For the past year Simon Steggles, aka Steggs, and also known to some of you on twitter as @Stegabyte, has been on a quest to find Birmingham’s Best Breakfast.  Ceaselessly he’s cycled, along with his band of usually merry but often bicycling-reluctant friends, from Sutton to the city centre to try out breakfast venues.  Actually, the Bike To Breakfast gang, (find them on facebook here) includes not just Suttonites but also some who cycle from Harborne and the Jewellery Quarter, and they’re all keen for more people to join them for Saturday morning trips for breakfast in the city centre wherever they may be cycling from.  If you’re interested get in touch with them on twitter here @biketobreakfast.

Sometimes the trips have been more exciting than they really needed to be, with falls and scrapes, an accidental dip in the canal (ahem, Mr. Pope), a car crash outside an eatery, and two gentleman caught in flagrante delicto on one of the lesser used canal towpaths (what was the cry Steggs? “Morning boys!” – you’re nothing if not polite).  Some of the breakfasts have also been “interesting”, and not necessarily in a good way.

While some of the group have rather exotic tastes in breakfasts (you know, poached eggs, fish, and the like), Steggs has been searching for the perfect full English, comprising bacon, sausage, egg, and at least two of the following: fried bread, toast, beans, tomatoes, black pudding, white pudding,  mushrooms.  Extra points to those venues who manage to serve the beans in a separate ramekin so Stegs doesn’t have to build a bean dam, and to venues who’ll supply jam for “breakfast pudding” when there’s toast left (ahem, Mrs. Pope).

He’s tried every price point, every area of the city centre, every dodgy cabby’s eatery, and has come up with this list.  There’s a hair’s breadth between some of the better venues but his current absolute favourite is The High Field in Edgbaston, closely followed by the Deli in Boldmere and Yorks Bakery Café in the city centre.  Always on the lookout for an even better breakfast, do tweet @biketobreakfast any ideas for a meet up with some good grub.

If you’re stuck for breakfast ideas then checkout Steggs’ list here, for the good, the bad, and the just plain awful.  Scores are shown out of 10 and are Steggs’ assessment, we’d encourage you to try them for yourselves!

Name	Cost	Score	Cleanliness	Ambience
Brewsmiths		7	7	7
	A small breakfast with unusual sliced raw tomatoes, (which I quite liked), a square sausage. Rather unusually, I ended up with wooden cutlery – they had run out of the metal stuff! Very pleasant!
Brookvale Café	£4.95	7	5	6
	Classic workers café – good breakfast. Included coffee. Brilliant value.
BTP Café	£7.25	8	4	7
	Superb – but could have been cleaner – tables were not clean at 9:00am (seemed to be from the night before)?
Café Opus		6	9	8
	The breakfast was good, but it was served luke warm.
Centenary Lounge (Moor Street Station)	£5.95	3	7	5
	Really bad. It took ages and wasn’t good. The guy that invited us to breakfast here apologised!
Edgebaston Deli		1	9	8
	A lovely place , however without question, the worst service I have experienced. After a complaint about one of the eggs being hard, the chef came out of the kitchen and used his Chefs knife to cut the egg open, at the table and tell us that the customer was wrong. Sadly, he wasn’t the rudest member of staff, that was the waitress. Truly awful eating experience. Sadly for them, the food was really good. I wont be going back.
Fig and Olive (Sutton/Tamworth)		8	9	7
	Great breakfast – but for the hard poached egg. Lovely setting. Quality ingredients. Bizarrely, it’s set in a garden centre?!
Food With Benefits		2	3	4
	Barely luke warm. I was slightly confused that I may have been ill afterwards. Lots of this breakfast was left by me and Harry, (son). We bought a bacon baguette afterwards. Without question, the worst breakfast in Birmingham.
Highfield Edgebaston	£9.50		10	9
	Brilliant. Simple as that. I think this is the best breakfast in Birmingham.
JuJu’s Café	£8.50	8	9	8
	Breakfast is excellent but a very long wait every time I have been there. EVERYTHING is extra – be careful!
Lunchi		6	7	5
	Mediocre. A good portion, but a broken egg ruined it for me.
Moseley Street Café	£4.95	7	6	6
	Classic Greasy spoon. Great breakfast, lovely staff. Cheap ingredients – but you know what you are getting.
Packington Moor Farm	£7.25	8	8	9
	Great breakfast, let down by cheap bread (should be thick cut toast).
Pype Hayes Café		2	1	2
	Classic Greasy Spoon – but filthy.
Rico Libre (Digbeth)	£4.20	5	5	4
	Apparently, this is a good tapas place at night. For breakfast, it was mediocre. Lots of swearing coming from the kitchen.
Riland Café (Sutton Coldfield)	£5.00	8	7	6
	A great greasy spoon. If you are hungry, this is the place for you. £5.00 includes toast, fried bread, egg, beans, tomatos, black pudding sausages and bacon AND a mug of tea or coffee!
Star Café (Digbeth)		4	5	4
	Only had a bacon and egg sandwich, (was an Eritrean/Ethiopian café selling hair products!)
The Balcony Bar (Selfridges)	£10.00	9	10	8
	Brilliant – and not as expensive as I expected. One of the best in Birmingham.
The Deli In Boldmere	£6.00	9	9	9
	I may be slightly biased, as this is one of my favourite places. The breakfast : brilliant!  Arguably the best value, quality breakfast in Birmingham!
The Drome	£4.50	6	4	5
	Classic Greasy spoon. Great breakfast, ‘efficient’ staff. Cheap ingredients – but you know what you are getting.
The Floating Coffee Co		3	3	3
	Awful – but you are on a boat! Bad service, cheap ingredients, just not good.
The Lord Clifden UAB	£5.95	8	7	8
	Great breakfast. Set in a pub, but its still a great breakfast – the steak option was superb!
The Red Lion UAB	£5.95	8	7	8
	Great breakfast. Great price. It’s a pub, but don’t let that put you off.
Traditional Café and Coffee Shop	£4.50	7	7	5
	Good value breakfasts, spotlessly clean.
Victoria Square Cafe	£5.00	6	6	5
	Its slap bang in the centre of Birmingham City Centre, right next to the ‘Floozy in the Jacuzzi’. Its a greasy spoon, serving a mediocre Full English for £5.00. 2 of us ate, we both ordered the same thing, mine came with mushrooms, my friend’s didn’t? Go figure!?
Yorks Bakery Café		9	9	9
	A great breakfast served in a pan with separate home made baked beans and sour dough bread. Superb.
Yumm Café		4	8	8
	Generally very good, but occasional let downs.