Real Eating Company
Located in the Southeast of England, our independent group of British cafes and coffee shops focus on
Established in 2004, the Real Eating Company is an independent café and coffee business that is shaped and driven by the people behind it. Their energy and entrepreneurial spirit has created the business that is working today – creating jobs for local people, sustaining local producers and bringing great food and drink to its customers whilst growing a dynamic, sustainable and commercially success
Start your weekend well, with a classic English Breakfast.
Served all day every day in most of our sites.
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Well, Hello Maidstone!
We're now open in King Street, Maidstone - our second Kent site, joining our sister site in Canterbury *waves*.
Do stop by for a proper coffee - we serve our own blend roasted for us every week.
We serve a Full English all day, every day, plus fresh food made by us every day including breakfast butties, traditional toasties and sweet treats.
We are passionately independent, and carefully source our produce from like-minded, independent businesses - just like ourselves.
We very much look forward to welcoming you!
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HAVE YOU SEEN OUR BUNS? 😍
Here is Francesca unloading a tray of freshly baked cinnamon buns . Have you tried one fresh out of the oven?? It’s a special experience, especially with a great coffee 😉
Our cinnamon buns are one of our best sellers, even through the summer. We bake them ourselves so they’re fresh when you buy. Our baker makes them just for us, to our special recipe.
I know a lot of bakeries and cafes say this kind of thing, but with us it’s really TRUE! 😀 We spent weeks refining the recipe with our baker and got them to sign an exclusivity arrangement. So you won’t find these great buns at Gail’s, Pret, Ole & Steen, Costa or Caffè Nero or anywhere else. And our regulars seem to have taken rather a shine to them.
The cinnamon bun fanaticism is down to my Scandi roots 🇳🇴. We ❤️ a good cinnamon bun and it has to be just right. Let us know what you think.
![Photos from Real Eating Company's post](https://img5.findglocal.com/489/715/705612474897154.jpg)
IT’S finally here!! 🇬🇧🇬🇧
The Coronation 🤴👑To all our customers, enjoy the day. If it’s not your thing, enjoy the bank holiday weekend 😉…and to all our amazing teams, what great displays you’ve put on in your shops. Amazing👏👏🇬🇧
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WELSH RAREBIT 😋….
Back in time when we ran fancy restaurants, our customers would often ask us if we could serve something simpler at lunch…something like Welsh Rarebit. It became a best seller.
So here we have our original Welsh Rarebit mix courtesy of Nancy, our head of food who was also our head chef back in the day.
The mix is made in house by each cafes, fresh every day. Mixed with zesty red onion and spread thickly on our freshly baked sourdough. Delicious! 🤩🤩
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TREAT YOURSELF 😋 ☕️….
To a freshly baked raisin snail this morning with your coffee. Why not? Because they’re delicious and Julianna has baked them. Julianna works with Lyra, our manager in Canterbury, and the rest of the amazing team there. They do an awesome job. Well known locally and loved by us and our Canterbury customers alike ❤️
If you’re in Canterbury on this wet, cold morning, pop in and say hi and we’ll brighten your day ☀️🙋♀️ ☕️
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LET’S CELEBRATE 🥂….
Happy International Women’s Day to all the women entrepreneurs out there, building and growing your businesses. You are absolute legends ❤️💪
Business nous, empathy, intuition, inner steel, graft, creativity - we can do it 👊
Something to think about….for every £1 of investment in the UK, female founder teams get less than 1p. All male founder teams get 89p. Mixed gender teams 10p. Why the hell are we so undervalued?? 🤨 (source British Business Bank UK VC & Female Founders Report)
But, that won’t stop us will it? 🤣 Love to all of you, from all of us . Go girl! ❤️
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😋FRESH BACON ROLL 🥓
Trialling today . Grilled British bacon in a freshly baked potato buttered roll. Heinz ketchup or HP brown sauce ready to go. Bacon sourced from our favourite Kent small business ❤️
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GRAB A DEAL….
