Favourite lunch option on cafe menu?

[foxrobin]

As the title says really! Trying to get an idea of favourite lunch options on a cafe menu. My sister is opening a cafe in a popular market town and wants to offer a traditional but beautifully done menu so I'd love to know your favourite lunch options and anything you'd like to see more or less of. Thank you! X

I'd be tempted by Welsh rarebit or any yummy sounding toasted cheese sandwich. Also smashed avocado on toast, bagels with cream cheese. Fish finger butties. Tea in a pot please with plenty of milk. Homemade Victoria sponge or retro choices like coffee and walnut or lemon drizzle.

Jacket potato - with a half size option for kids
Quiche
Avocado and/or poached eggs on toast

Vegetarian/vegan breakfast to include scrambled tofu.

The non wanky foods and dog friendly. That’s the kind of place I can bring my mum to, or the kids and they’d all find some thing they like.
These are the places that are always packed.
Traybakes also to have with a cup of tea.
All the best to your family enterprise.

Bacon, Brie and Cranberry Panini!

Also half options of the adult menu for children. My kids never want a small bread roll with either cheese or ham, but would happily eat half a tuna and sweetcorn paying or half a chicken club sandwich. Mini quiche would also be a winner with them.

Childrens food options are always so bland, which I get, alot of children eat bland, but also alot of children don't. I can't just order my kids an adult item to share either as they never want to the same thing

Club sandwich
BLT
Bacon brie and cranberry panini
Cheese scones
Brunch stuff that doesn't have an egg plonked on top of it.
Welsh rarebit

We were at a really lovely pub yesterday and DH had a golden fluffy omelette with tomato, cheese and mushrooms. (They had filling options galore and you got to have 3 options). With lovely bread and butter and salad.

It looked amazing.

And a friend had a cafe for a while. She used to make seasoned sausage patties out of good quality sausage meat which she served in soft baps with lettuce, tomato and apple sauce. They were incredible.

I also second decent gluten free options. They can be hard to come by (except for ham egg and chips which I personally am sick to death of).

Lots of nice salads that you can choose a few from on their own or with quiche, frittata, scotch egg or similar.

As a low carber I rarely go to cafes as it's usually sandwiches, toasties, cakes, quiches etc.

Was recently pleased to have a lovely aubergine melanzane; they also had a crustless quiche and interesting omelettes.

Good luck with the new caff!

I own a cafe, I can tell you what sells where we are:

Cakes 25%
Breakfast 25%
Hot drinks 25%
Toasties/paninis/cold sandwiches 10%
Quiche/pies 8%
Main meals, soup, salads, cold drinks make up the rest

We serve breakfast all day, everything from a toasted teacake, full English, poached eggs, omelettes, bacon bun etc. Full English is the most popular but we sell a lot of poached eggs, smashed avo, eggs benedict and omelettes.

We make all the cakes ourselves and people travel quite a way for them. This is our USP and what brings people to us from social media, then they obviously spend on more than just cake.

What sort of area is the shop going to be in? That'll dictate what sort of food will sell best.

Smoked Salmon and creme cheese Bagel.

Pricing is key too. Went to a cafe a couple of months ago, been there previously so didn't really look at the menu before we sat down, and all the sandwiches, were £10 or more! 😱 that included a basic ham and mustard, albeit naice ham!

DD has turned veggie and we've got into Halloumi & falafel wraps. My favourite caff in London does them with chips and salad for £9.90...if you aren't in London then obviously the orice will be lower but in my suburb that's the cheapest!

I also love a bloody good three egg omelette.

As I'm not veggie I will also eat anything from a pig in a roll.

I also hate chichi cafés that overprice their food for the "experience". No need. Just sell delicious, honest grub, have a welcoming attitude to your customers and people will keep coming back.

My local cafe do avocado on toast with olives drizzled with a balsamic glaze - scrumptious 😀

It really depends what kind of cafe it is.

I like interesting salads and soups

My DH loves a salad.

And where you are located?

Ooh yes interesting veg options.

My favourite vegetarian wrap is tahini, sliced dried dates and a drizzle of honey. Sounds strange I know but it's delicious.

I also like sweet potatoes as a jacket potato option. I serve mine with butter, a dash of cinnamon and grilled pineapple plus a few chilli flakes.

This is incredibly helpful, thank you so much to all of those sending their ideas and for the brilliant in-depth posts on ideas and breakdowns of what sells. It's going to be a in small Yorkshire market town. Lots of families but young professionals too x

I long for somewhere that charges for what you actually eat so if salads/sandwiches/jacket potatoes etc are being prepared to order have a tick box menu sheet or iPad that allows people to add or remove butter/cheese/salad items/double protein/crisps or chips etc which actually reflects the cost of those ingredients. Paying for a dish which has things you won't eat included and asking them to be excluded but with no price difference always makes you feel like you're paying more than you need to for something.

Always include every item on the menu, don't send a dish out with something on you didn't think worth mentioning but someone might dislike/be allergic to.

Either a proper, interesting side salad (preferably consisting of bite-size pieces) or nothing.

I really dislike a handful of lettuce/leaves dumped on the side. I feel I should eat them for healthy reasons but I find it difficult getting big, springy leaves on my fork and I always seem to have a bit of watercress or something left dangling for a moment - I look like Peter Rabbit caught in Mr McGregor's vegetable patch, but far less cute. And they're quite boring to eat, particularly as they're often not dressed.

At least if there aren't any leaves, I won't feel guilty about leaving them.

A nice selection of teas to choose from (breakfast tea, Earl Grey, fruit teas) in a tea pot.

Delicious, proper coffee.

Fruit scone with jam and cream. Cheese scone with proper butter.

Something on the menu that's famously local to the area or region. I'm thinking pork pies in Melton Mowbray, scotch pies up in the borders, Wensleydale cheese, Silton, square sausage etc.

Really tasty chips as a side order.

A smaller selection of food, done really very well would get me coming back.

If it's sandwiches, I'll only buy a sandwich that I probably couldn't be bothered to make at home. Ie multiple fillings and maybe toasted.

If it anything like quiche or coleslaw, I'd only like it homemade, with proper ingredients. Eg can actually taste the egg in the quiche unlike supermarket offerings

A small but homemade selection of cakes: one "classic", one chocolate, one with fruit (Bakewell tart / lemon drizzle/ banana bread)

I'd keep a short simple menu and make sure it's great quality. Has she done local market research and identifies her target market / the gaps in the current offering?

Best sellers here
bacon cranberry brie
haggis and cheese
cheese savoury panini or flat bread for all

kids wise picky type lunches do really well. Pick four or five things from a list. Crackers cheese salad bits fruit etc

Also, not providing a "catch-all" vegan and gluten-free option.
DD is vegan but has no problem with wheat (and there must be lots of carnivorous/vegetarian people who have coeliac disease) but she finds that often the only vegan thing on the menu is also gluten free.

Good homemade soups.

A range of savoury options without cheese, so many places add cheese to most of their sandwiches.

Cakes and biscuits that are not enormous. I often fancy something sweet but don't buy something because all the options are too many calories.