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Wales Online
11-08-2025
- Business
- Wales Online
We tried a Home Bargains café and couldn't believe the price of a pot of tea
We tried a Home Bargains café and couldn't believe the price of a pot of tea One writer recently paid a visit to see if it was worth the hype Home Bargains Café in Warrington (Image: Manchester Family / MEN) If the prospect of a trip to Home Bargains always fills you with a certain level of excitement, then the idea of a café on site might just be your cherry on the cake, like it was for one writer at the Manchester Evening News recently. During the visit to the Warrington store, this writer Emma Gill wrote: "Like its rival B&M, you never quite know what you'll be coming home with, but chances are you'll have found it cheaper than anywhere else. So the chance to try out its café left me a bit giddier than I should have been on a Wednesday afternoon and I was certainly more cheerful than my 16-year-old, who like most teenagers these days aren't happy until they've splashed the cash (my cash) at the likes of Starbucks and Costa". A huge new Home Bargains has not long opened in Wales with its cafe too. The writer continues: "I guessed it would be busy, especially during the school holidays, but we were lucky to get a table as customers - a real mix of age groups - took up nearly every seat in the place. Thankfully a little table for two came free so my daughter took a pew while I went to peruse the menu behind the counter and see what was on offer inside the fridge. Toasties are £2.75 (Image: Manchester Family / MEN) There was more than I expected, with a range of toasties, focaccia sandwiches, box sandwiches, wraps and salads on display. The board behind the counter lists more products, with the likes of breakfast rolls and toasted items including teacakes, crumpets and toast for £1. In a separate display cabinet there's the sweet stuff - pastries, donuts, cookies, big slices of cake, you name it - and if you're after a quick grab-and-go, there's a tray full of sausage rolls priced 50p each. Home Bargains Cafe in Warrington (Image: Manchester Family / MEN) And I have to say the other prices are impressive too. The ham and cheese toastie I ordered might not quite be the standard of Starbucks, but it was well worth the £2.75 price. And I couldn't believe that a pot of tea was just £1. I say pot, it was small one, with not much more than one brew in it, but it's rare you can get a tea for a quid these days. My daughter's vanilla milkshake was £1.99 - they do chocolate, strawberry and banana too as well as smoothies for the same price - while a latte, cappuccino or Americano will set you back £1.59 for a regular or £1.79 for a large. A hot chocolate or iced coffee are also £1.79. Home Bargains Café in Warrington (Image: Manchester Family / MEN) Despite her initial reluctance to be there - a trip to Home Bargains with your mum hardly competes with a Starbucks trip with friends - she was more than happy with her £1.99 sausage barm, even more so that the ketchup sachets were Heinz. The donut was pretty standard and you can't complain with the 59p price for those, and my slice of carrot cake, at £1.49, was basic and a little dry, but still worth the money. From superstar gigs to cosy pubs, find out What's On in Wales by signing up to our newsletter here Our whole lunch consisting of pot of tea, milkshake, toastie, sausage barm, donut and carrot cake came to £9.81, which I'd say is pretty impressive. The lunch bill for Emma came to £9.81 (Image: Manchester Family / MEN) And the staff were super efficient too. Our table wasn't clear when we first arrived, but that's mostly on the previous customers who hadn't shifted it before leaving, so I just took it over to the trolleys they have, similar to IKEA. At the counter itself, it was like a military operation with order numbers being shouted once they were ready. I've been in much pricier eateries with service nowhere near as thorough as this one. Just 43 Home Bargains stores currently have a cafe inside them, including the branch at Boulevard Retail Park in Speke, Liverpool and others in Gillmoss and Norris Green, also Liverpool. If the popularity of Warrington's Winwick Road cafe is anything to go by, I don't think it will be long until we see a lot more. The sooner the better if you ask me. Article continues below
Metro
22-05-2025
- Business
- Metro
I ate at the Home Bargains Café — an ‘immense' 99p treat blew me away
There's a beeping sound that keeps going off, the kind of noise you'd expect to hear on a hospital ward. But the incessant sound isn't coming from a heart rate monitor – it's an oven, signalling that a cheese toastie is ready to be served. I'm sitting in a Home Bargains Café in West Drayton at 1pm on a Monday, and that beeping hasn't let up for half an hour, thanks to the constant stream of customers ordering hot food. There are 16 tables in the place, and right now, 11 of them have are occupied, with a queue of people still waiting to order. Before this week, I wasn't even aware that discount retailer Home Bargains had cafés, and for good reason – they've only existed for a few months, and there are only a handful of them dotted around the UK. There might be more than 600 Home Bargains stores nationwide, but only 34 of these have a café: 27 in England, three in Scotland, two in Wales and two in Northern Ireland. Online, the cafés have received rave reviews, with fans hailing them 'amazing' and 'a lovely place'. On Facebook, Sam Stratford praised them as a 'good option for a cheap meal', adding that he thought the scones were 'immense'. Others claimed they were 'obsessed' with the cheese toasties, while reviewer Grumpy Northern Foodie rated his breakfast a '10/10'. Laura Melissa was also impressed, sharing that the cheese toasties taste 'really similar to M&S ones'. After comments like these, I knew I needed to head down to give it a try, and see if the little-known cafés actually live up to the hype – and spoiler alert: it's pretty decent. Sure, it's noisy, but according to the café team leader, Cristian Troanca, that's just because I visited at one of the busiest periods of the day. Lunch times and weekends are peak times, he tells me, and there's often a bit of a rush in the morning too, as people pop in for breakfast. I'm immediately surprised by the wide selection, from crumpets with Nutella or jam, to pepperoni pizza paninis and hot dogs. However, not all Home Bargains café menus are made equally. 