NOEL Coward drank champagne for breakfast. Jane Austen tucked into bread rolls and butter. Charles Dickens - he wrote in one letter - enjoyed a slab beef bigger than his suitcase.

As a reporter on a budget, I can’t afford to sink a bottle of Moet before 9am or breakfast on beef. Rolls and butter are more in my price range.

But when I’m feeling extravagant I like to splash out on a cooked breakfast.

The bigger the better, as far as I’m concerned. I’m like a poor man’s Ron Swanson, the moustachioed boss in hit American TV sitcom Parks and Recreation who demands of one poor waiter: “I’m worried what you just heard was give me a lot of bacon and eggs. What I said was give me all the bacon and eggs you have.”

I’ve eaten my fair share of cooked breakfasts. To my mind the match of potato scone, black pudding, square sausage and egg is something they probably serve behind the pearly swing doors of St Peter’s caff.

I was curious to try the Bakers Café’s effort at a Full English.

I’d visited the Railway Village venue in August to speak to the charity converting the former pub into a community café. The Mechanics Institution Trust took the building on from Swindon Borough Council on a 25-year lease, turning the 150-year-old space into a light, bright café, with stripped wood floors and white walls.

Kim Glanville, a chef of 15 years, told me she was proud of her roast dinners. But it was the breakfasts that caught my eye.

At £6.95, the Bakers Breakfast is not the cheapest in Swindon. Tea was extra and served in a mug.

But it’s certainly a hearty meal. I ate mine around 9.30am. I next ate at 6pm.

For your £7 you get two slices of bacon, a couple of beautifully herby sausages, fried potatoes mushrooms, beans, two eggs and fried bread or toast. On some days the chef has bubble and squeak she can throw onto the plate too.

However, for me the highlight was the red and yellow tomatoes. They looked like they’d been slow roasted, glistening with juice and oozing colour.

If there’s one thing that brings the breakfast down in my eyes it’s the bread: cheap, sliced brown toast. If I’m paying the best part of £10 for a breakfast, I don’t want something I could buy in an Iceland freezer cabinet.

Inside, the café is lovely. Whitewash has turned this Irish bar that was once raided by the drugs squad into a light and airy spot.Mornings are the best time to sit in this place. The huge windows catch the sun as it streams in from above the Health Hydro.

While the chefs are professionals, it’s volunteers who staff the café. Service is a little halting, but the friendliness of the woman behind the counter makes up for it.

Will it become my new go-to place for a cooked breakfast? Probably not. The fry-ups cooked by my former housemate Paul remain the best in Swindon. But is it worth a peckish visit on a hungover Saturday? Without a doubt.

The Bakers Café is on Emlyn Square. Breakfasts £1.50 (toast) to £6.95 (Baker’s Breakfast). Open for breakfasts 8am-11am, Monday to Friday, 9am-11am on Saturday. For more, visit: www.facebook.com/pg/bakerscafe.swindon.