If you went to a cafe.....what would you have?

[Swifey40]

I'm just revamping our menu for the summer and could do with some help please.
So....meze boards, what would you have on it for meat eaters, veggies and vegans.
Or poke bowls, or paninins or salads??
Please throw your ideas at me.
TIA 😊

Because lots of people do like it?

If you're in the north east of England where I am, I'd expect to see stotties, preferably with egg mayonnaise and cress, tuna, cheese and salad. If you're in Staffordshire, I'd want oatcakes with cheese fillings. Otherwise, the things others have suggested. Decent scones and coffee and walnut cake are welcome everywhere 😋

I flipping love a good poke bowl for lunch. Probably wouldn’t have a meze board unless with friends.
I do love a good salad, especially a Greek salad with some chicken or beetroot and goats cheese. Panini I also like - roasted veg and goats cheese is my favourite, DH would have chicken pesto, and tuna melt is lovely.
Good home made cake is essential - carrot cake is my favourite, or a nice apple cake with crumble topping. Please offer a couple of decent GF options - my coeliac friend often ends up with something out of a packet when a place has 7 or 8 non GF choices. There are plenty of cake recipes made with ground almonds etc that are lovely but just happen to be GF.

Oh yes! And a nice quiche!

Surely depends on your target market, opening hours and location. Tell us more and then we can suggest a more simple menu! 😀

I want a clearly labelled allergen menu with more choices for gluten free than a baked potato.

Options that don’t cost £10+ per plate. We eat at cafes fairly regularly but more often now it’s costing us over £50 for the 4 of us (2 adults and 2 young kids) with drinks and it’s getting a bit much so we’re taking picnics out more often now. I like to see nice fresh sandwich options, jacket potatoes and baguettes with kids options too amount the more expensive options. I do like a ploughmans platter though too sometimes.

Make your own poke bowls
Interesting quiches
Lebanese /Turkish /Mediterranean style make your own mezzes... falafel, bored,, lentil softest, tabbouleh, stuffed vine leaves, olives etc etc
Roasted veg salads
Chia puddings
Good cake
Mathcha
Tumeric lattes

There's a great cafe in Folkestone that has a very varied menu that definitely serves a good selection of drinks that are slightly more unusual and their cakes are gorgeous.
It's always very busy so obviously doing sonething right (see Steep Street cafe.... I think it's called)

Second all this

Something for a vegetarian tgat isn't just cheese and onion is ideal.

I'm also quite partial to a roasted veg (things like courgette, squash and peppers) and hummus wrap.

I agree with options under £10. We go to cafes a lot but I'm not going there to spend £12 on a burger and chips or something before I've even ordered a coffee.

I also agree with having options that just happen to be vegan and gluten free but will please lots of people. Very easy to do with soup and cakes.

If you offer a cream tea please also offer a savoury one with a cheese scone, cream cheese and chilli jam.

When eating out, I prefer to order something I can’t be bothered to make at home. A cafe near me does 3 or 4 salads every day: a roasted squash one with cumin, an aubergine and pomegranate one, a broccoli one etc, all with various spices or herbs or dressings. You can order each or a mixture, and I often have it along with a slice of quiche or a sausage roll. It’s pricey but feels worth it. And judging by how busy it is looks like others agree!

Quiche, toasties, proper ones. Homemade soup. Homemade tray bakes and pies (like apple pie)

I like traditional, but with specials to ring the changes.

Good quiche
good toasted tea cake or scones

that’s all I need!

Millionaires shortbread please. And not with the cheaply chocolate that tastes like cooking chocolate!!

or, a simple but excellent coffee and walnut cake. The type that makes the icing slightly crunchy.

this is why I’ve just started Mounjaro 😂

@souter I agree, but some cafes have very limited menus and kitchen space, so it’s good to have one safe option, and I love jacket potatoes anyway

It's completely impossible to please everyone so you might as well serve the food that you love and are invested in!

If it's decent quality at a fair price that's the main thing.

Either traditional toast/sandwiches/scones/jackets/cake

Or
Mediterranean paninis, salads, tapas etc

Or
Middle eastern chickpeas, flatbreads, spices etc.

I think it's best not to try to to please everyone or you end up pleasing no-one.

For summer you want something light I think

Crunchy salad for sure with a option menu of drizzle dressing, ciabatta with oil and balsamic to dip, homemade houmous with paprika sprinkled over it and a grown up slushy ice zingy, not sweet but ice cold and palette cleansing dessert

Rhubarb tarts and fizzy rhubarb drinks. It’s the taste of summer.

This was meant to say homemade pesto 🙄🤣

Ploughman’s , caeser salad , quiche with nice coleslaw and salad

Definitely good salads/buddha bowl - ‘make me one with everything’ …sometimes especially when on holiday we want something properly healthy with lots of veg for lunch and not a load of carby fillers.

something that isn’t sweet and carby available all day - while of course cafes should have cakes, traybakes and scones, it can be disappointing if that’s all they got if you can’t or shouldn’t eat them.

All day breakfast
Bacon roll a la Greggs
Not bothered by a panino/baguette/sandwich unless it's prawn.

Honestly, after having been let down so many times by good cafes that can't cope, I want a menu that's:

• stress tested against ingredients supply
• deliverable by the staff there
• affordable
• not faddy or overcomplicated

I'm sick to death of my favourite dishes being sold out halfway through lunch, or items being missing, or ingredients substituted.

Don't get carried away by too many ideas - make it good, but make it achievable, so if someone thinks your rarebit is to die for, it's actually there when they come back!

Not the same old shit all the time because it's commercially safe.

A really nice toasted club sandwich with thickly sliced roast chicken, decent bacon, lettuce and tomatoes. All held together by a wooden skewer so it doesnt fall to pieces until you take it apart. Served with nice crisps, preferably thick cut ones, lightly salted, a good quality coleslaw and a pot of nice mayonnaise.