'What's on the menu varies depending on the area you're in. Outside of London, the menus are different,' Cristian shares. 'You can get things like beans on toast, cheese on toast and soup outside of London.' The most popular items on the menu in West Drayton at the moment are the £1.99 milkshakes and smoothies, as well as the new southern fried chicken wrap (£2.75) – but sadly I didn't get a chance to try any of these as they were out of stock, proof perhaps of just how popular these cafés are among those in the know. This is a wider issue But Cristian adds that all the cafés have been experiencing stock issues, which he's hopeful will soon be resolved. I asked him what else is commonly ordered and he pointed me towards the breakfast rolls (bacon or sausage, £1.99) the toasties and the selection of sweet treats. Customers apparently love the cakes and usually there are four different ones to choose from, but today only two are available – cherry and almond (79p a slice) and lemon drizzle cake (£1.49 a slice). There's a selection of pastries which Cristian says get cooked the night before. This includes chocolate twists, cinnamon whirls, doughnuts, cookies and croissants, most of which cost 89p. I opted for the four cheese toastie (£2.75) and one of the fruit scones (99p). I paired this with a pot of tea and my total came to £4.75 – a number I double checked twice on the receipt. Less than £5 for lunch in London???! Unbelievable. I'll admit, I didn't have high hopes when I saw the toastie came from a packet, but the sandwich that was plopped on my plate looked more appetising than ones I've had from the likes of Costa or Starbucks, where you'd be paying more than double the price. The top boasted a beautifully golden layer of molten cheese that made my mouth water, but sadly the bottom of toastie was a little soggy, presumably from where it had been defrosted and reheated. (Cristian explained everything that is kept in the fridges is frozen and defrosted the night before.) In terms of the taste, this is touted as the 'ultimate' cheese toastie, but I'd say that's a bit of a stretch. It is a solid cheese toastie though! There's no impressive cheese pull, but it definitely hits the spot and overall I was pretty happy with it for the price. As for the scone, it appeared a little hard and dry, but surprisingly the texture was perfect. Nice and soft on the inside, with a slight crisp on the outside where it had been heated up. It's a little on the small side, but for 99p, I wasn't too bothered. I do have to warn scone purists though – they're served here with cream and jam, but there's no clotted cream in sight. Instead, they come with *shudders* squirty cream. I was prepared for it, as I'd seen a picture online, but I'm sure this will really trigger some people. It's not traditional, but it's tasty all the same. Honestly, I was blown away by how much I enjoyed it. You can get food at the café any time of the day during the store's opening hours. We've already heard that the mornings and early afternoon are busiest, with the products being restocked after the lunch rush at about 1:30pm – so if you're worried about them running out of your favourite snack, this could be the time to visit. Those that want to enjoy a cup of tea and slice of cake in a calmer atmosphere might be better off waiting until the last 60 minutes of the day though as 'it's very quiet between 4pm and 5pm,' Cristian says. There's also another big perk to visiting at this time, because at 3:30pm each afternoon the team slash the price of everything in the pastry counter by 50% – so you'll be able to nab yourself a treat for less than 50p. As the baked goods only have a shelf life of 24 hours and are cooked the night before, the staff reduce it by half price (or more depending on how much is left) to avoid food waste. 'Some people come in everyday at the same time to take advantage of the bargains,' Cristian reveals. At midday on a Monday, the place is packed with elderly couples drinking coffee and tucking into bacon rolls. There are also mums with young children drinking Fruit Shoots, and friends meeting up for a cup of tea and a good natter after doing their weekly shop. In one corner seat, a woman is having a nap, tucked up under her fluffy coat like a blanket, an empty plate on the table in front of her. She's clearly killing time as she waits for her phone to charge. Businessmen in suits make an appearance while I'm there, but they don't stay long – grabbing a drink and toastie to take away with them. In a few hours, the café will be filled with kids and students, according to Cristian, who says youngsters love to drop by after school for one of the milkshakes. 'We also have our regulars,' he says. 'Some people come in everyday just to visit the café and they order the same thing every day too.' And what is it these people are coming back time and time again for? The breakfast sandwiches. People weren't wrong when they said the Home Bargains Cafés were good value – you could feed an entire family of four for a little more £10, which is practically unheard of these days. More Trending Yes, it's all rather basic stuff, but the taste is actually pretty decent considering the cost. It's not going to be my go-to lunch spot, but if I was hungry and in the area, I'd definitely eat there again. View More » When budgets are getting ever tighter, t's great to have options like this where people can eat out without breaking the bank and leave with their bellies satisfactorily full. Do you have a story to share? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@ MORE: More pensioners will now be eligible for winter fuel payments MORE: 9 best BBQs and pizza ovens from Dunelm ideal for this bank holiday weekend MORE: 'Glorious' dessert chain is set to open 10 new restaurants across UK
