We ate breakfast at a different Wetherspoon every day for a week - the verdict

We ate Wetherpoons breakfast everyday for a week -Credit:Taite Johnson
We ate Wetherpoons breakfast everyday for a week -Credit:Taite Johnson


For many people, eating breakfast at Wetherspoons every day may sound like the stuff of dreams. It’s cheap, tasty and with free refills on all hot drinks - what more could you ask for?

We visited a different one every day of the week to see if it really was the perfect way to start the day and to see how they differed from one to the next.

We chose the same meal every day, with a couple of added extras. We opted for the 'traditional breakfast': fried egg, bacon, sausage, baked beans and two hash browns. Controversially, the bacon was swapped out for an extra sausage. To be fair, that was no problem at any of the locations. However, asking for a hard yolk on my egg seemed to be more of an issue.

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And it wasn’t all about the eating, we also learned a couple of things too. Firstly, we would not have expected the prices of my breakfast to vary from one Wetherspoon to the next, especially within the same city. As reported by the Daily Post , the prices were different depending on the location of the pub with the same breakfast at the Canton branch in Cardiff being half the price of the one bought in Cardiff Bay. Weird.

The Ivor Davies

The Ivor Davies breakfast
The Ivor Davies breakfast -Credit:Taite Johnson

For my first Wetherspoon breakfast of the week we visited The Ivor Davies on Cowbridge Road East in Canton. Upon reading the menu, we were shocked at the prices of the breakfast options. A traditional breakfast cost just £3.14 and a refillable tea £1.04, which was the cheapest of the week. Whilst Canton was busy with shoppers, the pub itself was generally quiet, with just a few other punters.

The staff were friendly and making alterations to my meal was otherwise easy. My food arrived promptly, only taking around 10 minutes to get to the table. The first thing we noticed was the light shade of the toast, which wasn't toasted enough for me. The hash browns were crispy which we enjoyed and there was a good portion of beans to go with the meal.

Unfortunately, even though we asked for the egg yolk to be hard, it came runny which meant I didn't eat it. The egg was the only part of the meal that we didn't eat as the rest of the food was fine. The sausages were the best part as they were herby and flavourful unlike the rest of the items on the plate.

The Gatekeeper

The Gatekeeper
The Gatekeeper -Credit:Taite Johnson

On Tuesday we visited The Gatekeeper in the city centre on Westgate Street. Again, it was quiet with the odd diner dotted around. We knew from my visit on Monday that we would need to order at the bar so I chose a seat relatively close to it and the hot drinks machine. That was the wrong decision, because my table was also near the toilets which proved to be a mistake, and halfway through my breakfast, a gentleman used said toilet without closing the door, which did colour my experience a bit, through no fault of the pub itself.

We ordered the traditional breakfast once again with the hopes that this time I would be served an egg with a hard yolk. And to my joy, I was! Spoiler alert: this was the only one of the week. The traditional breakfast came to £5.75 and my refillable tea was £1.56, more expensive than The Ivor Davies. The breakfast again arrived to the table quickly and the food was hot.

We did notice that the sausages seemed bigger this time but tasted the same as Monday's. The portion of beans was smaller on this breakfast but I still found that there was enough.

The Prince of Wales

The Prince of Wales breakfast
The Prince of Wales breakfast -Credit:Taite Johnson

By day three, we had already begun to dread our morning breakfast as we noticed that we felt sluggish throughout the day afterwards. We began to wonder if we should change my meal choice but looking at the menu we realised that whilst it looked like there were many options, they all more or less included the same ingredients that I had already been eating. So I decided to order the traditional breakfast for the third day in a row.

The Prince of Wales was the busiest of the five that we visited this week but there were still plenty of empty tables. I heard one man say "it feels weird being in a Wetherspoon this early". The staff again were friendly and service was quick. The traditional breakfast and tea cost the same as The Gatekeeper at £5.75 and £1.56. Once again my egg was runny and the toast was practically just bread, so I ended up leaving both on my plate. The hash browns were the best that we had had so far, very crispy and were my favourite item on my plate that morning.

The Great Western

The Great Western -Credit:Taite Johnson
The Great Western -Credit:Taite Johnson

For the penultimate day of my week of Wetherspoon, we ate at The Great Western which is the closest to Cardiff Central railway station (just). For this reason we did expect it to be busier than it was but, like the others, only a few other people joined me eating breakfast there. The lady that served me was very friendly and was the first and only staff member to have a conversation with me. She even explained that she wrote a note to the kitchen staff to request the egg yolk to be hard, which seemingly they ignored.

Unfortunately, The Great Western was my least favourite venue of the week. The presentation of the food was messy and looked like it was thrown together. The hash browns were soggy and the beans tasted and looked as if they had been re-heated. We did hear another customer ask for their 'regular' without any other context which means they must enjoy their experience there regularly.

The Mount Stuart

The Mount Stuart breakfast -Credit:Taite Johnson
The Mount Stuart breakfast -Credit:Taite Johnson

On Friday we arrived at our fifth and final Wetherspoon breakfast of the week at The Mount Stuart. In the heart of Cardiff Bay, the location was definitely the nicest and had the prettiest view.

We were slightly shocked that the price of the traditional breakfast was double the price of what we were charged at thre first venue, The Ivor Davies. At The Mount Stuart a traditional breakfast cost £6.31 and a refillable tea cost £1.56. Alongside my traditional breakfast, we ordered a side of white bloomer toast with jam. The food, whilst it tasted the same as the others, seemed to be cooked much better and was therefore more enjoyable. The sausages and hash browns seemed to be cooked for longer and tasted much better than the other eight I had eaten already that week.

Ordering the bloomer toast on the side reminded me of what toast should taste like as it was much nicer than the other slices we had eaten. Overall, The Mount Stuart was my favourite of the week.

Eating a Wetherspoon breakfast every day for a week didn’t turn out to be all it was cracked up to be. And this is the second thing we learned. We expected to be excited for a cooked breakfast every morning but in reality we quickly came to dread it. Our favourite restaurant of the week was definitely The Mount Stuart, for its setting as well as the food, whilst our least favourite was The Great Western. The staff were very friendly at The Great Western but that did not make up for the food.

Aspects of the breakfasts were enjoyable, especially when cooked right like the sausages and hash browns, but we never really felt full after eating what were essentially empty calories. Eating five full cooked breakfasts in a week is never a good idea and we will not be rushing back to eat a Wetherspoon breakfast. And we certainly won’t be ordering a fried egg next time we do, either.

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