Bob’s East End Cafe is located inside the back of the Pannier Market in Tavistock, as the name may suggest this is proper old school greasy spoon and I was loving that we had found it.

According to their Facebook page this place has been here for 23 years! described as a Traditional English Cafe it certainly looks the part, and a true classic

The place was mobbed when we visited, I joined a long line of people waiting to order while the mother laid claim to the end of a free table. By the time I had ordered we had been joined by a variety of other breakfast punters.

Mugs of tea, pies, chips, and breakfasts were all spread out across the table as the happy punters (ourselves included) scoffed from the trough, smiling, chatting and making friends with our table neighbours

CHALKBOARD MENU

I loved the chalkboard menu hanging up on the wall listing out all the lovely grub on offer from the cafe. There was a laminated version on the tables as well but it was way more fun checking out the board.

The Mains section seemed to be incredible value, I say that without having seen any of the food so with no knowledge at the time of it’s quality or provenance. I suspected that we were more likely to be measuring it in terms of quantity or vastness.

We were here for Breakfast, or at least I was, but if I wasn’t I would have had one eye on the Pie & Mash (or chips) with peas or beans and gravy for £6.15. It would be either that or the Three Sausages with mash or chips and beans or peas for £7.50 I reckon.

BREAKFASTS ON THE MENU

I was looking for a breakfast situation and had my sights set firmly on that section of the menu eyeing up either The Full English or The Bob The Builder.

Price wise there was not much in it £7.49 vs £7.99 but I erred on the side of caution and chose The Full English

The board suggested that was going to be a plate filled with ‘2 Bacon, sausage, egg, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, fried bread (or toast) plus bread and butter’ AND a cup of tea!

THE FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST

This was All kinds of Greasy Spoon Cafe heaven on a plate, I would go so far as to say that this was “breakfast filth” in the best possible way

The Bacon had been fried on the hot plate until it was really crispy with nicely rendered fat.

The Sausage had been sliced in half and was cooked through well with a good crisp skin ( I would have like a whole sausage)

Despite its scraggy look the egg was perfect with a nice runny yolk and well set white, slightly crispy edges too

There was Seamless melding of tomatoes with the beans, that is a rare phenomenon and one that I had only heard of in legends before, I never thought I would see it in real life

A ramekin for the beans was neatly avoided by floating the egg on a fried bread slice raft. I haven’t had a fried slice for ages and I had forgotten what all the fuss was about but now I was remembering

For once I was grateful for all the bread as there was a lot of wet on the plate, perhaps fried and sliced was a bit overkill though

Ok so this wasn’t pretty and today you were not eating with your eyes, no you were shoveling it down without a care in the world or for your body mass

EGG AND BACON COB

You could of course adopt a far more sensible approach to breakfast by choosing one of their breakfast baps. This one of egg and bacon was certainly a good option and good value at just over £3 (£3.20 I think)

A large floury cob filled well with several rashers of crispy bacon and an egg with runny yolk. What’s not to like about that!

This was one of the cheaper breakfast bap options but if I had my time again, I would be tempted by the Breakfast Sandwich.

This was listed on the board as being ‘A Triple Decker of 2 Bacon, 2 Sausage, Black Pudding, Egg and a Slice of fried bread‘ for £5.99. Not sure about the fried slice but I would demolish the rest!

I have to say that considering how little space behind the counter and the number of punters they were doing well to churn out the food. If they do this ever day then fair play to them! 😎🤔👍

We really enjoyed our Full English breakfast and ‘Bacon n Egg’ Cob and I would be here quite often if I lived in this town.

Up top I may have commented on the suggested quality of the other meals, but I have since seen the pies on Facebook and they look really good. Quite fancy one now if I am honest! Writing this blog just makes me hungry both from memory and imagination. I wouldn’t have it any other way 🙂

Located in the East End of Tavistock’s Pannier Market, The Cafe is listed officially at 2 Market Road, Tavistock PL19 0AL

Bob’s East End Cafe is open Tues to Saturday from 7.30am to 4pm. You can check them out (and those pies) on their Facebook Page