Station Masters Cafe

This review is a bit of a quandary for me. Having worked on the railway for many years, Barnstaple was one of my regular destinations. Arriving at Barnstaple on an early morning train, the crew would all rush into the Station Master's Cafe for a full English before heading back on our return trip. It was one of the best perks we had. Now retired, I still pop in for a full English when on a shopping trip to Barnstaple. Sadly though now I have to say the full English breakfast is nothing more than a rip off. Whilst the Cafe itself is a lovely place, the staff are cheerful and they have an amazing selection of cakes and pastries (including gluten-free) the last breakfast we had there has finished us as customers. Now my wife has the gluten-free full English, which costs the same as a normal one...BUT, as it's gluten-free it doesn't come with the black pudding, and the peice of gluten-free toast she had was the same size as one half of the sourdough peice I had. Basically she had less than me, but for the same price of £12.95. I also compared the photo I took of our previous visit in February 1st 2025 to this most recent visit of June 23rd 2025. (See image in photo file) the February breakfast was almost double the amount of the June offering. The amazing thing is, if you exclude the small peice of gluten-free free toast, my wife's breakfast was identical to a Weatherspoons small breakfast that costs just £2.99. Safe to say the next visit to Barnstaple will result in a breakfast at the local Weatherspoon's and a £20 saving on our bill. Whilst we fully understand the points put forward by the owner of the Station Master Café in reference to the cost of running the café itself. They should also understand that the cost of living has risen for everyone and therefore he may also “wish to take account of this” before adjusting his menu such as halving the number items of the breakfast whilst keeping the price inflated….I believe the term for this is “Shrinkflation”. As for gluten-free food being more expensive, yes, I was already aware of this. However, seeing as everything on my plate except the black pudding and bread was also gluten-free it might be better to do away with the black pudding and just have one breakfast for both. The saving on the pudding would likely offset the cost of the one small piece of gluten-free bread!

Really nice cafe offering lots of delicious looking cakes and other food. Sadly as a coeliac I can't eat gluten and cake option was limited to a gluten free millionaires shortbread. At least there was an option i suppose. The coffee was nice though.