[Closed] Trail centre cafe food, your wish list?

Tartiflette

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Soya milk

cake and coffee is ideal......but a nice bean/chorizo stew would be good in winter.

[quote=CaptainFlashheart ]Tartiflette
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Oh yes

Have you seen or know a better way of getting a "good" cup of coffee without those infernal machines

take your own in a flask?

My desire for trail centre food - None. Much prefer the idea of a pub near the trail. cafes bug the crap out of me. All or nothing, if I can't have a put with beer and burger/pie then I'm not interested. By all means have both, cafe would keep the pub nice and quiet. I'm reet socialable me.

I'd just like the cafe to be open at the end of a ride.

finished at llandegla at like 4:45 on a Saturday afternoon and the kitchen was shut?!

Made do with a can of coke and stopped at the pub on the way home.

Mine starts and ends with decent coffee, anything else I can cope with.

I'm reet socialable me.

[i]My desire for trail centre food - None[/i]

+1

It seems to be an extension of the inability of folk to go into a town centre without calling in to Starbucks or Costa or whatever other coffee shop has sprung up. They can't visit a trail centre without getting all excited about cake and coffee.

If you've got time for cakey, you've got time for another lap, chubby!

only ever get a bacon and egg roll at a cafe

Got one in the cafe beside Dalbeattie last week. They put on two eggs as they where small. Eggs where fresh laid that morning.
Was an excellent roll

My desire for trail centre food - None

+1

Isn't that because you never actually go mountain biking though?

Foot at Llandegla is pretty good imo, just a bit pricy.

Bigger portions, ala Afan.

Beer.

Not a trail centre regular user, per se, apart from Swinley Forest where I stopped using the Cafe due to high prices.

Went to a trail centre a few weeks ago and took my own flask and food. When you're on your own, it's easier to do that.

I don't drive an Audi, am not a bloke, don't work in IT so my face wouldn't fit anyway. 😛

Of course my cafe stop a couple of weeks ago in a small village saw me enjoy a pot of tea (enough for 2 cups) plus a huge slab of bread pudding, all for £1.70. 8)

[i]Isn't that because you never actually go mountain biking though?[/i]

Ooooh, harsh but fair....

I have been to all of them there trail centres though over the years, and did Llandegla on my cross bike recently. I'm in the process of sorting out a new mountain bike, and then I shall go and not eat or drink anything and think of you... 😉

Foot at Llandegla is pretty good imo, just a bit pricy.

What we need are more trail centres in the middle of towns and villages!

More Gluten Free options that werent crisps woukld be good.

Drac - the Peel Centre at Glentress sells beer now...(and wine and cider I think)

I only use trail centre cafes in two situations:
1). Out with a group of mates and it's somewhere to socialise after a ride (and even meet up again if you've split up on the trails)
2). For a lunch stop during a long day at the trail centre (it's way less hassle than leaving to find a pub then coming back, even assuming you can find a space on your return and don't have to pay again for the car park).
Not sure there is a short-cut to decent coffee though, maybe have filter coffee on offer for those in a hurry.

Does the price of the food at a trail centre cafe vs a village/town cafe not reflect the footfall count Would imagine a trail centre cafe only makes it's money on a Sat & Sun and is barely covering it's costs during week days

Swinley Forest also offers a discovery centre and large adventure playground so the cafe does well all week. Now that parking charges have been introduced, I don't know whether there will be a knock-on effect.

But surely if a trail centre cafe is rubbish then a nearby cafe/pub has a terrific opportunity. Nothing like competition to get people to raise their game!

I always take my own food and drink too

Sun dried tomato focaccia with home-made aioli and skinny frappamochachino. Surely that's the minimum requirement for any mountain biker?

Or, they could just jetwash me at the door and hand me a plate of chips and a brew.

Mystic Bars and Lemon bars Mmmmmm [img] [/img]

Drac - the Peel Centre at Glentress sells beer now...(and wine and cider I think)

It does? I was supposed to make my first return trip to GT next week, not been in about 8 or 9 years now, but forgot I'd put in for some overtime.

Ooooh, harsh but fair....

😀

Does the price of the food at a trail centre cafe vs a village/town cafe not reflect the footfall count

Aye probably. I don't really begrudge it TBH, Llandegla is a great facility IMO.

Or, they could just jetwash me at the door and hand me a plate of chips and a brew.

Ooh you're all man aren't you? GRRRRRR!!!!

Raspberry pavlova.

Chips
Bread
Tea
Cakes
Poncy stuff for the southerners

Kebabs.

snickers cake from the cafe at sherwood pines.mmmmm
open to the idea of a kebab(or two) though.

Kebabs.

This is possibly the best idea ever. Kofte kebab, mmmmm........

Lamb. Just Lamb.

Something that can't be shrink wrapped. Nothing puts me off food as much as a bunch of plastic wrap.

