Waffles and Bacon for Breakfast at Forty Four Bridgford

Forty Four Bridgford is one of the latest restaurants to open up in West Bridgford. Located in the space formerly occupied by Chin Chin and the Oriental Pearl it is describing itself as an “independent cocktail bar & kitchen with a passion for quality”.

They are open for late breakfast, lunch and dinner 6 days a week and seem to stay open late (as in 2am late) if you want to drink on the Bridgford party circuit.

I keep on walking past on my daily stroll along the Avenue past the park and had been drawn to their Sign advertising breakfast between 11am and 1pm during the week.

It took me about a week to clear the lunchtime calendar so that I could plan a visit, or rather it took me a week to manage to slip away early enough from the office to be there in time for the breakfast 🙂

I had checked out the menu in advance and I already had my plan in mind to order the “Waffles with Streaky Bacon, Maple Syrup & a Fried Egg”.

They had a picture of the dish on their advertising board that I kept on peering at when I was passing by. I mean who needs subliminal advertising when you can just post a picture right in your face in a kind of “Just come and eat this kind of way!”

I had been thinking about that classic American brunch and breakfast dish for a while and I was really pleased when I had spotted it on their breakfast menu. It is really hard to find places in the UK that really do this dish properly so I was really hopeful when I came to 44 to give them a try

The star of the show was without question the streaky bacon. I can say without doubt that this is some of the best bacon that I have been served anywhere this year.

I am not sure where they bought it from but I want to know. It was thick cut, cooked to perfection so that the fat was rendered and crispy. It was meaty and it was lightly smoke. I loved the bite and I loved the slight saltiness.

Good as the bacon was I just had to shove it to the side so that I could make the dish more photogenic 🙂 I suppose that might have been a little unfair on these streaky slices especially since the name of the dish was in fact “Waffles with Streaky Bacon” but everything else on the plate had to have a chance to shine as well 🙂

I just wanted to show you all the sunny side fried egg on top of my waffle and that glistening yellow yolk that was just waiting to burst forth. I love a good soft egg yolk on my breakfast plate.

The Waffle was quite good as well, it was firm and well cooked there was no hint of sogginess at all, even after someone had poured maple syrup all over the bowl. The only downside was that I kind of wanted a little bit more of that maple syrup sweetness.

Having said that I expect that it was good that the chef was more restrained than I, as I would have probably drowned everything in the plate and turned it into pudding at breakfast time 🙂

I had a Latté to go with my breakfast waffles, even though I normally have a nice cup of tea at breakfast, sometimes I like to give the air of sophistication and order a big milky coffee. It was actually a really nice big cup as well, made with the local 200 degrees coffee blend

Even though I had planned in advance to get that Waffles and Bacon dish for £5.90 I almost changed my mind at the last moment when I read the menu.

The offer of the “Forty Four Breakfast” basically an ‘All-day breakfast situation’ was very tempting indeed. They were offering a plate of “Grilled sausage, smoked bacon, fried eggs, beans, grilled tomato, Portobello mushroom. hash brown and toast” for just £6.90!

That was only a quid more than my fancy Waffles with Bacon!

It seems like such good value that I might have to slip out to try that out as well. If it is anything like as good as the food I just ate, well then it will be a trip worth making 🙂