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

Home made soup and roll
Baked potatoes with filling and a bit of salad
toastie with a bit of salad
macaroni cheese

Not so many eggy things!
I'm veggie bur don't eat eggs and that's usually the veggie option in cafes.

None of those grim desiccated bits of onion on anything please. Ubiquitous and impossible to pick off.

I loathe burgers - even veggie ones (pescatarian) so it is nice if there is something else on menu! I like jacket potatoes, pasta dishes, all day brekkie (incl veggie). Toasted sandwiches are a good choice too and soup. Maybe a few lunchtime things - Spag Bol, fish and chips or fish pie. Apple pie, cakes.

Home made deep filled quiche with choice of salads

Salads that are not made up of leaves and grass, use iceberg lettuce or even better gem

Salad with some sort of grain and protein as well as the vegetables. Nice dressings.

Jacket potato with cheese and really good coleslaw!

Sandwiches with a side of chips.
Steak baguette
Chicken, bacon and avocado sandwich
Posh fish finger sandwich with really chunky fish, rocket and tartare sauce.

Tuna mayo jacket potato with salad, bonus if there’s sweetcorn in with the tuna mayo.

My favourite sandwich is roast beef, Emmental cheese, salad leaves, red onion, horseradish and mayo.

The best option for a cafe is to have a selection of fillings and let people choose their combinations.

for hot food toasted ciabattas, eg goats cheese and roasted veggies with pesto and mayo is delicious. Baked potatoes with different fillings again choose your own combo is ideal as gluten free and vegan if you have beans. (Making your own beans is amazing too but so so simple, my recipe has 5 veg in them too and costs pennies per head, serve with potato or with crusty bread)

Cheese scones, other scones also welcome
Baked potatoes with a few fillings (can double up as sandwich fillings)
Toasted teacakes
Cinnamon buns

Another vote for toasties - so many places locally don’t offer them which seems odd to me.
Love homemade quiche with a really fresh salad & homemade dressing
If the cafe is licensed, offer some decent AF options eg wine, botanicals, lagers etc.

Kids meals that aren’t just nuggets/fish fingers/burger and chips. Small portions of things like salads, macaroni cheese, baked potatoes etc, or half sandwiches.

I love good Welsh rarebit, or bacon or sausage sandwiches, and cheese scones - the cheesier the better.

A couple of delicious home made pies. Maybe meat and potato and cheese and onion. Home made soups are always a winner. And good honest sandwiches like ham salad, chicken salad and a really nice prawn with lettuce and Marie rose sauce. Baked potatoes with hot or cold fillings so for example prawn and Marie rose sauce is used up on two food options same for chicken salad with a spud or on a sandwich etc. serve hearty soups in winter and lighter ones in summer

Freshly made soup not watered down, salads with pulses and halloumi, imaginative omelettes.

Our favourite café has a really small menu but does everything very well and I think that's the key. Keep it simple but do it properly and you'll get people coming back. This is what they do:

Selection of nice sandwiches with crisps and coleslaw or you can get any of the sandwich fillings on a jacket potato with coleslaw (prawn marie rose, egg mayo, coronation chicken, tuna and sweetcorn, chicken and bacon, cheese and pickle)

A salad option

Homemade soup and the option to add half a sandwich or a cheese scone.

Selection of cakes and traybakes.

Some cold drinks, tea including herbal tea, proper coffee.

For children they do a half sandwich or half jacket potato option that I think is brilliant or the only other thing they have is a platter or pitta bread, hummus, crudites and cheese.

If you're doing breakfast then I would serve it until 11.30 before swapping to lunch to keep it easier on the kitchen and just keep it really simple. Toast with butter and jam or marmite, roll with your choice of bacon, sausage, egg, cheese, avocado or any combination of the above or a yoghurt and granola bowl with fruit compote.

I love an all day breakfast.

Lightly toasted bagels, one of my favourite simple toppings is cream cheese , chopped up tomato, basil and chilli flakes. Or herby cream cheese and smoke salmon

I usually go for something warm like a grilled cheese or baked potato with lots of toppings, but if I spot a decent quiche and salad combo, I'm in. Found some great lunch bits at https://jaykays.ie/ when I couldn’t face another cold sandwich at home.

There used to be this one cafe near my work and all their stuff was lovely. My favourite thing was a jacket potato with melted cheese and crispy bacon, with homemade coleslaw on the side. And they always gave you about four lovely salads like beans, couscous, lovely leaves etc alongside it.

They did gorgeous toast as well, they used nice fresh thick but not too thick cut bread and real butter.

My favourite greasy spoon caff does a great sausage, egg, mushrooms and chips. Old school Italian place with slightly questionable hygiene. But it tastes fantastic!

I could eat that all now 🤣

Proper salt and pepper grinders with really good quality salt and black peppercorns.