Cafe Reviews

Primo’s Gourmet Hotdogs

- Alex Leave a comment

Primo's Gourmet Hot Dogs

date of visit: Tues 30 October 2012

The idea of gourmet hot dogs may sound slightly anathema but if London can have a venue dedicated to hot dogs and Champagne there’s no reason why gourmet hot dog eateries should not exist. I suppose.

Lunch with old work mates saw us wander into the Corn Exchange – one of Leeds’ most distinctive buildings and one that has seen its fortunes wane and wax. Happily, things are now in the waxing phase and once again it is looking and feeling vibrant and full of both shops and people.

Primo’s Gourmet Hotdogs occupies a reasonable chunk of space on the ground floor level. The tables are reasonably tightly packed and on a Tuesday lunch we had no problems nabbing a seat.

My mates were veterans and knew what to order without glancing at the menu.

As it was a Cuban Tuesday Andy ordered a pulled pork Cubano with chips and a coffee for £4.95. I chose a Utah hot dog with an extra sausage (yes, the small, extra but very hungry mouth was in attendance). The Utah was offering me caramelised onions and crispy bacon and there are plenty of other variations on the hot dog theme.

While vegetarians aren’t catered for with the hot dogs there are bagels and salads that will suit.  The food came out quickly and we all tucked in.  My extra sausage had been cut in half length wise which meant I was able to eat my hot dog without depositing it all over myself.  Andy’s cubano looked delicious although one look at my hot dog and he decided that I’d won.

Primo’s point of difference is its sausages.  Rather than using homogenous, pasty, pale imitations of sausages Primo’s searches out the real deal and offers the diner a choice of bratwurst, a beef frankfurter, Lincolnshire, bockwurst or chorizo.  I found my Utah a little bit on the sweet side:  the caramelised onions and a kind of BBQ sauce were all just a touch too much for me.  But that’s down to personal preference – because if I lived closer (!) I’d definitely return and work my way through the rest of the menu.  Looking at it now, I really don’t know why I didn’t order the Picante, with chilli, cheese, bacon and jalapeños …

Also of note was the lovely service: very friendly staff who scored extra points with me for taking the time to chat to the toddler.

With most menu items coming in at under £4 and a different promotion for what seems like every day of the week (in addition to Cuban Tuesdays, Thursdays are Dog Pound day where an extra £1 will see you score an extra hot dog … you get the idea) this is a much more affordable way to eat lunch than, say, heading for a pub meal. If you’re out and about early enough, Primo’s will also offer you breakfast.

Something that is probably worth getting out of bed for …

Primo's Gourmet Hot Dogs on Urbanspoon

S Cafe, Grange-over-Sands

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Date of visit:  Friday 19 October 2012

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A week in the south Lakes with a toddler saw us frequenting a series of farms, aquaria and other outdoor activities. While natives of the area might have declined to join us on the basis that it was too cold or too wet, our enthusiasm remained, ahem, undampened.

We spent some time feeding the ducks in the Grange duck pond. The toddler grew tired of that pretty quickly, preferring first to people watch and then charge around the garden with a stick. After a while of “stick, stick, tree, tree” we decided it was time for a quiet sit down.

S Café advertises itself as selling the best coffee in Grange ‘or your money back’. Grange does have quite a few coffee houses, so this is no mean claim. We didn’t have the time to conduct a comprehensive survey but can report that S Café’s coffee is pretty good.

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Its coffee cake is also excellent, the vanilla slice rates as acceptable, while the shortbread is best described as poor (soggy and crumbly rather than super short and crumbly). The cakes were all served beautifully presented – with grapes (‘hello grapes!’ said the toddler, ‘pshaw shortbread!’) and a swirly S in raspberry.

Where things go wrong in S Café is the service. The lady who served me had clearly chosen the wrong career. A more dour demeanour I couldn’t have managed myself. At least I would have got the order right … When I asked for an Americano she queried whether I wanted milk (no) and yet she brought out a cappucino (printed docket as aide-memoire clearly no use). She then returned with an Americano – with milk. Why bother asking?

S Café did score quite highly on the child friendly front – while no one in the UK seems to be able to make a froth dominant babycino, S Café did have a generous selection of children’s toys to entertain younger patrons.

While S Café does indeed do a good coffee, the cakes are inconsistent and the service is well below par. Smiling at customers costs so little …

S Cafe on Urbanspoon

Bona Fides, Sydney

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date of visit: Saturday 13 October 2012

Barely 24 hours in Sydney saw us attend a wedding before heading to the UK, as well as find an hour or two to cram in brunch with an old friend.

We needed to eat somewhere close to our hotel and while I’d done a little research in advance we ended up stopping at an unknown quantity while on our way to somwhere else. We were wandering down Druitt Street when I spotted Bona Fides and suggested we stop there (yep, I was hungry). A small outdoor seating area down a lane by the side of the cafe meant we could park up the pram without causing too much havoc (and take the opportunity to enjoy a last little bit of sun).

This is no greasy spoon when it comes to breakfasts. I enjoyed a HUGE plate of gluten free muesli, served with yoghurt, honey and strawberries and Andy chose scrambled eggs with chorizo – rather scarily called the Brazilian Breakfast! We ordered raisin toast for the Toddler but of course he preferred the chorizo. Our friend ordered the eggs benedict.

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The food was all beautifully presented – even the fruit toast was artfully arranged and finished with a dusting of icing sugar. And it did taste good. I really enjoyed the muesli – not something I’d typically order but on this occasion it absolutely hit the spot, and Bona Fides scores big points with me for serving it with plain yoghurt.

Service did the job: friendly and efficient although it did tail off a bit once we had received all our food.

My gripe is the cost. Now, I have no benchmark for breakfast/brunch in Sydney so it’s possible that this is standard but … $64 for 3 people for brunch, no booze involved?! The fruit toast alone was $5.90, while my muesli was $11.90. The two cooked breakfasts were $16 and $18. Coffees were all around the $4 mark.

A lovely breakfast but too pricey. If these are usual Sydney CBD prices I daresay the locals are more likely to head to the suburbs …

BonaFides cafe on Urbanspoon