Meaks of Melbourne — Restaurant in South Derbyshire

Visited Meaks for the first time today. I ordered pancakes with yoghurt and fruit, and my husband a small breakfast. I expected the pancakes to be freshly cooked and warm but they were cold and a dark colour rather than a nice golden brown. The yoghurt was runny rather than nice and thick and the fruit cut up into pieces to make it look more than it was. It was as if the pancakes had been cooked first and left to go cold whilst the breakfast was being cooked. My husband breakfast was alright but it was served on a cold plate so his food went cold quickly, the tomato was not cooked through and he wasn’t offered a replacement to the hash brown which he doesn’t like. It was rather a noisy cafe with one customer loudly berating Camilla Parker Bowles. None of us are perfect so to say she looked like a horse…….just rude, especially at this time - the cafe staff simply laughed…..loudly. People are entitled to their opinion but really! A visit not to be repeated. 15.09. Update. A disappointing response from the owner. I believe that reviews should be experience based which is what I have done - it was after all, your good reviews that drew us to your cafe in the first place. Please bear in mind the food was cooked, plated and served be different members of your team. If our experience was not the norm, surely the meals would not have reached our table...

I needed to meet a colleague for lunch, and Melbourne happens to be equidistant from our houses. I came across Meaks online. It looked like a good quality venue with a large menu and reasonable pricing.

I sent a quick email to double check they would be open, have availability and that they would not mind us sitting for a couple of hours with our laptops.

I was surprised to get a response almost immediately. Most venues don't seem to reply at all, let alone so quickly.

I arrived early because breakfast looked great too!

Neither of us was disappointed. We had breakfast, coffee, a snack and then sandwiches. All were great.

I didn't realise until afterwards, but your coffee is under-priced.

I would thoroughly recommend and I am now looking for excuses to make the trip again so I can try something...

I’m sure the cakes and sandwiches are fine but we had the Turkish eggs and shakshuka and they did not resemble those things at all. Turkish eggs were just 2 poached eggs, half a plate of yoghurt and a handful of chickpeas, virtually no harissa at all. Just weird. The shakshuka had absolutely no spice or flavour. It was essentially tomato and vegetable soup. It should have cumin, paprika and cayenne or at least one of those things. This had none that I could taste. Fine that it came with a poached egg but it should be baked. The tiniest sprinkling of feta, could barely taste. At a tenner a piece it’s not cheap either. We definitely felt ripped off. Please don’t make these things if you don’t know how to make them. Just stick...