opted for the Empire State Breakfast; two pancakes, two bacon OR sausage,
hash brown, and one other item. For my other item I chose sausage, take that
system! The price included bottomless coffee, which we didn’t really get chance
to take advantage of as we arrived at about half past one, and the place closes
at two o’clock. Having coffee with breakfast is something that I initially felt
uncomfortable with, as all sensible people take tea with breakfast. When in
Rome I suppose, or an American style diner, you should do as the Romans
(Americans) do and have coffee. The coffee was lovely, and I managed to have
three cups, so not really bottomless. Will it cut any ice if I go in again
tomorrow and claim that I still need to continue with the bottomless coffee closing
time cut short? Of course not.
photo: Trip Advosor
The breakfast itself was very
nice, a lot nicer than I was expecting. To my mind, pancakes are something you
eat on Pancake Day with sugar and freshly squeezed orange juice poured on. The
idea of pancakes sharing a plate with sausage and bacon is one that I had to
very quickly come to terms with, but amazingly it worked. Even pouring syrup on
the pancakes didn’t hurt the presence of bacon and sausage.
Although the staff was smiley,
friendly, and attentive, they weren’t exactly sociable. Not that that’s an
entirely bad thing as there’s nothing worse than the old cliché about waiters
asking how the food is when you’ve got a mouthful of the stuff, but I think
that talking among yourself and texting sends out a message to anyone looking
through the window. Another plus was the music; not for them the generic ‘the
same six songs, all day long’ commercial station, but a not totally brilliant
but pleasant and suitable compilation that included Blondie and The Beatles alongside
some of the crappy indie bands (that weren’t really ‘indie’ at all if you go by
the proper definition) such as The Feeling and Scouting For Girls, that sort of
thing. As I said, it could have been worse.
Our only problem was that
being so close to closing time neither of us felt as if we could linger in the
way that you want to over a Saturday breakfast, so we couldn’t take our time
over the bottomless coffee and read the papers, (although they only seemed to
have the tabloid papers so we wouldn’t have been lingering for that long
anyway).
They did however, (and this is
a callback for regular blog readers) have the right type of sausage.
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