Proper old school greasy spoons

[bobb]

Are there any left near you? They've all gone here.

I could talk at length about the ones I used to nip into for a quick fry up before catching the train to work, but what about you? Are there any still going? Or are they all gone?

[citoyen]

The regular coffee stop on the Sunday morning club ride has for some years been the Adelaide Farm café, which is a legendary local bikers' hang-out (hairy leather-clad type rather than skinny lycra-clad type). It's pretty grotty to look at and the toilets are nearly always out of order, but they do a great bacon sandwich and milky coffee. It recently shut down permanently because the site has been sold for redevelopment.

Boo!

[pcolbeck]

Hunmanby Gap at the other end of Filey Bay to Filey has a cafe made out of a Portakabin (the first choice of the greasy spoon) with wooden decking all around and a view over the sea. There is nothing else there bar the sand the sea and the sky and about six holiday cottages. The full English costs £5 and is ace. Dog friendly too.

[bobb]

One of my favourites, when I lived in Loughborough, was Mario's. A quick Google tells me it is now a ponce bar.

It used to be a full on fry up with a can of lager, a game of Pool with a few pennies in the juke box - playing proper 7" records.

Now it would appear it's a load of pretentious balls....

[ian]

There's quite a few around here – a lot of lorry traffic from the M25 and sitting in a big mobile chair all days needs all the calories God can spare. Plus it's Surrey and no one really wants to acknowledge the current decade, they want to beat the future back with rolled up copies of the Daily Mail.

It always delights me in a childish way to order the 'number 2' breakfast at the one down the road (it's on the A22 opposite the Dildo Proving Grounds). With an extra hash brown. The toast is white and fat as your mum, and the tea comes in a proper mug. It's served by eastern Europeans, of course, but let's not talk about that. All the other food comes with chips, which is right and proper. It's probably a bit clean for a greasy spoon, but hey, they have some kind of rules these days about not keeping sausages around long enough for them to become sentient.

[andrewc]

I like a nice cooked breakfast, especially when I'm not doing the cooking   


Most of the places I go to are far too clean to be called "greasy spoons" , but I'll give an honorable mention to the Madeira Cafe in Brighton, where I've finished a few FNRTTCs and the DoubleSix cafe around the side of Euston station which is good for a quick grease injection if you are getting off an early train.       Ottys Cafe used to cater to Liverpool uni staff & students when I moved to my current flat, but is now a middle eastern/kebab place.  They do a full english with beef sausages & turkey bacon.....

[hellymedic]

I have not used cafes local to me in Burnt Oak recently (though EgoManiac has). I think there probably are some round here.
Looking at Street View, Munchy's, Hard Work and Captain's Cabin might fit the bill.

[Ruthie]

You can get a very acceptable fry-up in the café next to Bishop Auckland Station. It’s another one that’s too clean to be a proper greasy spoon. They do a good fried egg on toast.

[telstarbox]

The Regency near London Victoria fits the description.

[Tigerrr]

Paulo's on the Uxbridge Road is one of the best traditional working men's cafes I know.
However they do serve wholemeal bread (on request) and have a coffee machine rather than instant.

[Aunt Maud]

There used to be a great sit down fish and chip shop at the top of Mount Pleasant, by the traffic lights.

The waitress was about 132 years old and wore gold lamé shoes. She always said "the haddock was a bit large" if you ordered it.

[mrcharly-YHT]

The red bus on the A64 between leeds and the A1.

[Oaky]

D's Diner in Hatfield Peverel fits the bill, I think, and Mo's cafe in Tiptree.

Surprised there are no equivalents left in Chelmo though. 

[pcolbeck]

The red bus on the A64 between leeds and the A1.

Is that still open it was all closed up when I stopped there this summer?

[mrcharly-YHT]

The red bus on the A64 between leeds and the A1.

Is that still open it was all closed up when I stopped there this summer?

Dunno tbh - I haven't ridden the road for a while.

It has been there so long it is amazing it hasn't collapsed in a pile of rust years ago.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Talking of "too clean to be a greasy spoon", I remember stopping at a 1930s-looking place somewhere west of Heathrow on the A4 back in about 1995. Lots of HGVs outside. I had a cup of tea and whatever, but I remember the tea because the mug had a big stain of axle grease. As I was a biker (leather variety, not particularly long hair though), I drank it anyway.