And get our EARLY BIRD takeaway coffee (or tea) for £2.60 price until 11am Mon-Fri 🙌 ☕️
No T&Cs, no exclusions, same quality and care. And served with a friendly smile 🙂
![Photos from Swan Walk Horsham's post](https://img3.findglocal.com/744/197/5626809927441970.jpg)
We're looking forward to welcoming you in Swan Walk Horsham! 😊
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Breakfast is the most important meal of the day 🥓🍳🥐
It marks the beginning of something great: a day, week or a year.
We love breakfast, whether it’s a full English and it’s veggie version or something smaller like bacon butty, freshly baked morning croissants and raisin snails or orange juice.
If you love it too, you can find us in Chichester, Portsmouth, Horsham, Canterbury, Cambridge and London.
Let’s start something great together!
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Happy New Year!
We want to send you all a massive thank you for your continued support through 2022, an interesting and eventful year to say the least. It gave us new challenges post-Covid and as a small business, we had to adapt, again.
But all through this, we have felt the strength of our customer's support as we did over the last few years - for our independent business, our people and what we stand for. Being a part of your local high street or community and feeling the support for our small, independent business means the world to all of us. It carries us through.
We hope you get to celebrate the arrival of 2023 with friends and family and have a marvellous time. If, on the other hand, you're solo and would like a little bit of companionship, we'd love to see you on New Years Day too.
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The classic mac’n’cheese 🧀
Creamy and filling, perfect for a quick pit stop while strolling through town.
Either have it to take away or treat yourself to a relaxing moment and have it to eat in.
Have you tried it with our crispy bacon topping? 🥓
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🎄✨ Merry Christmas ✨🎄
We wish you a very merry Christmas and wonderful holidays spend in your favourite way! 🎅
Please observe our holiday opening hours and we are looking forward to seeing you during this festive time.
Doing the last shopping bits before Christmas? 🎄
Come visit us for a quick bite and caffeine fix in between.
Niamh and the team in Cambridge will also happily accept the Love Cambridge gift card 🎁
Love Cambridge The Lion Yard Shopping Centre
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❄️ It’s the most wonderful time of the year ❄️
The Christmas Bacon, Brie and Cranberry toastie is available in all our shops for a limited time only.
Doesn't it look delicious? Come try it today - goes great with a Gingerbread Latte or Terry's Hot Chocolate Orange.
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🎁 Gift cards in Chichester 🎁
Not sure what to gift for Christmas? A gift card can be your perfect solution.
We have recently started offering the Chichester BID gift card, which you can use in both Chichester cafés, on East Street and North Street.
This way they can always treat themselves to their favourite cup of coffee or cake.
![Photos from Real Eating Company's post](https://img4.findglocal.com/319/438/5569285813194382.jpg)
Santa Claus is coming to town! 🎅
He will be in our store in Canterbury the whole of next week bringing the Christmas cheer at the Breakfast with Santa event for children and Santa Paws with four-legged friends.
Thank you to our lovely guests for the photos! 🥰
While Breakfast with Santa is already sold out, there are still some spots available for the Santa Paws. If you wish to book, contact Whitefriars, Canterbury
My Canterbury Canterbury BID
Why not treat yourself to one of our deluxe hot chocolates? ✨
We use single origin real chocolate (not a powder in sight) with proper real whipped cream (not the artificial stuff).
Oh, and for a limited time only we have a Terry's chocolate orange version too if you fancy something a bit sweeter.
![Photos from Real Eating Company's post](https://img4.findglocal.com/966/284/5537934509662846.jpg)
⭐️SUPERSTAR ALERT⭐️…
Meet Niamh, barista extraordinaire plus super multi-tasker and just a lovely person working in our Cambridge Lion Yard team. This is what a customer had to say about her this week:
Came in looking for a warm drink, left with a warm heart. Niamh served me and helped put the pep back in my step. As cheesy as this review sounds, the service really was amazing.
Isn’t that great? Kind words from a customer and innate hospitality from Niamh, making someone feel a little bit better with their day.
Fitzbillies chelsea buns were promptly dispatched to Niamh (an iconic Cambridge bakery run by entrepreneur Alison Wright and well worth a visit if you’re in Cambridge) as a small token of our appreciation.
