Head Chef Cafe, 173 Farnham Road, Slough

To refer to 'Head Chef' on Farnham Road as a greasy spoon seems a little ungenerous. Technically, that is exactly what it is - cheap, cheerful, unpretentious and specialising in food of the fried variety. However, it is clear that effort has been made to make the interiors look relatively plush (and as it only opened two months ago - they are still looking pretty good). I'd only visited once before - for an emergency cup of tea whilst waiting for an emergency locksmith. On that occasion I had found it overly bright and slightly loud for 7pm on a Monday, but upon returning for a recovery fry up late on Saturday morning, the atmopshere was far better. There's a large amount of seating and the place was pleasantly full. We'd already checked the menu from the outside as we had to ensure that Rachael's one pre-requisite for a full english breakfast - hash browns - would be met.

We spotted 'Set 3' and we were satisfied, and upon seeing the sheer size of breakfasts that the other diners were tucking into, I was glad I was hungry!

Service was brisk and efficient. Breakfast came with toast and tea or coffee. Beverages arrived very promptly - toast soon afterwards (it turns out white and buttered was the default. I found this slighly amusing, but I liked how no-nonsense it was. I realised that there was little point in ordering a massive fry up if you were going to start being precious about that type of bread you wanted or whether you wanted your toast buttered!)

Rachael, using her hotel manager mentality, started timing how long it would take for breakfast to arrive, now that we had her toast. We both expressed our pleasure at how short a time that was - the toast was still lovely and warm as we dunked it into our beautifully runny fried eggs! Portions were very generous, and the hash browns were excellent!

Atmosphere - Not too loud or bright for our hangovers. A good number of other diners. Pleasant interiors and lovely toilets!

Service - Very efficient but could have been more friendly.

Value for money - £5.95 for a large breakfast with tea and toast was fair, but not as cheap as you might expect. As the prices had been handwritten on the menu, I couldn't tell whether they had put their prices up or down after opening, but they were advertising deals on breakfast during the week.

Overall: 8/10 - provided exactly the no-nonsense breakfast needed after the night before.