Big Bites Cafe- Hanwell.

[southall-1998]

Been there a few times....Nice place, always clean and you always get served with a smile. Much better than the ''Friendly Cafe'' around the corner from this place.

I love their ''Mega Breakfast'' they serve in the mornings. I'm a big (ish) lad, small portions will not do me any justice :eyebrows::lol:

This Cafe is based in Hanwell, West London. Anyone on here ever been to this Cafe before?

[John]

Used to live near the bunny park in Hanwell but not visited the cafe

[southall-1998]

Interesting, John. I've been to the Bunny Park a few times in the past. Nice place to visit with the family.

[John]

yes agree

[walpurgis]

I know where it is, but not been in.
I go to a little place halfway down Northfield Ave.
About a mile away. Sausage, egg & chips plus a cuppa for about £3.

[southall-1998]

I know where it is, but not been in.
I go to a little place halfway down Northfield Ave.
About a mile away. Sausage, egg & chips plus a cuppa for about £3.

Cheap, but I'm guessing the portions are small. Maybe enough for you:)

[southall-1998]

Tomorrow morning, going to Big Bites for a Mega Breakfast!....Boy I can't wait!!!!

[Macca]

Tomorrow morning, going to Big Bites for a Mega Breakfast!....Boy I can't wait!!!!

You just bought shares in the place or something Shane? ;)

[southall-1998]

No, I'm just addicted to their fry ups :)

[Stratmangler]

If I'm down that way anytime soon I have to check the place out :cool:

[southall-1998]

Sure, give the place a try.

[Macca]

Y'all live in London which has so many fantastic places to eat but you go to greasy spoons instead :scratch:. Where I live there is only greasy spoons ( or Indian - but you don't have that for breakfast even here).

[southall-1998]

We cook lovely food at home. Sometimes I just love a good big fry up at a Cafe.....Can't really explain why!

[Macca]

We cook lovely food at home. Sometimes I just love a good big fry up at a Cafe.....Can't really explain why!

There is something really British about going to a 'caff', I suppose. Do you recall the canteen set from 'On The Buses' ? That is what the cafes are like around here. They just don't change. Cool in a way.

[southall-1998]

To be honest with you, I've never watched ''On The Buses'' before.

[Macca]

To be honest with you, I've never watched ''On The Buses'' before.

That's most likely a good thing.

[Stratmangler]

If you're up near Piccadilly, The Stockpot on Panton Street is well worth a visit, and good VFM considering that it's West End.

[southall-1998]

LOL! Macca.

[Marco]

We cook lovely food at home. Sometimes I just love a good big fry up at a Cafe.....Can't really explain why!

Shane, If you cook lovely food at home, why not also cook an equally lovely big fry up? At least that way, you'll be in charge of the quality of the ingredients used!

Most 'caffs', of the ilk you're referring to, that I've been to, use the cheapest quality (fatty) bacon, sausages (with goodness knows what rubbish inside them) and taste-free battery-farmed eggs, not to mention horrible cooking oil, resulting in a plateful of greasy high-cholesterol animal entrails, disguised as 'food'.... {PUKE!} :spew: :spew:

Very occasionally I enjoy a fry up at home, but then it's Welsh pork and leak sausages (with a high meat content), from our local butcher, and similarly local organic back-bacon, free-range eggs, poached or scrambled, and organic mushrooms, sometimes with Del's home-made potato scones - all cooked as healthily as possible, but all still VERY tasty and miles away from the shite that they serve in 'greasy spoons'. It probably costs the same or less to make, too! :exactly:

Marco.

[DSJR]

Poor Del. Hope she's not a slave to the cooker Marco, in addition to all the other work she does :)

[Marco]

Lol, no - it's a team effort. Trust me, anything Del does is done because she WANTS to do it, not because I ask her! ;)

Marco.

[walpurgis]

I really like the 'catering quality' bangers they serve in the average greasy spoon/transport cafe (and the fried egg sarnies with a bit of brown sauce). It's about the only meat I eat and I only eat in a cafe occasionally. I find a good old fry-up rather enjoyable.

[southall-1998]

I really like the 'catering quality' bangers they serve in the average greasy spoon/transport cafe (and the fried egg sarnies with a bit of brown sauce). It's about the only meat I eat and I only eat in a cafe occasionally. I find a good old fry-up rather enjoyable.

Agreed!

[Macca]

Some of you transport caff fanciers should come up to Stoke for the day - you'd think you had died and gone to heaven. In fact you could stay a month and not eat in the same one twice. I might start a tour group ;) Highlight would be the fabled 'Captain Cooks'.

Graham Northwest was here once and he says to me - 'I'm starving - I don't suppose there is a greasy spoon around here is there?

Then wonders why I am pissing myself laughing...

[Marco]

Agreed!

Same here, but I'd rather my wife cooked it, with decent ingredients, than some grubby bloke in an even grubbier cafe, serving up low-rate muck!!

Honestly, some of you have no class... ;)

Marco.

[southall-1998]

Same here, but I'd rather my wife cooked it, with decent ingredients, than some grubby bloke in an even grubbier cafe, serving up low-rate muck!!

Honestly, some of you have no class... ;)

Marco.

Harsh, but I don't care:lol:

[walpurgis]

I don't know about "no class", but some of us don't mind mixing with the 'hoi polloi' (just for novelty's sake you understand).

[Marco]

Gosh, perish the thought... That's why we employ the butler! ;)

Marco.

[Jonboy]

Its all part of the appeal a good fry up in a greasy spoon, it's just not the same at home, we ( the Wife) and i try to go out for a fry up at least once a month at a various locations, it gives us a bit of "us time " away from the kids to just relax and chill out, we can all cook a fry up at home but when someone else does it it's just better, living on the coast is good as there are quite a few cafes right next to the sea nothing better than watching the waves crash in eating a nice fry up :D

[walpurgis]

it's just not the same at home,:D

Jon's hit the nail on the head.

It's having a simple, nice tasting, cheapo quality meal that you didn't have to bother preparing bunged in front of you that appeals, not to mention that the people who run the 'greasy spoons & transport cafe's' learn what their customers like and get good at doing it! Ergo, a good 'fry-up' down the cafe is usually pretty decent.

I have to admit, I hate Indian food (and I live in Southall, for goodness sake), I just don't like aromatic herbs and spices changing the way good food is supposed to taste. If you roast a chicken, you have something that tastes wonderful, so why cock it up by bunging spices and herbs in? They don't improve anything....

[Marco]

Sorry, Geoff, I couldn't disagree more!!! :eek:

I think we're revealing our cultural differences here, as having Italian parents, I've always been brought up with fresh herbs being a major part of the food that we eat, and so cooking a roast chicken would be near to sacrilege without stuffing it full of garlic and rosemary (!) which would've come from our garden, and making a nice rich, tasty gravy, from the chicken, out of fresh stock.

The most important thing when cooking roast chicken is undoubtedly the quality of the chicken, so you want free-range or organic. The battery-farmed, pumped full of water shit, is just too horrid to contemplate! :nono:

Then after that, used properly, and providing you like the flavour, herbs and spices actually ENHANCE the flavour of meat, not detract from it, unless you just like eating bland tasting food (count me out). Anything I eat, must be bursting full of flavour. I can't stand bland or boring food!!

As for eating out, again we are very different people. When Del and I go out for a meal, the LAST place we'd head for is a greasy cafe, for a fry up. Aside from anything else, she's a veggie, so I doubt she'd appreciate me taking her there on a number of levels!! ;)

I guess this fry-up stuff is a British thing, so I don't really share the mentality.

No, when we go out for a meal, it'll either be to a nice country pub, where they have an excellent reputation for their cuisine (and real ales), or to an Italian or French restaurant. Occasionally, we'll go out for a curry or a Chinese meal, too, but sorry mate, you can keep yer greasy 'Caffs'... 'T'aint my thing :sorry:

Marco.

[Rare Bird]

I don't have anything against 'Fry-Up's' in general, i used to eat a lot, but since ive lost a lot of weight i'm very finicky about fatty foods, doesnt stop me eating them, but at least if i do them myself i know it's good quality ingredient cooked in an healthy fashion.. However i would'nt touch sausages with a barge pole.

[Marco]

doesnt stop me eating them, but at least if i do them myself i know it's good quality ingredient cooked in an healthy fashion.

However i would'nt touch sausages with a barge pole.


My point entirely. I *know* what goes into 'catering quality' sausages (mostly offal and all sorts of disgusting animal entrails), and 'cheapy' bacon that's more fat than anything else, so I just couldn't put it into my mouth. I don't mind the odd 'fry up', but at least if Del cooks it, I know what's in it and where all the ingredients have come from.

