Magpie Café
14 Pier Road, Whitby, North Yorkshire.
Tel 01947 602058; magpiecafe.co.uk
I'm not a morning person. Call me childless if you will, but breakfast at the weekend is an unashamedly post-meridian affair. So picture my disquiet as Saturday sees me harangued by North Sea squalls on Whitby quayside, queuing not even for breakfast but for lunch, at 11.30am.
I'm forced into standing in line up at this ungodly hour because the Magpie Café, which I'm hoping to enter, is just so darned popular. Once I'm inside, happily ensconced in its warm, front-parlourish dining room, it becomes clear why. A starter of kippers (£3.45), from over the quay at Fortune's smokery, is superb and does indeed add a welcome, breakfasty note.
It is also, given the size of the main course that succeeds it, unnecessary. This comprises tremblingly moist haddock (from £6.95) in airy batter, and chips as that notable Yorkshireman, God, intended: piping hot, crisp without, floury within. Unlike my waistline, both benefit from their being fried in beef dripping.
There are puds, but we had nowhere to put them: instead, a cup of staunch Yorkshire tea steeled us for reemergence onto Whitby's wind-whipped esplanade.
Paul Dring
Prices correct at time of publication.