Well, The Farm Cafe has now been done. Very friendly staff I must say. Disabled access – forget it. The tables were so crammed in, even the waitress had difficulties getting round. BLT was £3.20 and cut into 4 triangles. Unfortunately, I think this was to disguise there was only 1 piece of bacon in the whole sandwich. If there were two, they must have been the smallest cuts I’ve ever come across as 2 of my quarters had no more than a finger nail amount in them. However, it was tasty bacon. Shame the bread was only medium sliced as the sandwich was flimsy and fell apart easily despite it being cut into 4! The brown bread was nice but again, could have been thicker. I wasn’t sure if it was the salad that made the bread soggy or if it had been prepared on a wet board. My mates’ was the same but I wasn’t going to say about it at the time or they would have been put off! It amazed us as to how many people were using the place as it’s not exactly on the beaten track so unless you know it’s there, it’s easily passed. No farm shop so a bit of a letdown. Would I return? Probably not as I like to have bacon in my sandwich but if it was a toss up between Holme Grange and there, it would have to be there.

   Just in case anyone happens to revisit this page - just seen this: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186363-d3800667-Reviews-Cafe_YOLK-Reading_Berkshire_England.html

Might have to pop down some time, looks promising.

   One place I have always been able to get a good bacon sarnie is from the Downshire Golf club. Reasonable price, fantastic friendly service and I always have to wrap the other half up to take home as its so filling. Worth going even if you don’t play golf (which I don’t!)

   I too like a bacon sandwich; I prefer it to be made from ordinary white sliced bread, buttered and with smoked bacon. I can recommend the Market cafe in Bracknell's market for exactly this type of sandwich.

If I were to make one at home, I would use some un-cut bread from a good baker (or make my own). I would take four rashers of dry cured, smoked bacon and fry it in butter and olive oil along with some nice, sliced mushrooms. I would use the same pan to lightly fry the bread. I would then eat it with a good cup of tea and then wish I had made two.......I must go now and make one for my luch.......There goes the diet!!!

   Haha timespassing - please feel free to contribute! Thanks for another warning about Holme Grange. I certainly won't be wasting £4 on one there. It really is a shame as I had high hopes for it, and do like a wander around the village every now and again (my other half uses the seamstress there who is very good).

Buttered bread is a must for me. The taste of hot bacon melting the butter on a sandwich - mm!

   At the risk of intruding into the ongoing saga of HKs and Alex' Quest for the Perfect Bacon Buttie, if I'd realised we were going down this road I could have warned you about Holme Grange. I like the idea of this small ensemble of shops, it is like a small market but with rather higher prices.

Back to the bacon buttie. When I visited the bacon was dry and tasteless. It had the taste and feel of something that had been cooked, refridgerated, and re-warmed. I thought the default for bread was to be buttered but mine was dry. Not the worst example I have eaten but close.

   Judging by this article and all of our comments, I think a blog would be more than warranted :)

Happy eating / searching and I look forward to visiting you very soon.

   Alex, fear not for suggesting HG. If we don’t try these places then we won’t know will we. One would have thought with the rather plush looking centre and expensive looking cakes on offer, along with charging almost £4, they would be able to produce a fresh sandwich rather than something that looked like the bacon had been sitting in a dry Bain Marie for the past 4 hours. I must be a rare breed because if I had seen that bacon, there is no way on this earth I would have served it to a customer let alone ate it myself. Do these people not realise how much trade they must lose through having staff who obviously find it difficult to understand that if you dish up filth, then they won’t get repeat custom. I can perhaps understand a little more what PR was saying about bread quality but when the sandwich comes out and where it’s been cut in half, the bread has just squished and not sprung back then fair comment but even foam bread has a bit of spring in it! Will try for Binfield/Wokingham/Warfield Cafe/Farm next Sunday!

   The Look-Out does have a cafe but with the price for parking, it would make the cheapest of sarnies expensive so if anyone else knows if they do a good sarnie, please let us know. I've suggested to Becky that we have a section on here for a bacon sarnie blog!

