Scottish Breakfast
Originally uploaded by ellythompson.
While deciding what breakfast to have this morning, I came to the sudden realisation that I hadn’t had the Scottish Breakfast yet. So that’s what I ordered.
2 Eggs, 2 Rashers of Bacon, A Flat Lorne Sausage, Pototo Cakes, Potato Scones, Black Pudding (not shown in the photo), White Pudding, Baked Beans and Toast. It’s a lot of food, but it was all so excellent, I just had to eat it all!!
Bacon, Cheese & Mushroom Beef Burger
Originally uploaded by meriwilliams.
Firstly, OMG this was a lot of food. A seriously immense meal. I love to eat and generally do eat quite a bit, but my stomach HURT after having this. It was mental.
Basically, this was the regular tasty Belle & Herbs steak burger, but with bacon, cheese and mushrooms added. The end result was a succulent steak burger, in a cheese & onion bun, with salad, caramelized onions, burger mayo, tangy relish and bacon, grilled cheese and HUGE sauteed mushrooms! Don’t forget, as you can see from the picture, this also came with a serious helping of chunky chips (the side you can see is mayo). What you can’t see in this picture (but is more apparent in this one) is that there was a skewer through the whole thing to hold it together, with a couple of gherkins for good measure.
I’ve already talked about the quantity, but the really impressive thing was the quality. Burgers are so badly done in so many places these days, it’s a real nice change to see them done well.
Despite the accoutrements that could easily have excused a badly cooked burger patty, the burger itself was beautifully medium-rare (as requested). The sauteed mushrooms were soft and flavourful, but the bacon nicely crispy. The cheese was mild enough that it didn’t overpower the other ingredients, but still added nicely to the overall taste. The caramelized onions and relish added a nice sweet ‘n sour sensation. I have to admit, with all these ingredients, I didn’t give a DAMN about the salad but it did add a nice crisp texture variation. The bread was lovely and soft and nicely cheesy, and the chunky chips up to the usually high Belle & Herbs standard.
This was seriously the best burger I have EVER had. Yes, for those in Bath, this burger beat the PANTS off a Schwartz Burger. I recommend that you all drop what you are doing right now and come up here to try one yourself.
Herb’s Turkey Club Special
Originally uploaded by meriwilliams.
Herb’s Turkey Club Special is one hell of a sandwich. Three slices of doorstop white, with turkey, sweet tomato & chilli chutney, pepperoni, grilled cheese, sliced red onion, salad and a little garlic mayonnaise.
Firstly, this sandwich is very filling. I imagine that the Scooby Snack could out-do it, but I’d still recommend you only attempt it if very hungry! Personally I didn’t manage to get to the crisps and pasta salad that came on the side!
Secondly, although the ingredients might seem a strange combination, it actually works really well! The chutney and mayo really bind the turkey and pepperoni flavours together well and the salad and onion supplies a nice crisp texture.
All in all, another great sandwich worth trying!
Potato Wedges with Dips
Originally uploaded by meriwilliams.
Lovely chunky potato wedges with guacamole (quite nice and spicy!), hummus (great flavour) and tomato sauce. This is a lovely tasty snack — the only problem is that the chips are always dead hot but look lovely so you burn your tongue!!
Salmon Benedict
Originally uploaded by ellythompson.
The Salmon Benedict is part of the extensive ‘variations on the theme of egg on toast’ range on the Belle & Herbs Menu. And because the Poached Eggs are wonderful and I prefer Smoked Salmon to Bacon, I decided to go for this combination.
Basically it consists of Poached Eggs on top of Smoked Salmon on toasted English Muffins, covered in Hollandaise Sauce.
I have to say, every bit of this dish was fantastic, both in themselves and as a combination. Definitely a new favorite for me!
Breakfast Club
Originally uploaded by meriwilliams.
The Breakfast Club is big – really big – you just won’t believe how vastly, hugely appetite-quenchingly big it is.
No, really.
The Breakfast Club consists of Bacon, Eggs, Sausages, Beans, Tomato Sauce between 3 pieces of toast and – if that wasn’t enought – a portion of chips.