[ian]

They all seem pretty clean these days and toilets are a lot better than using the car park around the side. I'm not complaining. I'd rather suffer from nostalgia than dysentery.

What are the precise criteria for a greasy spoon these days? I'd go with

1. Menu must have numbered (or occasionally named) breakfasts. With one substitution allowed.
2. Tea should be in white mugs with a proper square teabag floating in it.
3. They should give you an appropriate look if you ask for semi-skimmed milk.
4. Everything should come with chips (except the chip-free breakfast selections to which you can add chips).
5. Toast should arrive looking like someone did a bad job of miniaturizing a mattress.
6. HP sauce. No pretenders.
7. It should be closed by 3pm.
8. They should have a daily special which should occasionally be liver and onions and unaccountably chicken chasseur. With chips.

[citoyen]

8. They should have a daily special which should occasionally be liver and onions and unaccountably chicken chasseur. With chips.

Except Thursday, which is always Curry Day. And it has to be generic 'curry' (raisins optional), none of your dopiaza or jalfrezi nonsense. And it has to be served with rice and chips. And white sliced bread on the side.

[ian]

Yes, and I forgot.

9. Two slices of (white) bread and butter with everything. Even the jacket potato.

[madcow]

They all seem pretty clean these days and toilets are a lot better than using the car park around the side. I'm not complaining. I'd rather suffer from nostalgia than dysentery.

What the precise criteria for a greasy spoon these days? I'd go with

1. Menu must have numbered (or occasionally named) breakfasts. With one substitution allowed.
2. Tea should be in white mugs with a proper square teabag floating in it.
3. They should give you an appropriate look if you ask for semi-skimmed milk.
4. Everything should come with chips (except the chip-free breakfast selections to which you can add chips).
5. Toast should arrive looking like someone did a bad job of miniaturizing a mattress.
6. HP sauce. No pretenders.
7. It should be closed by 3pm.
8. They should have a daily special which should occasionally be liver and onions and unaccountably chicken chasseur. With chips.

9. Margarine on bread , not butter. It's easier to spread and cheaper.

ref. closing at 3p.m.That would rule out a lot of truckstops , which fit all the other requirements , as many of them stay open 24/7 .
I can think of Stibbington Diner ,Colsterworth truck stop and Markham Moor truckstop on the A1 .

The most nostalgic one is on the southbound A1 near Newark.It is literally an old wooden hut, with a verandah.
The food is crap so I have only stopped there once but there are often a few wagons parked outside so it is still in business.
I think that Rosie's near Gainsborough would fit all of the above though.

[drgannet]

There is a superb cafe used as the first control on the 3 Coasts just outside Castleford, Busy Lizzies. Huge egg and bacon bap for £2 IIRC, mugs of tea for << £1. Not had the full English but many who did.

[IanDG]

I 'grew up' in the Hollies on the A5 between Cannock and Gailey. HQ for many TT's and reliability trials when I started cycling back in the 70s and a regular stop on training/club runs.

[ian]

I think 'butter' is just the generic yellow stuff they put on bread.

Come to think of it, no meal I had when growing up didn't come with a round of bread and butter. I wouldn't think of doing it now, of course (how déclassé, plus it would have to be artisan sourdough). I think this explains my love of unusual sandwiches. With bread and button constantly available you could make a sandwich out of anything on your plate.

[D.A.L.E.]

There's a fantastic one in Lerwick.

It took me by surprise when I was asked what kind of coffee I wanted, my mind stumbling between flat white, latte, cappuccino... Turns out he just meant whether I wanted one tablespoon of Nescafe or two.

Does Lockerbie truck stop count?

[hellymedic]

Paulo's on the Uxbridge Road is one of the best traditional working men's cafes I know.
However they do serve wholemeal bread (on request) and have a coffee machine rather than instant.

Uxbridge Road is rather long. Is this Shepherd's Bush, White City, Acton, Ealing Hanwell, Southall, Hayes, Hillingdon or elsewhere??? ?