There are many Bristol institutions; The Merchant Venturers, Harvey’s (the founders of Harvey’s Bristol Cream sherry) Bristol Cars, Ardman Animations (home to Wallace and Gromit and Morph) Cameron Balloons and of course the long standing association with Rolls Royce and the home of Concorde to name just a few.

Another slightly lesser known one but still highly regarded as one of Bristol’s oldest and best loved businesses, and in my view something of an institution is Fowlers Motorcycles which was founded in 1926 and is still owned by the same family today.

For motorcycle enthusiasts this is an excellent shop, selling everything from Vespa’s to Triumph’s and everything in between as well as clothing and accessories by some very knowledgable and friendly staff.

What it is even less well known to most people is that on the top floor of their three storey megastore is a proper biker’s cafe called Harry’s.

We have always liked Harry’s cafe for its simplicity and the fact that it always did a proper English breakfast at a very reasonable price and without the “Jamie Oliver” effect, ie; no sprigs of parsley over everything! There’s a time and place for that and it definitely isn’t on an English Breakfast!

On this particular occasion and having not visited the cafe for over a year, unfortunately we were disappointed because one of the great things about it was that they always served the breakfast with proper Italian tinned plum tomatoes, which today were replaced with chopped ones!

This ruins the breakfast in our view, with no juice to dip your fried bread in it just isn’t the same. Little details make all the difference and in our view and some of the people we spoke to sat near us it just makes what was an excellent breakfast a bit ordinary.

Perhaps today they had ran out of plum tomatoes so we will re-visit soon but the sausages were also not up to their normal standard either, so much so that I left mine entirely.

Overall it is excellent value though and there are several breakfast sizes available offering one or two eggs, hash browns, one or two rashers of bacon and the option of black pudding and even chips. There are also a whole host of other things on the menu.

We stuck with the “Biker” breakfast which is probably the most popular as it is the mid-sized one and comes with two eggs, two rashers of bacon as well as beans and tomatoes.

We also ordered four slices of white bread and butter which was very fresh and fantastic dipped in the egg!

Overall based on today’s visit we give Harry’s three forks but under normal circumstances and for its rarity value we would give it four.

What we ate and drank:

2 Biker Breakfasts

4 slices of white bread and butter

2 mugs if breakfast tea

Total: £10.10

Details:

Harry’s Cafe at Fowler’s Motorcycles
2-12 Bath Road
Bristol
BS4 3DR

Telephone: 0117 977 0466

www.fowlers.co.uk

Fear On Food Rating: