eggbaconchipsandbeans

Beach Cafe, West Street, Aberporth, SA43 2DB

Ah, this is a tremendous place. Aberporth is a lovely little beach town and this cafe is perched above the bay, next to a handy car park. It's the perfect place to retire to after some mucking about on the beach or in the sea.

The ebcb is bloody delicious. And arranged on the plate with some Joe Colombo flair. Look at the way the verticals of the chips intersect with the dottiness of the dots on the plate and take that same circular energy into the twin ovoid forms of beans and egg. And...actually, I can't do any more stupid designer talk. Those chips are just too delicious-looking. I'm getting hungry just looking at them now. Fat, crisp, delicious. And though that bacon looks a little pale in this picture it was actually very tasty. This is splendid grub. Really well done. I don't surf. I barely paddle. But I can imagine this sort of calorific input would be the perfect response to a long morning's wave-riding.

Simple, classic condiments. Sauces reduced to their essence. Brown...

...and red. This isn't ketchup. This is purer. This is Red. (And a rare example that retains it's plastic cappy bit.)

Piping hot tea. I think the British seaside would be completely unbearable without ready access to piping hot tea.

We didn't really go inside. Only to order. Because the prospect of a table outside was too alluring. Sitting out under a big Welsh sky is the perfect way to eat. You can't quite see down to the beach from the cafe. The beach is implied.

But if you just nip over the road you can see what awaits you. The slacker parents among us might consider this close enough for 'keeping an eye on' children.

Next door there's a magnificent beach shop.

And, just on the front, a fantastic flag flapping in the balmy Welsh breezes.  A great place this cafe, you should get yourself there.

South Stack Kitchen, Holyhead, Anglesey

The South Stack Kitchen is a lovely place, perched on a windswept cliffy hill above Holyhead. There's fine bird-watching all around, you can wonder down to South Stack lighthouse or just sit and marvel at the view.

Or you can just pop in here for a splendid and enormous fry-up.

I like the randomness of this one. The beans, especially, seem to have dropped from the ceiling onto the plate, but that adds to the appeal. A very nice  quantity of tasty bacon, with just a little hint of crispy carbon. The chips are appealingly scattered too, you feel if you ran a special chip magnet under the table you might get them in alignment, but, sadly, there's no such thing as a chip magnet. The eggs are solid and generous and stable, sitting there nicely, holding all the randomness together. Sorry, that's a bit of a ramble isn't it? Anyway. Very tasty. Very nice.

All the condiments you could ever want.

It's a nice big place inside, very much a shelter from the windy elements. Like a cosy cave.

I liked it here a lot. An unexpected treat. You're expecting a bracing walk down to the  lighthouse and then you find this magnificent cafe, friendly, generous, welcoming.

Rhos Transport Cafe, A48 eastbound, near J49 of the M4, Carmarthenshire

When we visited this fantastic place we assumed it was just called 'cafe'. Which I liked. But then I found it on transport cafe and it seems to be called The Rhos Transport Cafe, which has a similar utilitarian feel.

This is the best fry-up I've had in a long time. Absolutely magnificent. Look at those chips, they look like dragons teeth, and that bacon looks like it's been torn from the pig by the Pontypool Front Row. The egg is a limpid pool of lovely and the beans are dark and brooding, waiting to delight you once you've cleared the mountain of grub.

Simple, effective condiments. The minimum. Just what you need.

I love a good counter for queuing and a splendidly tall steam machine. Like the remnants of a Welsh space programme. And all those dragons on the top shelf, waiting to be much-loved souvenirs. Arthur's very attached to his.

And perhaps the best tea-towel display I've ever seen. Tea-towels, a much neglected aspect of our cultural heritage. I wonder if there's a tea towel blog?

Dennis Cafe, Castle Sands, The Harbour, Tenby, Pembrokeshire

The Denis is a perfect beach cafe. Friendly. Good food. Great views. And it's in Tenby, which is the nicest town in Wales.

A very high quality ebcb. Pale chips, afraid of the sun these chips. Not so the beans which have clearly been sweltering in a tanning facility. The egg is vaguely Martian, at least not of this earth in its contours, but delicious. And a splendid amount of excellent bacon with pinks and reds and browns and whites begging you to slam it in your gob. Genius grub.

A clever touch with the condiments. You have to careful at the seaside, you don't want people grabbing your sauce bottles and taking them out on the sand for their picnic. It's always a possibility. But too often these little sachets are a poor alternative because you have to get them yourself and you can never find them. Not so with these plastic cups stuffed with all your condimentary needs. Nice solution Denis Cafe.

Lovely big booths. You can get the extended family in here. And the spare friend or cousin you've brought with you.

And this is the view from our table. What could be better? If it's rainy you can sit inside and avoid the downpour. If it's sunny you can sit inside and avoid the sun. Perfect.

Hello over there. Are you having as much fun as us? I hope so.

great welsh cafes

Hannah at the Welsh Tourist Board kindly emailed to say that there's a series of programmes on this week about Great Welsh cafes. Sadly, only on HTV Wales. There's some great history on the website though.

Dolphin Restaurant, Great Dark Street, Aberystwyth

This is an interesting fry-up. This is mostly a chip shop so it's not their core activity. But chip shop chips make a really interesting difference. And you can somehow tell they don't fry a lot, there's not that greasy aura to the place.

Imagine how exciting and welcoming this neon must be on a wet winters night.

Fantastic, generous booths.

Simple condiment cluster.

I love these two-sided metal shelf/cabinet things. Like a works canteen or a New York deli in a Doris Day film.