Believe it or not, after weeks of lazing in bed until gone 9am (sadly that’s late for this early bird) and living on M&S Christmas buffet food, the idea of getting up and at ’em actually becomes quite appealing. What better way to take advantage of a serendipitous burst of January energy than to head out for a spot of breakfast, hey? As I’ve mentioned before, there is a whole plethora of fabulous places to get breakfast in Liverpool but we wanted to stay a little closer to home this time so set about Googling ‘the best breakfasts on the Wirral‘.
For anybody not from round my neck of the woods, the Wirral is a beautiful peninsula on the North West coast, about 30 minutes away from Liverpool city centre by car and 300 years by bus. It has a population of about 321,000 people according to Wikipedia but an abundance of great places to eat. We settled on a cosy little cafe in the seaside town of West Kirby (also home to The Viking) called Aubergine on the promise of Fluffy Pancakes and Steak & Eggs.
BOY, did those Fluffy Pancakes and that Steak & Eggs deliver, far beyond my expectations in fact. Actually I’d boldly go as far as to say that it was the best Steak & Eggs and the best American-style pancake stack I’ve ever eaten. We decided to share the two dishes between us in order to strike that all-important balance of sweet and savoury satisfaction and what a dynamic duo these plates transpired to be.
The Steak & Eggs comprised of £10.95’s worth of 6oz rump steak, two Appleby free range eggs, wild exotic mushrooms, roasted tomatoes and a balsamic reduction all piled on top of a toasted sourdough doorstop. We went for our steak cooked medium and our eggs scrambled and scoffed the lot down in about 3 minutes flat. The meat was tender, the eggs were well seasoned, the warm toast sodden with the rich balsamic sauce was to die for and the exotic mushrooms a delicious, unique touch. Plenty of bang for your buck, I promise.
Moving swiftly on to the White Chocolate & Fresh Raspberry Pancakes that sat very pretty while we polished off our first course – I mean, I don’t know how that towering stack didn’t disassemble when it fell down from heaven. Thick enough to be almost cake-like but light enough to be totally devour-able, our fluffy pancakes were so aerated that they held their heat for an astonishing amount of time. Laced with steaming fresh raspberries, drizzled with a raspberry sauce and drowned in molten white chocolate, this was a holy trinity of breakfast pancake toppings. Completely and utterly divine.
The surroundings are definitely intimate and the decor is quaint as can be here at Aubergine but this is a bonafide hidden gem when it comes down to quality of food and menu choice. While our choices were most definitely knock out, they didn’t come easy. We were torn between the vast selection of egg dishes, bagels, shakshuka, full english and the rest. There quite literally is something for everybody here and breakfast is served all day, which is a feature surprisingly hard to come by in England where you couldn’t possibly eat a baked bean after 11am….. (Pause for sarcastic eye roll)
My only faux pas of the day was this Chilli Hot Chocolate from the ‘Winter Warmers’ menu which nearly blew my lid off it was so spicy. You know how much I love my hot chocolates, especially over Christmas so it was nice to see something on offer which dared to be a bit different from the standard gingerbread/egg nog/toffee nut concoctions. Clearly my tastebuds are going soft in their old age.
When the guy at the till asked us how everything was as we settled our bill, there was only one word my partner in dine could come up with:
Bangin’.
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