Breakfast At The Ginger Cow Cafe & Bistro, Coningsby, Lincolnshire

Friday 18 Aug 2023 by Sticky Beak
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Whenever His Nibs and I go to have a weekend with Bestie Bird and The Bolton Wanderer, things follow a strangely familiar routine: we arrive on the Friday, drink waaaaay too much as we do all our catching up and then wake up starving the next morning! BB was all over the situation though, and had made the pre-emptive strike of booking at table at a quirky venue her and her sister had visited recently: Ginger Cow Café and Bistro. What a name!

I couldn’t tell you the last time I’d been to the village of Coningsby; probably in the early 1990’s when we went to the social club with some of the RAF lads 😊. There’s still an active RAF base in the village, so it has a lively feel to it and the shops are supported by the forces- and civilian- staff, and their families.
BB parked up just across the road from the café and bistro (2 hours free parking, well done local council for encouraging the #shoplocal ethos) and we trooped inside the compact counter area; and what a marvellous counter it is, laden with all manner of scrummy temptations…more of that later.

Going through to the right-hand side is a little seating area (which houses around 20 people, I would say) and a table had been reserved for us, so we plonked our bums on the seats. Ginger Ninja had deigned to come out with her ‘rents and the ‘rellies’ can’t fault her, free food and an Oreo Milkshake – what more does a tween want?! 😊. One of the lovely young team brought us menus over and gave us a few minutes to see what we fancied.

The eat-in breakfast menu is available until 11.30am and it isn’t the most extensive you’ll ever encounter by any stretch of the imagination. There’s a full English, a vegetarian brekkie and a children’s breakfast, ‘specials’ of Eggs Benedict and Eggs Royale that are subject to availability, then there’s the ‘something on toast’ section and ‘baps and sandwiches’. What the menu lacks in variety though, it more than makes up for in the budget-friendly stakes: the most expensive item is the full English at £11, and this comes with toast AND a mug of either tea or coffee. You’re not going to find a better deal than that, folks!!

Everything is cooked fresh-to-order so do expect a bit of a wait at busy times; we didn’t mind waiting as it gave us chance to get a bit of extra caffeine in our system. The other bonus is that they serve 200 degree coffee at the Ginger Cow, and that is a rather nice blend 😊.

When our food did arrive though, you could see it was piping hot and two of the team brought it out so that no-one was waiting long for their meal. All our group had swapped out the Black Pudding for an extra Hash Brown, but I still got His Nibs’ Mushrooms and one of the grilled Tomato halves. The rashers of Smoked Bacon were lovely and thick and their flavour was beautifully rich and satisfying, partnered by thick Lincolnshire sausage (bleurgh! That stuff repeats mercilessly on me!) that had my companions murmuring with pleasure. Ginger Cow serve their breakfasts with fried egg as standard, with the option to have them scrambled or poached if that’s your preference, and the flavour of the sunny-toned yolks was excellent.

Those of you who really don’t like their ‘wet’ foods touching their ‘dry’ will be very happy to hear that the baked beans were snuggly housed in a bowl to prevent their rich, tomato sauce oozing onto other items. The hash browns remained wonderfully crisp and crunchy on the outside, with lovely soft inners, thanks to this little considerate touch 😊.

My pair of poached eggs didn’t have runny yolks, sadly, but there was plenty of thick Hollandaise sauce drizzled over them to provide moisture in the mouth and, of course, the plentiful ribbons of Smoked Salmon had a naturally silky texture that caresses the tongue.

Now, you’d think that given the amount of food we’d consumed that we wouldn’t be thinking of food, wouldn’t you; but, come on, this is me and The Man you’re talking about! On our way in we’d spied the counter of traybakes, cookies, brownies and the display of 4-layered cakes, so there was no way we weren’t taking some of those minxes back to BB’s gaff to scoff later!

I had a wedge of the Biscoff cake, a quad-layer, Biscoff Buttercream slathered treat; the sponge itself was lovely and light and really let the Biscoff buttercream take centre stage – my taste buds were in heaven 😊. His Nibs had opted for a slice of Crunchie Rocky Road (yes, it was as indulgent as it sounds), BB had some Freddo Brownie, Ginger Ninja had a triple choc cookie and we brought back Fledge a piece of Malteser Rocky Road to enjoy whilst she studied. If I worked in the Ginger Cow Café and Bistro, I’d be like a little Weeble – honestly, I wouldn’t be able to resist trying them all!

After paying for all our choices and brekkies, we said goodbye and went back to flop on the sofas at Bestie and TBW’s house! We perked up mid-afternoon and stuck the kettle on for a brew and opened our sweet treats, grinning happily at each mouthful. So big was my cake that I left 2 layers to bring back to the nest the next day – and it was just as moreish then, I can tell you.

Sometimes you find gems like the Ginger Cow in the most unexpected places…like the wilds of Lincolnshire! Hot Wings happily given to this cracking team; I shall certainly be coming back next time BB allows me to inflict myself on her!

To book a table (which, given the limited capacity, I strongly recommend) ring 01526 343580 or visit the website www.gingercow.uk for menus and to book online. You can also use the online system to order a takeaway treat or two, as well 😊. The Ginger Cow Café and Bistro is closed Sunday and Monday, opens 10am-3pm on Tuesday, and 10am-4pm Wednesday-Saturday.