Eating the Breakfast Club takes some skill and effort. You have to accept that you’re not going to be able to eat it politely – but once that’s done, it’s a really great breakfast!
Another American Breakfast
Originally uploaded by meriwilliams.
This breakfast has become a real favourite of ours. It’s on the Belle & Herbs morning menu, but since this is served until 3pm, it’s often a good lunchtime option as well!
There is an choice with all the breakfasts to have poached instead of fried eggs. I really love poached eggs when they’re done well and these were excellent.
3 buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup, 2 bacon rashers, 2 hash browns, 2 poached eggs, flat griddled sausage and a massive hunk of white toast which you can see in the background. All in all a very filling meal and delicious!
BBC Sandwich
Originally uploaded by meriwilliams.
Bacon, brie and cranberry sandwich, on white doorstop bread with crisps and coleslaw.
I have to admit, I wasn’t too sure about the BBC combination at first glance. I tend to not be too much of a fan of sweet relishes (the one example being Mrs Balls Chutney, a South African institution), but the flavours actually worked really well together.
The fact that the bread was soft and fresh, the brie nicely creamy and gooey and the bacon well done all helped as well of course!
What an ace place! So relaxed and just??? groovy. Even the music on the radio sounded better than it would normally. You don???t wanna go there in a hurry on a Sunday, I???ll tell you that, cos it was so busy we wound up staying in there for almost three hours, including queuing for about half an hour (in the rain), but lawks a-mercy, it???s a good job I???d worked up an appetite.
We all got the soup-and-sandwich meal deal for a fiver, and I got the mushroom, leek and Stilton soup with a brie, cranberry and fakey bacon sarnie on granary. A massive bowl of the mushroomiest soup I???ve ever tasted, and a huuuuuge doorstoppy sarnie of such melting deliciousness that I almost wept for joy. It???s ace to see somewhere catering so well for veggies, too, as almost every meat-bearing menu item had a veggie alternative making full use of Quorn and the like. I couldn???t even finish mine, and I don???t know how she managed it, but my friend???s fianc??e wolfed hers, and a gorgeous berry smoothie, and then managed to put away most of an enormous plate of blueberry pancakes with yogurt, blueberry jam and maple syrup which would have made a substantial breakfast in itself.
I brought home a piece of fruit cake for Lucy (who very kindly vacated her bath so that I could get ready in time) and we shared it tonight. It contained so much alcohol it made us ever so slightly drunk. Lursh in every way. I shall be going again, at every available opportunity, and I recommend anyone in the north east to seek it out and go. But make sure you???re hungry!
The Big English
Originally uploaded by meriwilliams.
We went to Belle & Herbs this morning as we often do at the weekend and I realised that amazingly we hadn’t had any of the “standard” breakfast options! We’d been too busy exploring the different variations to try the basics.
So I settled on having a “Big English” breakfast. With 2 bacon, 2 sausages, 2 fried eggs, mushrooms, fried tomato, 2 hash browns, baked beans, a massive slab of black pudding and their special breakfast sauce, it certainly was big!
As usual all the individual ingredients were lovely — the eggs were especially well done — and the overall combination was delicious and very filling. I have to admit that at 0930 on a Saturday morning I couldn’t quite face the 1.5 inch thick slab of black pudding, but our puppy assures me it was the best thing EVER!
The special breakfast sauce was very interesting — evidently homemade, slightly spicy and a great accompaniment to the mushrooms and sausages. I’d love to know what’s in it, but I suppose that would be telling…
Ham ‘n Eggs
Originally uploaded by meriwilliams.
Although we’ve tried almost every item on the main breakfast menu, there are still a few items down the bottom of the first page that we haven’t managed to have. This was one of them and to be perfectly honest I wasn’t quite sure it was really a breakfasty kind of option.
How wrong I was.
The ham was nicely textured, richly flavoured and not too salty. The eggs were up to the usual great Belle & Herbs standard. The real star, however, was the mix of caramelized onions and fried potatoes.
The overall effect was an explosion of different textures and tastes — lovely!
Cinnamon French Toast
Originally uploaded by meriwilliams.
