Last November, a clutch of new businesses opened on the retail site of the Just Tiles roundabout in Woodley, including Woodley Café: a 21st century take on the greasy spoon.
Small, it is spotlessly clean – and it was also busy on our visit with a constant stream of visitors coming in to get a cuppa, a snack or a breakfast.
Its slogan is ‘Best coffee in town’ and given that Woodley’s shopping precinct houses a range of coffee shops, that is a claim it has to live up to. Certainly our Flat White (£2.90) was a decent cuppa.
Prices are decent: tea (English Breakfast, green, mint or lemon) is £1.50, coffees range from £2.50 to £2.90, and a Hot Chocolate is £2.95.
There is a large chiller cabinet fridge in Woodley Café containing a range of canned drinks. Obviously things like Coke and 7up, but also more exotic variants including obscure Fanta and Tango flavours, so there is plenty of choice.
What food options are on the menu at Woodley Café?
Most people will probably visit Woodley Café for a breakfast.
Options start at £2.95 for beans on toast, rising to £9.50 for a Full English, more on which below.
Jacket potatoes start at £3.95 for a plain jacket, with extras starting at £1.50 for beans or cheese, £2 for both. The same price gets you chilli, or tuna.
A Kebab Roll is £5, or £6.50 with chips.
There are burgers from £1.99, baguettes from £3.45, hot dogs from £3.45, salads from £5, and Chicken Wings at £4.99 for six pieces.
Add in Giant Sausage Rolls (£1.60), steak bakes (£2.45), Samosas from 85p and Chicken Nuggets and Chips (£3.50) and you have a fairly comprehensive menu with something for all hunger levels.
Sweet options include Croissants from £1, speciality doughnuts at £2.49 each, and slices of cake at £3.95. These are all on display so people can see what they’re getting before buying.
There are vegetarian options, but menu options are not marked, and without asking staff, there is no way of knowing if dishes are vegan or gluten-free.
What is in the Woodley Café Full English?
For £9.50, Woodley Café customers get a plate packed with a fried egg, two rashers of bacon, two sausages, two hash browns, a bowl of baked beans, toast and butter, some mushrooms, a tomato and a mug of tea.
A cheaper option is the Simple Breakfast – an egg, two rashers of bacon, baked beans and toast. This is £7.50, while the Vegetarian Breakfast is £8.50. This is vegetarian sausages, egg, beans, toast, tomato, mushroom and tea.
We asked for ours to come without the tomato, while we had ordered coffee instead of tea and paid the difference.
The wait wasn’t too long at all, and the plates were brought to our table by friendly staff who also took time to check on our meal to ensure it was alright.
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The plate is dominated by the bowl of baked beans, and to be honest, a smaller portion of those would be welcome, not least as there were so few mushrooms on the plate – just five tiny slivers – that a search party was nearly sent out for the others.
The sausages had echoes of a school canteen: bland, insipid and almost as if the past 40 years had never happened. They looked awful and had no taste. A decent Cumberland or Lincolnshire sausage would have transformed this plate no end, not least as the bacon was delicious. Nice thick slices and well cooked, it was the treasure of the plate.
The fried egg wouldn’t win awards thanks to its slightly crispy bottom. The placement of the bowl of beans in the middle made it difficult to dip food into the beautifully runny yolk.
The hash browns were fine, and the toast nice and crisp.
The Full English and Woodley Café was served at the right temperature, and was a decent portion, but with some tweaks it could have been a stronger offering: more mushrooms, fewer beans, work on the fried egg and completely different sausages.
What is the ambience like in Woodley Café?
Woodley Café is still a new venue and opened on the site of what was the Wine Rack.
It still looks as good as it would have done on its opening day: tables, chairs, floors, work surfaces all immaculate. Clearly, the team behind it cares enough to keep the venue well-maintained.
And that is even more impressive when considering that it is bustling, with most of the tables in use when we visited.
The venue has limited parking outside, which is shared with the other new businesses that have opened including a Morrisons Daily convenience store and a barber shop.
If they can make some tweaks to their ingredients, there is no reason why this can’t become a popular venue in Woodley.
Woodley Café
303 Loddon Bridge Road
Woodley RG5 4BE
0118 304 8179
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