Full English
What it really means
A big cooked breakfast: bacon, sausages, eggs, baked beans, toast, mushrooms, tomatoes and often black pudding. Bacon, sausages and black pudding are usually pork, so tell the café if you do not eat pork.
Context, tips & common mistakes
The full English assembles bacon, sausages, eggs, baked beans, toast or fried bread, grilled tomato and mushrooms — with black pudding as the optional test of courage and hash browns as the modern addition purists dispute. Scotland adds tattie scones and square sausage to make a full Scottish; Ireland and Wales run their own versions. Cafés serve it all day ('all-day breakfast' is a beloved institution), and the classic venue is the unpretentious 'greasy spoon' café where it arrives with builder's tea.
When to deploy it: weekend mornings, celebrations, and the traditional hangover cure. Vegetarian and vegan versions are standard menu items now, not special requests. Practical warning for the uninitiated: a proper full English is a meal-and-a-half — plan no lunch, and treat the hotel-buffet version as a gentle introduction to the café real thing.