Review: Harvey's Cafe, Botley

While we may stroke our (metaphorical) beard over ramen, and enthuse over chimichangas, we are sometimes, we must say, a simple creature.

We often yearn for a fry-up. We don’t want to sound like we are opposed to experimentation, foreign cultures, or indeed healthy food, but there are days when we want what we know, and we want it done well.

And so it came to pass that on a weekday, through a haphazard set of circumstances, the Dish Detective found themselves pinging around the Meon Valley, looking after a five-year-old on a school inset day. We had several jobs to do, and after picking up industrial strength rat poison – don’t ask – from a farm supplies shop, we were merrily bombing to a well-known DIY superstore, to do the things that every five-year-old dreams of doing when their school is closed. Namely, buying screwdriver bits and cable clips.

He took it well, though (although he did see through my white lie answer of “Sort of” to the question “Are we going to Legoland?”).

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Anyway, as we passed through Botley, there was an alluring sight. A cafe. And a proper fry-up and sandwiches type cafe as well. This would be reward for both of us on the return journey.

And a reward it proved to be. We were lucky and bagged a space in the small (free) car park almost outside Harvey’s Cafe – it’s a few doors down from the Co-op. There were plenty of tables, and while not full there was evidence that there had been a steady stream of customers that morning; one table paying, one finishing up their lunch, and a couple of arrivals while we were there.

There was no doubt in my mind what to order. The large breakfast (£9.50, enough to fill you up for most of the day). Two sausages, two rashers of bacon, two fried eggs, mushrooms, beans, tomato and hash browns, and including, quite rightly, coffee and a couple of rounds of toast. The DD has said before and maintains that with a full English, you can notice excellent constituent parts but you more notice the duff bits. For example, the rest of the plate can be perfectly decent but if you have a frazzled sausage or a rubbery egg you can feel a bit let down. Here, no problems. Everything cooked well, and just as importantly made well. The sausages were smooth but not too processed, and herby like a Cumberland should be. The bacon was thickly sliced and properly aged and smoked – 10 out of 10 for sourcing.

The little boy was obviously delighted by sausage chips and beans (£6.25) for lunch, and even more so by exciting cartons of apple juice that were also on sale. These things are the stuff of life when you are in Year 1.

We both finished our plates, and had a chat with the friendly owner, who said he was pleased to be getting a lot of repeat trade – and indeed he knew many of his customers – as well as drop-ins like us.

The final word can go to the five-year-old, who said, excitedly, as we walked out: ‘It’s like the cafe in The Tiger Who Came to Tea!’

And while we hadn’t had any feline visitors that day, we were indeed as happy as Sophie was to have been out to eat.

Harvey’s Cafe, Botley

01489 799485, Weds-Sun 8am to 3pm

Food 4

Value 5

Ambience 4

Child-friendly 5