Tartiflette or soup

The big portions of big food that the Dropoff use to do (and maybe do again?) - not a big menu, but good quality and decent portions.

And while the cafe at GT has improved, why oh why does it need to individually plastic carton each and every cake?

Chip butties. Yay, Gisburn.

A greater veggie selection would be nice, generally.

And while the cafe at GT has improved, why oh why does it need to individually plastic carton each and every cake?

+1, does my tits in. Supposed to be all Eco friendly as well. I'd like to see a big vat of industrial grade macaroni cheese, and garlic bread, on a cold sh1tty wet winters day. I'd buy that for a dollar.

For the love of God! Why on earth would you go to a cafe if there's an open pub within striking distance?

FREAKS!!

Have you seen or know a better way of getting a "good" cup of coffee without those infernal machines

It's not the machines that make it slow, it's the operators.

Nerostabucks seem to be able to knock them out pretty quickly.

SUSHI

Proper fried noddles, fish and chips.

Pork pies

Bean stew, followed by super-sized chip butties.

Whatever happens to be lining the shelves in Peaslake Stores is enough to satisfy me; scotch eggs, samosas, various quiches, baps, pork n leek lattices, doorsteps, pasties, cheese straws ... cakes, flapjacks ... tea, coffee ... All home-made and bang tidy on the taste-ometer.

Every trail centre should have the above.

I thought the old Glentress was hard to beat - reasonable drip coffee, nice warm panini's with lush coleslaw and and smashing array of cakes.

Hamsterley Tea Rooms was the most overpriced and inneffcient (5 people behind the counter but 1 person did all of the work - zero delegation).

I think more cafes need a decent idave option though as lovely as the cakey goodness is at the end of a ride it's not what I really need.

Edit: Oh and heartbreakingly cute waiting staff, cheers.

Noodles would be good.

However, fish finger butties at Llandegla are an inspired offering.

The humble baked spud- partly because it's a great staple and good biking food, but mainly because I can actually eat it (wheat intolerance, doh). Always seems odd when they're not on the menu- they're cheap and easy to make after all, if you've got a microwave and a knife then you can do a spud.

Failing that I'm quite partial to the GT cafe's unbelievably cheesy omelettes, with their inexplicably nice skinny chips.

Humous,
Olives,
Rocket,
Blue cheese,
Falafels,
Chillies.

All in a wrap with a machiato.

fresh food
good proper coffee not for me but the missus
proper tea - paying over £1 for a pg tips bag waved round is crap - leaves pot ect.
A good Burger - llandegla have that one
Good Chips
Good Cake

I think more cafes need a decent idave option though as lovely as the cakey goodness is at the end of a ride it's not what I really need.

Yeah this would be good. Sausage and butterbean casserole, mmmmmm........

Any cafe manager that can not manage to provide a baked spud over a weekend should be shot as an example to the rest. You ran out of baking potatoes, they don't have a short shelf life get a grip.

Needs a good chilli with it too.

If the cafe at GT has improved then I dread to think what it was like pre-improvement.

The Dog n Gun at Gisburn serves really good food imo, Llandegla is decent enough too.

I would like to see more of the foods sold at these 2 places but sourced locally so fresh juice, meat and other produce.

there needs to be more 'proper' toasties (with so much cheese pouring out the side that you fear for your heart) and less panninis, but that's a complaint aimed at the UK as a whole not just trail centre cafes.

i'm hungry now....

Seriously good fish and chips after a whole day ride. Nothing heavy but nothing too light.

Was it Afan that got a new cafe back in about 05? Proper good Full English, pizzas and more IIR. Plus it was super clean and the staff were always sound.

Proper Cheesey beans on proper toast, decent hot steaming tea, rice pudding and jam, and proper homemade cakes.

Yes folks the old VC at C-Y-B.

patriotpro - Member

If the cafe at GT has improved then I dread to think what it was like pre-improvement.

it [i]used[/i] to be a falling-down shack with half as many seats as it needed and most of them out in the rain.

I just want service, Degla's OK but very busy so food can take a while by CyB is painful, the foods good when it arrives but I think they grow & butcher it to order never mind cooking. I spent 5 mins in the queue and didn't go anywhere over the weekend before I gave it up as a bad job.

Was it Afan that got a new cafe back in about 05? Proper good Full English, pizzas and more IIR. Plus it was super clean and the staff were always sound.

Yep, that was when Luffy took over. Awesome Welsh Rarebit, and great pizza/beer in the evenings, too. Damned good rider as well!

I just want service, Degla's OK but very busy

And they stop serving food at about 3pm IIRC.

Good food at Llandegla, the dog and gun for Gisburn, and Poppies at Lee Quarry.

+1 for Pub rather than Cafe.

Gisburn has it down. Massive chip butty and a pint of Ewe Tosser on a Sunday afternoon while having a look at shiny stuff in the shop!

And it is the Dog and Partridge no Dog and Gun (sorry)