Royal Cafe - Braintree

This was a brilliant traditional cafe supplying a good selection of reasonably priced English style breakfast and lunches, I was a regular punter. They closed a couple of months ago for a refurb and are now about to re open so I stopped by to check out the new menu. Oh dear, oh dear, it seems they have all gone a bit Champagne Socialist while they have been closed. The prices make no sense, instead of, say, £7.20 the menu says it as 7.2 Why? It 's hard to find a breakfast without flippin Haloumi included! Why do I want squeaky rubber with my fried egg?? When you find a decent breakfast on the menu it 's £11.90!!! (11.9 in their money) and that includes 1 slice of sourdough toast , no drinks though. So by the time I add a coffee I 'm going to be paying upwards of 16 quid for a fried breakfast (16.0 apparently), and I 'll still only get one slice of poxy sourdough (yuk) I 'm sure some of the Wickham Bishops Massiv will pop in from time to time but at these prices you 've probably lost your core customers, the oldies, families and workers. And as for Halloumi on a fried breakfast, what 's all that about eh?

For me the best breakfast place in town. Always great food and the breakfast sets are really Good. Have tried other places and not a patch on this place

Been this place few times absolutely love it nice food and attentive staff. Especially Bacon, cheese and mushrooms dish

£6.20 for a takeaway tea and a bacon and egg sandwich. Sliced medium bread. Average. Clean and friendly staff

Cafe seemed welcoming but cash only. Seriously, who needs to pay cash these days. Much more hygienic, efficient and easy to budget using cards. Costs businesses next to nothing using facilities such as Sum Up. Now I know why cafe was nearly empty. I never use anywhere which is cash only. End of.