Breakfast at Alf's: a Dartmouth café with 30 years behind it

Lower Street runs just back from Dartmouth's harbour and ferry, and number 34 has been home to Café Alf Resco since it opened its iron gates on 1 April 1994. It is independent, family-run, and one of those places that locals treat as a meeting point while visitors are pointed towards it by everyone they ask.

Breakfast and brunch are what it does best. Expect things like poached eggs with smoked salmon, avocado on toast, a full English, berry bowls and a counter of homemade cakes, along with proper coffee and the occasional glass of fizz. Local tourism sources credit it with a place on a national newspaper's list of best breakfasts and with gold medals at the International Marmalade Awards. Some diners with coeliac disease have reported a dedicated gluten-free menu, so it's worth asking when you order.

It's open every day of the year, according to the café, from 7am until 2pm. That early start is useful: it gets busy at lunchtime and at weekends, and some visitors report queuing for a table. If you'd rather not wait, go early or on a weekday morning.

The café also has a flat and two rooms above it, and it lists live music at weekends. Stay the night and you can have breakfast downstairs.

Once you've eaten, the harbour and the ferry are a couple of minutes away on foot. If you're walking, Dartmouth is also where the South West Coast Path section from Torcross ends, which makes a breakfast here a very good reward for those 16 or so kilometres.

Landfall Editorial. Details compiled from public sources. Please check with the business before travelling.