Bramleys is a great tea room, or "coffee house" rather. I think it appeals to older people and is…read moreideal for mum and daugter rather than, a date for example; it's cute not cool. But that's not criticism, I really like it here. With its huge selection of cakes adn proper afternoon tea (with extra pots of hot water) Bramley's is really traditional which is appealing. It's a really bright cafe despite being found just off the covered wheatsheaf walk. Service is faultless; the staff are friendly but efficient and there's a much more sociable feel here than in the multinational coffee shops. The prices area cheaper too! There's good access and space for prams and wheelchairs

Bramley's Coffee House is such a pretty tea room. All foods are so fresh and tasty. I had Thai…read morefishcakes and tastes really great. A pot of tea is really nice , strong flavour. They give you another hot water so you can make many cuppa. They put many lovely cakes on showcase and I always find it difficult to choose one. The staff is very friendly and polite. You can have a pleasant time here without doubts! good place for couples ,with mum and daughter!

Muffin Break in Blackburn is one of the newer stores in the Muffin Break franchise, I came in here…read morewhile in Blackburn as this is my joint-local store alongside the Wigan branch, meanwhile the nearest branch after that is 66 miles away so it does show that there is a slightly uneven spread of their 60 stores or so around the country. I have visited various branches of Muffin Break now in areas such as Wigan, Birmingham and Leeds so I'm not a newbie to this chain, and I mainly called in today to pick up a gluten free muffin. They were reasonably priced for £1.95 but however for the quality it simply wasn't as good. they just tasted really, thick and filling and even with the blueberry they just tasted dry, luckily I took a muffin home with me and I enjoyed it slightly more with some Gingerbread Cream from my Gingerbread latte at Starbucks, but really the muffin its-self provided was just dry and not very nice. My friend's who were with me also complained about the same matter, they stated it was very filling but certainly far from excellent and it was pretty expensive too as it worked out £7 - £8 just for 3 measly cakes / muffins. Service was pretty slow and confusing with two staff members working in a tight gap, and with only one gluten free muffin of the one flavor, it was worrying someone would take it and then I would have ended up queuing for nothing, but honestly I wish they would have done now, as it was just wasting my money on poor quality. Inside, it is okay and nothing more than that and it certainly isn't the best place for coffee in Blackburn with Rhode Island and Starbucks much better, meaning sadly I can only award this branch a single one star.

Great service every time I've been The remember customers…read more They've nearly remembered my fav drink And they make it soooo well o

Contrary to what you might assume, Coffee Bean is not a new, Starbucks coffee shop wannabe but is…read moreinstead a lovely cosy café that has been around for several years. The café itself isn't particularly large but is certainly big enough to do the job and what it lacks in size it definitely makes up for with its quality food. Coffee Bean's menu has a range of hot and cold snacks as well as a small selection of main meals too. Their snacks include sandwiches and soups which are fairly tasty and reasonably priced. The main meals there are especially good though, with an excellent mixed grill available there for less than seven pounds; a great price for a meal that leaves your stomach fully satisfied. The staff there are friendly and are able to offer each diner a personal service, meaning a trip to Coffee Bean is always a pleasant one, whether you're going for a cup of tea and a cake or for a sit down meal.

This is another Southport stalwart I've been visiting since I was tiny, and I'm so glad it's…read moresurvived. Long before I gave up meat, when I was a littlun, my father and I had one very specific thing in common - we didn't like our bacon cremated. Years later when my mother's genetics started to fight with my father's, I came round to her way of thinking and proceeded to set fire to every piece of bacon I cooked, you know, when it's so burnt you can snap it. This broke my father's heart as I was his sole companion in the fussy bacon department but once you've had a crispy BLT you never go back. The point of this longwinded story is that the Coffee Bean (a great name conjured up long before coffee increased its importance in society, years before Starbuckses and Neros) always did bacon just as we liked - soft and yielding. And their bacon butties were legendary. It was the only place to go in Southport to get a decent down-to-earth bacon, sausage or egg sandwich, a greasy spoon with less grease and more class. I'm so glad it's still standing. It's a top little spot and you can get a great cup of coffee, pot of tea (or indeed glass of milk, as was always my poison as a youngster) to wet your whistle. The food is simple and lovely, the staff are happy to be working there and the atmosphere's fabulous. Please, keep these places going and don't let the chains take over our lovely little seaside town, it's imperative.

The soup here is exceptional. I have tried various soups and the cauliflower & creamy Lancashire…read morecheese is truly divine, it is also something I would not ordinarily order so it was a pleasant surprise how tasty it was. There are gluten free options available which are safe for those with celiac disease including cakes & sandwiches. There are afternoon teas available (I think you need to order these). I have not tried one, however, I have been envious of those who are being served delicious trays of sandwiches & an extensive range of mini deserts. They look so scrumptious. Also has a child's play area which is great IF you have children. If you require gluten free food then this bakery is defiantly worth a visit.