Belle and Herbs have the best breakfast menu EVER. If you needed any further proof, then this Cinnamon French Toast is it. Massive slices of doorstop white, briefly soaked in sweetened egg mix, then fried in butter.
It was absolutely gorgeous — not mushy (as French toast often is!) but beautifully firm. The texture sorted, the flavour was wonderful!
American Breakfast
Originally uploaded by meriwilliams.
The American Breakfast is my FAVORITE thing off the Belle & Herbs Menu. It’s one of those dishes where the people at the table next to you give you “You can’t possibly eat all that!” faces when it’s served to you.
It consists of 2 eggs, 2 rashers of bacon, 2 hash browns, a flat griddled sausage, 3 buttermilk pancake with butter and a pot of maple syrup. With toast on the side. And I love every part of it.
Carpetbagger Club Sandwich
Originally uploaded by meriwilliams.
Not quite sure about the significance of the name, but this is another delicious club sandwich from Belle & Herbs. It consists of 3 slices of toasted doorstop, with strips of Scottish beef steak, caramelized onions and hot mushrooms. It’s usually also includes wholegrain mustard, but since I’m not a fan of the stuff I requested it be left out.
It’s a great combination of both flavours and textures. Although not quite as rare as I like, the steak was still nicely done. Arguably noone thought to ask if I’d like my steak bloody just after midday on a Saturday! 😉 Either that or perhaps the chef was feeling a little too worse-for-wear to consider the thought — after all, they do rather like their Friday nights here in Newcastle…
I think I still prefer the Hot Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich, but this is still a very respectable offering.
The Man-wich!
Originally uploaded by meriwilliams.
The Man-wich I assume is a Belle & Herbs invention. It’s a club sandwich with smoked ham, toasted Mozarella (I think!), mango chutney and mayonnaise.
First off I’ll say this was a bit of a strange flavour combination, but it definitely worked. The smoked ham was salty enough to offset the sweet & spicy mango chutney. The melted cheese was largely just added texture!
Difficult to get your mouth around, but generally delicious.
Chorizo and Red Pepper Soup
Originally uploaded by meriwilliams.
Belle and Herbs don’t have a standard soups menu — everything runs off the specials board near the front door. That said, this Chorizo and Red Pepper soup seems to appear pretty regularly and sounded nice, so I tried it.
The flavours worked very well together — even though I couldn’t identify them all. There was a LOT of stuff in this soup, making it lovely and thick and chunky. Obviously the main flavours were the spicy chorizo and almost fruity red pepper.
Lovely with the nice chunk of wholemeal bread it was served with.
Hot Scotch Beef Sandwich
Originally uploaded by ellythompson.
Now, I have to admit, I’m not alway a fan of Steak Sandwiches (they’re much more Meri’s kind of thing), but today, this is what I fancied, and it was wonderful.
The Steak was cooked just how I like it and the mustard and the onions really set each other off well. And once the juices start soaking into the bread, you know you’re in for a really treat!
Steak Burger Plate
Originally uploaded by meriwilliams.
Scotch beefsteak burger with bacon and grilled cheese, caramelized onions, burger mayo, tangy relish and salad, on a cheese and onion bun.
This was just as delicious as the description sounds. What you might not be able to tell from the photo is that it was also MASSIVE. I had to remove all the salad just to get it so I could take a bite!
The steak burger patty itself was very tasty, which is unusual. So often it’s just the hot bit in the middle of the roll and nothing special. I’d love to know where Belle and Herbs source their ingredients from — I wouldn’t be surprised if it were all local organic produce or something!
My one watchout would be only order this if you’re really hungry!!
Belle & Herbs Smoothie
Originally uploaded by meriwilliams.
Belle and Herbs’ trademark smoothie is a great combination of apple, melon, orange, strawberry and possibly a bunch of other ingredients I’ve forgotten. Lovely mix, great taste 🙂
Berry Smoothie
Originally uploaded by meriwilliams.
One of the set recipe smoothies on the menu, the Berry Smoothie is made with Raspberries, Cranberries, Cherries and Redcurrents. It’s quite tart, and packed full of flavour. And not only that, it’s the most fantastic colour – it’s a wonderful dark red/purple!!