Who doesn’t appreciate a good old English breakfast?
Some might say it is the only way to start the day – and the fry-up, in all its regional variations, can be a thing of beauty.
Cumbria Crack’s husband is partial to a good fry-up – in fact he rates Lara’s full English in Workington as his absolute favourite at the moment – so when we were invited to try Basecamp North Lakes’ brekkie, it seemed rude not to.
It was our first visit to the cafe, deli and farm shop, on the A66 between Keswick and Penrith, and as we walked in on a Saturday morning, the atmosphere was buzzing.
Families, groups of bikers, couples and singles of all ages were there. It was so busy that we could have been easily forgotten by staff, who were rushed off their feet. But no, alert and attentive, they were super quick and lovely.
We ordered and it seemed like no time at all that our breakfasts and drinks (flat white for me, breakfast tea for him) were in front of us. I’ve been in quieter places and waited for longer.
The cafe is called the Mess Hall – and we loved the crockery, a nod to camping plates and cups of my youth. You know the ones, those tin ones with a blue rim.
On to the food though. Basecamp North Lakes is rightly proud of its locally sourced ingredients.
In fact, it tells you on the menu exactly where each bit of your breakfast comes from – and its travelled the shortest distance possible to get there. Its sausages and black pudding are made by its in-house butchery team too.
The Full Northern arrived and it looked like it was worth the travel (and the A66 detour at Workington, but I digress).
Bacon on the right side of crispy, a cute Cumberland ring, field mushrooms that I could have eaten a bucketful of, fried tomato, delicious black pudding (I know that’s a love-hate piece of breakfast, but honestly, try it here. It’s a work of genius).
Toast from the More? Bakery, based near Kendal, and beans that tasted right (you know sometimes you can tell places have gone to the budget end of beans, but these tasted like Heinz. Even if they weren’t, they were good baked beans). Yummy.
We both went for poached eggs – and they were absolutely perfect. You definitely need a runny yolk on a fry-up.
I waited for the husband’s verdict. We were lucky enough to go to the Michelin-starred Pentonbridge Inn, near Carlisle, earlier this year and he was very impressed with their day break offerings. “It’s the same quality as that,” he said. “We’re going to have to come back.” High praise indeed.
Portion size. We’re all obviously a bit obsessed with value for money nowadays and I know the picture will get the usual comments of ‘you don’t get much’ and ‘only one egg?’
We were there for breakfast at around 10.30am and I was so full, I only managed a bit of cheese snagged from Taste Cumbria later in the day at around 7pm.
Don’t let the picture fool you. It’s a big breakfast.
If fry-ups and meat are not your thing, there’s a lovely sounding vegetarian option, which includes spinach, poached eggs on toast, porridge, house muesli and for a lighter bite, breakfast rolls and toast and jam.
Gluten free options are also available for the majority of the menu.
The Full Northern is the most expensive menu item at £13.95 – it’s worth every penny.
And if you can’t go for a breakfast? Basecamp North Lakes also has a farm shop and deli. This is lethal. We sampled some dry aged steak the other week (luckily for us one of the butchers is West Cumbria-based and we had a personal delivery) and it was possibly among the best steaks I’ve ever had.
The cake counter, with takeaway option, is far too tempting – with mouth-watering fruit tarts, individual lemon meringue pies, tray bakes and the like – I was too full to partake, but the husband did manage a Biscoff blondie, in the name of research.
There’s also lots of amazing local gifts – from bath oils to books and everything in between. We picked up our first Christmas present and I treated myself to an alpaca neckerchief.
There are actually alpacas on site too.
The Full Northern won us over, the staff can’t do enough for you and you leave with an immense feeling of supporting local businesses. What’s not to love about Basecamp North Lakes?