Ending up in Atheron for the recent BentNBongs Beer Festival, I arrived early to have a bit of a…read morescout around only to find that there wasn't what I'd call a massively active foodie scene in town. Which is fair enough as "it is what it is" but after enjoying a quick £2 bacon bap and espresso deal in takeout only Greggs, I was still without somewhere to sit in and shelter from the howling wind and cold. So I nipped down the road and found Jigsaw which was clean, tidy and looked much better than some of the other food outlets in the city. They served reasonably priced sandwiches, cakes etc but I was mostly interested in shelter and a good cup of tea. At this they excelled as I sat at my table reading the paper for half an hour while charging my phone and taking advantage of their reasonably priced pots of tea (Green, mint and breakfast) for £1 - who can argue with that! If I was in town again then I'd definitely head to Jigsaw.

Me, my daughter and grandaughter called today as I had noticed on the display they did afternoon…read moreteas, (only saw it by chance as its not clearly advertised). I ordered the afternoon tea for 2 which comprised of a selection of sandwiches, we choose ham and cheese, it came along with salad, crisps, 2 scones with clotted cream and homemade jam, 2 mince pies, and 2 slices of madeira cake. Choice of tea of coffee, we choose tea which came in a huge pot. All this for 6.50. I ordered a small beans on toast for my grandaughter, cost one pound. You can travel a couple of miles down the road and pay over double for this. My only suggestion to Zigsaw would be to advertise this more clearly as I only saw it by chance. We will be coming back. Well done, oh the staff are lovely.

Phil Manion is well established bakery which I believe sells the best custard tarts in Liverpool!…read more Not only are their tarts delicious but their pies and sausage rolls are scrumptious, with a crispy and puffy pastry for you to bite into a warm and succulent inside. They also sell hand-made sandwiches and barms where you can pick whatever filling you wish but they are a little pricier and not as good as their bakery. However, if you're on a diet, this will suit you. Other prices are generally cheap and worth the money you pay. Everything is home made at the shop courtesy of a long and successful running business. I hope Phil Manion continues the way it is for many years or even decades to come because it has that uniqueness you won't find anywhere else.

If there's one shop you can guarantee you'll find in every city or town, it's a Greggs or at the…read morevery least, a Sayers. I hate how popular Greggs is now, mainly because I dislike their pasties and sausage rolls, especially compared to what Sayers has to offer. So imagine my delight when, just next door to my arch nemesis Greggs, I stumbled across Greenhalghs Craft Bakery in Ormskirk. This large bakery sells similar stuff to Greggs and Sayers, offering their customers an excellent selection of savoury items including sausage rolls, pasties and delicious pies as well as bread, cakes, soups and sandwiches. They also do celebration cakes that are beautifully designed as well as offering a buffet service for any special occasion you might have coming up. The shop itself is bright and clean-looking and the staff there are polite and friendly, meaning any experience in Greenhalgh's is always pleasant. Their pies in particular are perfectly crumbly and filled with good quality fillings that are always just the right temperature to enable you to quickly devour them.

You're homesick. You miss your mummy/daddykins/dog/significant other/catfish/weasel/antfarm. You…read moreneed some of that home cookin' to soothe your lonely soul, something traditional and warming and comforting. And while in this humid heatwave such thoughts might turn your stomach as much as they're turning mine, I'm thinking back to the cold winters of November when I visited Pudding and Pie in a chilly, wind-whipped Southport. It's worse on the coast, you know. Rumour has it that breeze is so sharp it can make your favourite jumper threadbare. True story. Look no further to solve those feelings than the very definition of stodge that is Pudding and Pie, a place where they do a mean fish finger sandwich (whether the fish were mean before they became fingers remains to be seen), a steak and ale pie that views your arteries as a personal challenge, Lancashire hot pot that could rival Betty's in the Rover's, soups designed to put hair on your chest when you're feeling infirm... all 100% home made. And if you've made the leap to the fat-is-flavour side of the river this far, you might as well finish yourself off with an equally cosy pud. Eccles cakes, or fly pies as my mother calls them (thanks, dear parent, for ruining a traditional north westerly baked treat), apple crumble so warm and juicy that Jim from American Pie would want to get a room with it, bread and butter pudding that ain't stingy on the bright yellow sticks of doom... it's all here, waiting to comfort you. The location is pretty delicious too; Wayfarers Arcade happens to be one of my favourite spots in Southport and the ornate architectural delight that it is blankets Pudding and Pie in even more loveliness. Plus it's super central, so once you've had your fill you can either walk off your heavy tummy by hitting the shops with aplomb or head straight to the beach for a lunch-burnin' sand hike. Either way, the staff are lovely and it makes a superb spot for a substantial lunch or naughty treat any time of the day... one I'd highly recommend.

The name of this bistro style café reminds me of that nursery rhyme 'Georgie Porgie pudding and…read morepie, kissed the girls and made them cry'. I always wondered why the girls were crying so much at him kissing them, he must have been quite the hunchback for them to have reacted in that way because in my experience, any attention from boys is usually a good thing as far as girls are concerned. Luckily, Pudding and Pie café in Wayfarers Arcade has no such problems satisfying its customers as it offers hearty home cooked meals at very cheap prices. The food usually changes on a daily or weekly basis as they use local ingredients but the daily specials are definitely worth checking out if you're in the area. They offer a patio seating area in the Arcade itself for you to watch your fellow shoppers as they pass by as well as a decently-sized seating area in the café itself, with interesting Lloyd-loom style chairs for you to sit on. Pudding and Pie also offers a range of scones and cream cakes as well as hot and cold drinks, meaning it is a great place to go if you're in the Arcade and fancy stopping off for a decent meal or a just a small refreshment.