The Sand Dollar Cafe

The Sand Dollar cafe is my absolute favourite place to eat. It opens early in the morning for breakfast, stays open all day for all day breakfast, lunch, tea and cake or ice cream to go, and on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings reinvents itself as a bistro. I have sampled all of the menus and have never had a dish I didn't enjoy. One day I'll bring you back for an evening meal, but today we'e going to talk about breakfast. Not of the early morning, straight off the 7am sleeper train variety, but the lazy Sunday brunch variety. You generally have to queue, but we only waited ten minutes or so this time, and the food is so worth it. Once you get yourself seated there's plenty of newspapers to get stuck into, and of course, the menu. 

Mum plumped for an omelette on the specials board, stuffed to the brim with local, freshly caught fish. I stole a mouthful, and can fully attest to it's deliciousness. The fish melted in the mouth, and the eggs were cooked to perfection.

I went for the "Sandollar Breakfast", three light fluffy pancakes served with bacon and maple syrup. Very American, very delicious. Unbelievably, I am a very recent bacon convert. In fact this was the first time I had ever had a bacon centric meal to myself (in the past I've just stolen a bite of someone else's sandwich). I came to the conclusion that if I couldn't manage all of the bacon I'd at least be left with pancakes and maple syrup. But no fear, I finished off every morsel of bacon on the plate, and have, I think officially joined the bacon fan club. I just have to try it in a savoury meal all to myself now.

Dad happily tucked into his smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel, and Ben went for the traditional full Scottish, minus the eggs. Both agreed they were a top notch start to the day.

Bellies full we took a stroll along the beach in the glorious sunshine that had made an appearance. It's days like this that the city is at its best, and I'm not sure I'm going to like moving away from the sea in the summer, so I'm trying to make the most of it while I'm still here!