The Galley breakfast: plates don't lie

We had a lovely breakfast at The Galley on Sunday morning. There were four of us, and we just about made it — there was already a queue at the door when we arrived, and we were told we were among the last to be seated for breakfast. Breakfast runs daily from 10 until 12, and after that the kitchen switches to the lunch menu, so the timing mattered. We had a table ready within ten minutes, which felt like a result.

The Galley is in Downings, the next village along from us, so it is genuinely on the doorstep if you are staying with us. It is the kind of place where the queue tells you something before you even get inside.

There are two ways in. The café itself is a proper sit-down room, which is where we ate, and there is also a takeaway hatch under the same name a little further along, next door to the Old Sea Dog — coffee and pastries to collect if you would rather keep walking.

I had the Galley Fry. The sausages and the bacon were of noticeably good quality — proper flavour, not just filler — and my empty plate is probably the clearest review I can offer. Grant ordered what he thought was the Small Galley Fry and received what turned out to be the full one. He was not complaining. He got through almost all of it, leaving about a quarter slice of toast as evidence.

Nihal had the mini breakfast and thought it was equally good. She was disappointed that her plate had no tomato, but I donated a slice of mine and she ended up with two, which seemed to make up for it. She had tea. Ellis went for the pancake stack with bacon and a poached egg, which looked the part. She found it generous to the point of being almost too much, though she did very well with it — only some of the bacon defeated her in the end.

I took photos of the aftermath, which I think says more than any score out of ten. The plates came back largely clear. The only things left were the bits people physically ran out of room for — a triangle of toast here, a couple of rashers there. That, to me, is a good breakfast.

One thing worth knowing, though it belongs to the lunch menu rather than the breakfast one: the beef is their own. It comes from a grass-fed herd at Treanavinney Farm outside Letterkenny, which is not something most places can say.

If you are staying at Ruby's Cottage or either of the cabins and you want a proper start to a Sunday morning, The Galley in Downings is the answer. Just make sure you get there before noon.