Each to their own, I guess...

As for escaping from the house and having someone else cook for you for a change, well, if you're single and living alone, I totally get that. However, it's not a novelty for me, as fortunately I'm married to a wonderful lady, who just happens to be an amazing cook! Yes, I know I'm lucky. I do like to spoil her, too!! :)

Marco.

[walpurgis]

I don't think it's a cultural thing.

My mother was French (and a very good cook) and the old man was a very educated Taffy.

I don't actually use a 'greasy spoon' very often, it's just that I rather enjoy it when I do.

I seldom eat out at all when I'm at home, but do eat out nearly every day when I'm staying with my brother in Cornwall, which I do regularly. I'm quite often in the Falmouth Yacht Club restaurant, they do a nice meal there. Also, I like The Old Inn, in Mullion, I had a couple of meals there about two weeks ago, very nice and The Lion & Lamb, on the Penzance road near Helston too. Both places allow dogs in too.

[Marco]

That's cool, Geoff! However, if you don't believe that the judicious use of fresh herbs and spices enhances, rather than detracts from the flavour of meat, as you so vehemently stated earlier, then there are most certainly cultural differences in our respective treatment of the food we eat.

I'm really puzzled at your negativity towards the use of fresh herbs with roast meats, especially with your mother being French. Whenever I've been in France and eaten roast chicken, it has NEVER been cooked without the appropriate addition of garlic and herbs! :nono:

In Italy (and I've been brought up the Italian way), we would no sooner eat roast chicken without the judicious use of fresh garlic, rosemary and thyme, then we would open up a tin of spaghetti hoops and serve that as the pasta dish!!! ;)

Marco.

[Beechwoods]

than we would open up a tin of spaghetti hoops and serve that as the pasta dish!!! ;)

It's Alphabetti all the way, of course, as all good Italians know!

[Marco]

Hehehehe.....! :D

The other thing I simply can't understand is the concept of paying for eating food outside which is WORSE than you can make yourself at home... :scratch: :mental:

Wossatallaboutthen?

When we go out for a meal, we want to sit down to something that is at least as good as what we could cook ourselves, and hopefully if the chef is up to it, even better!!

Marco.

[walpurgis]

I really don't like strong or pungent tasting things. I detest even the smell of curry and garlic, etc. Hot, I can manage as long as it's not silly.

It is reckoned that one in every so many people have a very acute sense of taste and I suspect I may one (mind you the wife thinks I've got no taste at all).

[Marco]

You like what you like, matey - there are no rules. However, I suspect that if you tasted Del's roast chicken, you'd love it! :)

How did your mum used to cook roast chicken? I bet she used garlic and herbs - if not, she wasn't French!! ;) ;)

Marco.

[synsei]

I used to think my roast Chicken was pretty decent until I tasted Jo's. There must be some Italian in her somewhere Marco as she rubs home made Rosemary, Thyme and Garlic butter under the skin before the Chicken goes in the oven, and sometimes she will put a whole small Orange and an onion in the cavity. Jo also taught me a roasting method I was unaware of until I met her. She wraps the bird in foil then places it on a wire cooling rack which sits in the roasting dish, then she pours in a mixture of white wine, water and she places a Bouquet Garni in the liquor. Half an hour before the bird is cooked she peels away the foil so the skin can brown nicely. Using this method the meat is succulent and absolutely scrumptious.

[walpurgis]

Don't recall Mum using any special seasoning with chicken. She used to make a potent lamb curry which I detested. Thinking about it, the only strong smelling foods I don't mind are cheeses, the smellier the better really. That's probably down to the Gallic link.

[southall-1998]

Haven't been to the Big Bites for a few weeks.

MAN....I'm craving for a Mega Breakfast now :(

[Marco]

Best get yer frying pan out, then.... ;)

Marco.

[southall-1998]

I'm feeling lazy :( Calling Pizza Hut!!! :)

[Marco]

Do Pizza Hut do deliveries? Excuse my ignorance on these matters! :eyebrows:

Marco.

[walpurgis]

Peckish again Shane?

[southall-1998]

Peckish again Shane?

Not any more :eyebrows:

[southall-1998]

Just got back after a lovely Mega Breakfast from the Big Bites Cafe.....Very naughty!

Anyway, no more fry ups for a good while now!