Eat My Words: We review Vine House Farm Shop and Cafe in Deeping St Nicholas
Regular readers of this column will notice that this isn’t the first time that we have reviewed a fried breakfast – but who doesn’t love a full English? Personally I have to say that it is one of my top three meals of the day...
And Vine House Farm in Deeping St Nicholas do serve up a very fine example of a full English.
While I’m no stranger to the cafe, which has provided the venue for many a catch-up with friends since it opened in 2021, I haven’t had one of their breakfasts for a while so thought now would be the perfect time to pop back and sample another. And I wasn’t disappointed.
In fact I’ve never never left the cafe and farm shop – which champions local producers – disappointed... or with shopping bags laden with treats. On Christmas Eve, I popped along for a meet-up with some of my favourite people – well that was the excuse but I was desperate to try a honeycomb hot chocolate (which was delicious). And we were treated to a lovely performance of festive songs by one of the waitresses behind the counter.
More Eat My Words reviews hereBut back to the scene of my latest catch-up with a very old and dear friend (I’ve known for her a long time, not that she is ancient as that might make her sound) who had never been to Vine House.
We grabbed the menus on the way in and chose a table at the far end of the cafe, which is close to the decking so we could enjoy the lovely views of the pond and the award winning wildlife gardens along with some of the birds.
The menu had a wide variety of choices ranging from eggs on toast to porridge but it didn’t take us long to confirm what we both wanted – the fried breakfast!
Keeping my usual greed at bay, I opted for the small English.
This is made-up of a rasher of bacon and a sumptuous Lincolnshire sausage, both from the on-site Grasmere Butchery team. I have a similar view on sausages to that famous phrase uttered in the Christophe Lambert ‘80s classic Highlander – ‘There can be only one!’. And for me there can only be one type of sausage – and that is a Lincolnshire one, all others are pale imitations. And don’t get me started on the chicken abomination of a sausage.
And Grasmere produce some pretty fantastic sausages. Mine was fat, juicy, deliciously seasoned – in fact everything I could expect and want from a sausage.
The breakfast also features a wonderful Vine House Farm fried egg. Growing up on a small holding with our own chickens, I am quite discerning when it comes to eggs. The yolk has to be bright yellow and normally, nothing compares to my dad’s.
But I have to say the Vine House eggs are an exception to that rule. They were delicious and as good as my dad’s (apologies to Big Nige) – which is high praise indeed!
There was also a little pot of baked beans – which I soon poured onto the plate to be mixed with the egg yolk. I love eggy beans! Although this maybe controversial but my beans also have to have a splash of vinegar.
I asked for extra mushrooms as I’m not a big fan of tomato on a breakfast.
Accompanying the breakfast is toast using Pacey’s bread, another local producer. I opted for granary bread which perfectly mopped up my eggy beans – sumptious!
My friend opted for Halloumi breakfast.
She enjoyed tucking into two grilled slices of grilled halloumi, tomato, mushroom, smashed avocado, egg, beans and granary bread.
All in all, Vine House is worth a visit for any meal but especially breakfast.
Out of five:
Food: A fantastic breakfast and good portions *****
Drinks: As it was a breakfast, we stuck to the ‘hard stuff’ of tea and coffee – which were delicious *****
Decor: Light, airy with big windows to enjoy the scenery. Perfect *****
Staff: Always friendly and sometimes you get a song! *****
Price: £8.50 for a breakfast which incorporates locally produced food. Not bad at all. *****
Have you had a great meal? Share your own Eat My Words reviews or tell us where to try by emailing: news@lincsonline.co.uk
