It was a beautiful summer morning, so I decided to pop by Mill Road to try and find a good breakfast/brunch.

I was with my mother and two sons, so it had to be a place which was versatile and good value. My mother lives near Mill Road, so it is always good to hear her opinions on places to try as she walks down the road frequently. She recommended BLD’s because of its large portions. I have never heard of it before but it is a textbook greasy spoon located next door to Limoncello.

This is a place that isn’t trying to be anything other than good food at a reasonable price. Personally, I feel more attention needs to be given to restaurants like this. It’s exciting and fun to discuss edgy restaurants but fundamentally these are the sort of places you are likely to visit on your way to work every morning. They are the bread and butter of the country’ss restaurant scene.

There is a little courtyard in the back that is perfect for a hot summer morning. We had a buggy with us which we had to collapse to get through the back door to gain access to the garden. Watch out for anyone who is a wheelchair user as we literally had to pick my son out of the buggy, collapse it, then put him back in on the other side. This was a mild frustration at best but something people should be aware of.

The menu was large with a wide range of the standard greasy spoon options available. Think, cooked breakfasts, jacket potatoes, pasta, and paninis etc. Prices looked fair, with their standard cooked breakfast (2 of each) coming to just under a tenner.

It was blinding hot (for the UK), so we ordered an iced coffee. These were pleasant, refreshing, and inoffensive, if not slightly watery. They served us perfectly well but were hard to get excited about.

My son had the breaded chicken burger with chips, tomato and lettuce. The burger was fairly plain but the breaded chicken was quite a generous size and very succulent. This came to a tenner which is exactly the same price point as a burger from Gorilla+ Lamb. You do get more burger for your buck but I will leave it with you to decide whether it is good value or not.

I went for the cooked breakfast. This was always going to give me the best idea of what BLD can do. After all, the ‘rate my plate’ trend is popular for a reason! This also came to a tenner with 2 bacon, 2 eggs, 2 sausages, a tomato, beans, and two slices of toast. The eggs were quite sad but I thoroughly enjoyed everything else and it certainly filled a hole!

My mum enjoyed her vegetarian cooked breakfast. This was very similar to my breakfast but instead had meat free sausages, hash browns and mushrooms instead of bacon. Her eggs were slightly better prepared than mine, so I was likely unlucky.

Overall, we had a lovely morning in the garden enjoying the sun. Portions are quite good here and everything was reasonably priced. The staff were lovely and very helpful. I think it was successful in being a versatile good value meal for the family. If you have a buggy or wheelchair you may find access to the back garden a challenge.

Thanks for reading.