   HK - cheers for the update! Sorry for advising you what looks to have been a not so great experience :(

It's a shame about the Holme Grange 'Shoppe'. It's a lovely little village and it should be a nice place for a spot of tea / coffee and sandwich, especially in the summer with the central piazza area. I think I'll avoid it given that, and for just short of £4 there are certainly better places out there.

The Farm Cafe is quite hard to find - I actually doesn't look to be part of the farm, I'm not sure. It isn't in Binfield per se but probably more Wokingham. If you go to the roundabout where the Warren pub is, and head West (i.e. if you are coming from Binfield, it is straight on). About a mile down that road there will be a sign to the Farm Cafe and other businesses on the left, along with lots of 'cars left at owners risk' signs - didn't give a good first impression!

   Well, I am back from my Sunday jaunt and although I tried to find Binfield Farm Shop, my car obviously went the wrong way and it remained indiscoverable (yes, yes, most would have looked up the address but I thought Binfield was that small it surely couldn’t be missed!). So, I landed up at Holme Grange “Shoppe”. The service was pretty diabolical and took an age even though there were 4 members of staff stood there. No prices on any of their cakes either so alarm bells should have been ringing as that’s generally a sign that one can’t afford them. On asking if they do a BLT I was looked at in an odd way and told they do put salad on the side. I asked if said salad could go in the sandwich and that appeared to be acceptable. I asked for crispy bacon with brown bread. Oh deary me! £3.95 for 2 bits of stone cold, dried out bacon which resembled Biltong. The bread could only have been Sainsbury’s value bread and the margarine was a blob right in the middle. I could say the bacon had melted the rest but as stated, it was stone cold and drier than the sole on my shoes. I had to keep opening the other half of my sandwich just to check I hadn’t entered a strange time zone and was dreaming about what I was attempting to eat. The coffee was also that cold I had to return it as I could hold my finger in it without any discomfort. Alas, no farm shop so no homemade burgers for us today and as for my return to their “Shoppe”, I very much doubt I will ever go there again as their prices for what they serve are extortionate. While I am writing, I would say that wheelchair access would have been difficult as they have squeezed that many tables and chairs in, even we found it difficult to navigate round.

   Ps - the Farm Cafe unfortunately doesn't appear to come with a nice farm shop unless I didn't see it - more a mini industrial estate with a pet shop, salon, plants and ornaments store etc.

   And another one I haven't yet tried for breakfast (only coffees on the way to the station) - giggling spring on Shute end in Wokingham. Really friendly and caring owner from what I remember.

   If you'd like to find a greasy spoon, I think 'kebab extra' in Wokingham does this as well. Haven't been yet though I'm afraid (though I do have a strange addiction to cheap burgers from greasy spoons, must be from having several hundred of them at Uni!)

   I’m not sure where to go now!! I will get in the car and drive and see which one I come across first! I try to go to places that aren’t one of the big boys nor a franchise to do my mystery bacon sarnie shopping (I was a mystery shopper years ago!). This is the only way to be sure you’re not eating the “standardised” mush that’s dealt out in many places. I have been known to eat a Mac D’s bacon roll and on the whole, as a desperate measure, it does fill a hole and can be better than some outlets. I love the greasy spoon type places as they tend to show a little more care and love in the preparation. The whole thing about farm shop cafes is that one can get to blow even more money on the different variety of goods in their shop. Saying that, I bought 6 slices of Lockey Farm smoked back bacon the other day (£4.30) and if I have to be honest, I didn’t rate it at all. Very disappointing to say the least. I don’t know what bacon they use in their sarnies but what I bought was twice the size per slice of what I found in mine when I had one there. At 70p per slice, the only luxury I found was that it had rind! I do rate their fillet steak though! Will update once I’ve done the wholesalers and been for my Sunday afternoon jaunt!