Erol's Cafe — Restaurant in Welwyn Hatfield

Away from home, I couldn't go to my usual haunt, so I gave Erol's a try! After all, breakfast must be had...

And so I ordered Breakfast Number 6 - the closest to my usual. Egg, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, hash brown, black pudding, mushrooms and toast, with a cup of tea. No pictures. I was too busy eating.

The dining room is surprisingly large for a cafe. This allows it to be much less cramped than many - which is a good thing of course!

The staff are very friendly and perfectly happy to accommodate reasonable changes (number 6 was meant to come with bread and butter, not toast). And the speed the food came out was exceptional. Though on that, I think maybe I'd be happy to wait a bit more for certain things - as we'll detail momentarily.

On to the most important thing of any cafe review... The food! In short - it was good! I will definitely come here again if in Hatfield. In more long form...

Let's start on a high. The toast. Strange one to mention I know. But the toast had a perfect amount of butter. Was nice and warm. It was just great toast.

Hash brown - ok so... This was good. Great even. Crispy and hot. Soft inside. But. There was only one. How can you erect a barricade between the beans and the rest of your plate with hash brown singular? You can't is the answer.

And the beans. There were... A lot of beans. I personally think a few too many. On a large plate, so they could spread out, they cooled down annoyingly quickly. Thankfully, the plentiful toast portion at least helped by pairing remaining beans after the hash brown was done, with toast.

The egg was good! Nice and runny yoke. Only thing I would like is a little bit of crinkle crunchy but on the edges/underneath but that's expecting too much really.

The mushrooms... Not bad. These guys absolutely could have benefit from a little longer frying. I would happily wait 5 minutes longer to get some proper caramelisation going on on these. But still, they were not bad mushrooms.

The bacon was good! Again could have had a TINY bit more caramelisation going on on the fats, but this was absolutely good bacon. Not over done and really not under done. Any complaint is simply me being picky and personal taste.

The sausage was yummy. It was a good sausage. Perfectly cooked. Good flavour. Yea. Nothing wrong with that sausage.

Finally the real star of the show. The black pudding. This was amazing. A good slice, perfect thickness. The outside had a satisfying crunch, that for a moment had me worried it might be quite over done... But no. Inside was a lovely soft texture. It was perfect. I will take no arguments on this.

I very much enjoyed my meal at Erol's. Thanks for a good Sunday morning breakfast my peeps...

If I could leave 0 stars I would. I asked the very rude blonde waitress with the very short hair if there was anything gluten free as I’m coeliac. She told me that maybe the hash browns were. When I asked about the chips she scoffed and said that I should know if they are or not. Chips are naturally gluten free but it depends how they’re cooked, so this was a valid question. She made me feel stupid and dismissed my concerns. I ordered the omelette, chips and salad and have since had a reaction. I’m not happy at all. Definitely do NOT eat here if you have any allergies or dietary requirement, especially not with that rude women. If you see her run for the the hills....

This is my favourite cafe in Hertfordshire, the food is exactly what you would expect from a cafe, simple and filling. Whether I come by myself or as a big group, the service is always spectacular. The staff go above and beyond to ensure all your requirements are met. The food is always cooked and prepared fresh, which really reflects in the taste. It’s a family owned restaurant and you can really get a sense of community in here. Thank you for the great food...