Exciting news (if you didn’t know already), the Conti now does breakfast, brunch, pastries and cakes so as it had been months since our last family breakfast outing, we headed riverside to give it a try.
A sunny Saturday morning, I booked a conservatory spot just in case it was busy and upon arrival, we were shown to our table and handed some menus. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a kids’ breakfast menu, but we were told that the dishes could be adapted which was fine. They do have kids pancakes on the menu, but fussy B won’t eat those. After a short while, the friendly server who had greeted us earlier took our drinks order. We were ready to order food at that point, but she left us to it. In hindsight, I should’ve said we were ready to order as immediately after that, there was an influx of parkrunners, so we didn’t get to order for another 30 minutes or so.
During the wait, I’d changed my mind several times but finally decided on the Smashed Avocado (£10.95) to go with my Iced Hazelnut Latte (£5.30), Simon chose the Shakshuka with added Nduja (£14.95) and was sipping an Americano (£3.40). B wanted egg, beans, mushrooms, hash brown (I’m not sure on the cost, I’ll elaborate later), and a croissant (£3.60). As we were treating ourselves to a breakfast outing, we ordered breakfast dessert, a Pistachio Cruffin (£4.95).
With the wait before ordering, it was an hour between receiving our drinks and the food arriving but luckily, we could take three-and-a-half-year-old B out to the legendary beer garden in the sunshine, and she loved sitting in the deckchairs that were dotted around.
So, was it worth the wait?
The Smashed Avocado was delicious, the sun-dried tomatoes were sweet and juicy, the eggs were perfectly poached, and my tastebuds thoroughly enjoyed all the flavours together. I made the right choice, yay.
Simon thought the Shakshuka was rich and tasty, perfectly cooked, and spicy but not overpowering. I had a mouthful and it was indeed very nice. Apparently, it was very filling, so Simon was fine with B pinching half of his flatbread.
B ate most of her little cooked brekkie, but we had a dramatic pastry mishap after an almond croissant appeared on the table rather than a plain croissant. This was obviously the worse thing in the world to happen at that moment and “I want a normal croissant mummy, I don’t like this one” came from a little teary face with a stuck out bottom lip. I took the almond croissant over to the counter, explaining we ordered a plain one and was told they’d bring one over. However, they had none left, nooooooo. Luckily B had calmed down but the only other options were a coffee croissant or a blueberry cruffin, we picked the blueberry cruffin and she ate none of it, of course. She was now happy enough with her cooked brekkie before heading back outside to pick daisies. Both the pistachio and blueberry cruffins had a lot of filling and I’d have preferred a bit more cruffin to cream ratio. They were both very sweet and delightful, but we were stuffed and couldn’t finish them and with them being very creamy, they were too messy to box up and takeaway.
The total came to (£40.30), which doesn’t actually add up with what we had so I’m not sure if something was knocked off for the wait. Simon paid so I don’t have the full story. Eye roll. However, they did discuss the wait – apparently they’re finding it hard to judge how many will turn up after the parkrun and have asked the organisers to relay the number of participants to sort out adequate cover but as yet, have not had any response. Hopefully they can get it sorted, the breakfast was delicious and we all know the surroundings are wonderful. Despite the wait, we’d have breakfast there again. Just remember to order before parkrun finishes.
Ooh PS, we had a little walk after breakfast and noticed the new cute little ice cream and drinks hut serving outside the beer garden. Perfect, it’s definitely been ice cream weather recently.
Best breakfast in Preston? Let me know in the comments.