🎄Merry Christmas 🤶
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🍲 Tackling food waste by saving wonky vegetables 🍲
Did you know that food waste is one of the biggest reasons for global warming?
Anticipating the right amount of food production in hospitality businesses is always a challenge. Food waste can be a common issue. That's one of the reasons why we love the Rescue Soup Range. They use wonky vegetables that are not perfect for supermarket shelves and turn them into a bespoke range of soups for our customers.
Made in small batches, just for us, they're absolutely delicious too.
Curd & Cure
I don't want a lot for Christmas...
Honestly, the Orange, Cranberry and Pistachio bun is all we really need during this festive time 🍊😋
Have you tried it yet? Let us know below!
![Photos from Curd & Cure's post](https://img4.findglocal.com/773/075/5523922047730759.jpg)
We love working with local businesses who can provide us with great produce for our customers. When we opened in Canterbury, we started working with Laura and the team at Curd & Cure, a like-minded, entrepreneurial company.
The Rescue Range of soups uses unwanted wonky vegetables that don’t make the supermarket grade or just vegetables that are in a glut. Rather than go to waste, they go into some very tasty soups like the classic Pea and Ham and Broccoli and Cheddar. We’re thrilled to stock such delicious soup as well as supporting a local business and saving good food from going to waste.
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🎁 Canterbury Gift Card 🎁
Did you know you can use the My Canterbury gift card at our store in Whitefriars, Canterbury? Lyra and the team would be delighted to welcome you.
A perfect gift for coffee aficionados ☕
More local gift card options soon to come also to our other shops.
Canterbury BID
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🥓 Full English – the all time Real Eating classic 🍳
When it comes to a great breakfast we never compromise on quality and try to secure the best ingredients we can get our hands on.
With free range eggs, Cumberland sausages, smoked back bacon, Heinz baked beans, fresh tomato, mushroom, sourdough toast and British hand-churned butter, we guarantee a proper builder’s breakfast!
We also have a veggie version and what’s best – it is available all day!
🥪 Freshly made toasties 🥪
All our bloomer sandwiches and toasties are made fresh on site by the hands of our fabulous team members.
In the video our wonderful Juliana from Canterbury.
Sold (and prepared) in all our sites: London, Chichester, Horsham, Gunwharf Quays, Canterbury and Cambridge.
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IMPORTANT THINGS IN LIFE ….
Are family, friends and your local community don’t you think? Day in, day out - they carry you through, the good times and the bad.
Here’s a great snap of Fon and her Chichester North St team taken a few months ago. A spontaneous captured moment of teamwork and happiness that will hopefully lift your heart a little. Fon and her team are well known in their local Chichester community 🥰
Our top tips for this weekend: switch off the news, look up at the blue sky (for a change) and spend time with friends and family. And if you need a warm welcome and somewhere to rest your weary head, you know where to find us ❤️
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☕️ What better way to start the day than with a freshly made cup of coffee? ☕️
Which is your favourite? Let us know in the comments 😉
Do not miss out on our Early Bird coffee offer Monday to Friday until 9am. You can find us in Chichester, Portsmouth, Horsham, Cambridge, Canterbury and London.
An independent group of cafés on the South Cost
Established in 2004, the Real Eating Company is an independent café business that is shaped and driven by the people behind it. Their energy and entrepreneurial spirit has created the business that is working today – creating jobs for local people, sustaining local producers and bringing great food and drink to its customers whilst growing a dynamic, sustainable and commercially successful company that will last.
We have Real Eating Company sites in Chichester, Horsham, Lewes, Salisbury and two in Bournemouth and Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth.
To learn more about us and our locations please visit www.real-eating.co.uk
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Opening Hours
Monday | 08:00 - 18:00 |
Tuesday | 08:00 - 18:00 |
Wednesday | 08:00 - 18:00 |
Thursday | 08:00 - 18:00 |
Friday | 08:00 - 18:00 |
Saturday | 08:00 - 18:00 |
Sunday | 09:00 - 17:00 |