Whitehall Garden Centre restaurant, Lacock

Ok, I admit it, I secretly quite enjoy a Sunday afternoon at a garden centre. Not that I’m particularly interested in gardening, plants etc, but these days, garden centres tend to have a great selection of housey/gift bits and bobs, decent farm shops and a good range of cake in the café! 

A few of our houseplants were looking decidedly worse for wear and we had nothing much planned for a wet Sunday afternoon, so we decided to pop along to Whitehall Garden Centre for a potter. Having skipped lunch, we decided to head straight to the restaurant to find something to eat.  The restaurant is fairly standard for a garden centre – fairly large, with lots of fairly cheap, modern wooden tables and chairs. There are large conservatory-type windows overlooking the outside plant section of the centre, so the restaurant is light and airy. As you would expect on a rainy Sunday afternoon, it was busy and most of the tables were filled.

Although we were thinking about lunch, the range of paninis was fairly limited and didn’t really tempt me, the only sandwiches available were packaged and, as we had a big roast planned for the evening, I didn’t want something more substantial, so after much deliberation, we decided just to have a slice of cake. There was a good range of cakes available, including about 4 different gluten-free options. I immediately spotted the one for EHH – an enormous hunk of caramel-covered flapjack. After deliberating between carrot cake, Victoria sponge and apple cake, I decided to go for the apple and cinnamon cake. We also opted for the standard pot of tea for two. In all, the bill came to just under £10, which was fairly respectable.

The tea was standard tea bags in a fairly decent-sized pot. It didn’t come with any additional hot water and the milk jug was fairly small, but the staff were very happy to top up the hot water and provide more milk, when asked. EHH really enjoyed his huge piece of caramel-covered flapjack – it was way too sweet for my tastes but he loved it. My apple and cinnamon cake was rather disappointing: I expect apple cake to be very moist and fruity, this was really quite dry and lacked flavour. The cinnamon icing was too sweet and rather overpowered the rest of the cake.

In all, the restaurant is acceptable but not exceptional. We’d probably pop in again if we were back shopping at the garden centre, but wouldn’t visit specifically for the restaurant.

The Bridge Café @ The Avon Gorge Hotel, Bristol

Clifton Suspension Bridge (not taken from the Avon Gorge Hotel)

Having had a quick visit to Clifton Village back in December, I’d wanted to come back for a proper potter around the many independent shops for a while.  Having taken the day off for my birthday, it seemed like a great opportunity to visit. It was another beautiful frosty, sunny day in Clifton, although the bitter cold did mean that we didn’t spend quite as long wandering around as we may have done otherwise!  Clifton offers quite a few different tea and coffee shops, but, wanting something a bit special, we decided to walk a bit further up to the Bridge Café at the Avon Gorge Hotel, which offers beautiful views out over the Clifton Suspension Bridge. 

The entrance to the café is very understated and not very inspiring, but, once inside, the rooms are modern and classy. It was quiet, with only one other table occupied – possibly other people were put off by the cold, or it’s just not that known for afternoon tea. We sat on a table next to the windows, with great views, although a little chilly, which made us realise why the other table had chosen to sit back next to the open fire! There is a great outdoor space with lots of tables overlooking the fantastic views – this would be a fantastic place in the summer.

The afternoon tea menu was a little disappointing – I think that for somewhere with such a great location, they could draw many more people in if the menu was more exciting. I get the feeling that the café is more set up for lunch, with afternoon tea offered as a bit of an after-thought. The afternoon tea they offered only included two types of cake – West Country apple cake and Drambuie fruit cake, which didn’t particularly tempt me.  The only other cake available was their daily special, which, on the day we visited, was coffee and walnut. As we were eating out that evening and the menu wasn’t particularly inspiring, we decided not to do the whole afternoon tea option: I opted for the coffee and walnut cake and EHH chose to have the West Country apple cake and the Drambuie fruit cake (which was an option on the menu – he wasn’t just being piggy!).  We both chose to have lattes rather than tea (I figured that tea and coffee cake would be a strange combination!).  My latte came (as it all lattes should!) in a proper latte glass and was delicious, although it could have been hotter. My coffee and walnut cake was moist and tasty – reminding me how much I do like this type of cake (I don’t often make them as EHH doesn’t like coffee cake). EHH enjoyed his fruit cake and apple cake – although both were fairly small portions. The West Country apple cake was quite unusual – it was very dense, more like a pudding than a cake, but did have a nice flavour. His cakes also came served with three small chocolate truffles, which was a nice touch – these were delicious: very rich and velvety.

The staff were very pleasant but the service was really rather slow – particularly considering there were so few people there. There was quite a long gap between my cake arriving and EHH’s arriving, to the point where we thought they had forgotten about his order.

Overall, I felt that this café was a little disappointing as it could be so much better – the location is amazing but the choice of cake was limited, the cakes were ok but not mind-blowing and the service wasn’t quite up to standard.  Although it would be lovely in the summer to sit outside, there are lots of other options for tea and cake in Clifton and I’m not that tempted to return to this one.  

Cordial and Grace tea-rooms, Clifton Village

Last weekend, the pretty Georgian shopping quarter of Clifton Village was bathed in frosty sunlight and looking at its best – definitely a good choice for a stroll and morning coffee with my visiting family.  After a potter over the Clifton Bridge and a bit of window shopping around a few of the fantastic independent boutiques, it was time for a cup of tea and a bite to eat. Unsurprisingly, many of Clifton’s coffee shops were busy and, as there were five of us (Mum, my aunt (R), my brother (D) and his girlfriend (J)), it was a little difficult to find somewhere to seat us all. 

Although a little understated from the outside – possibly accounting for why they were not quite as busy as other places – once inside, Cordial and Grace tea-rooms are bright and modern with a fashionably kitsch feel.  They are a sewing café - apparently following a trend in Paris and Berlin and catering for the increasing market of crafters – and hire sewing machines by the hour as well as holding a wide variety of sewing workshops. 

There was a good variety of cakes available, including three types of mince pies, three different cream teas (including a savoury option), a chocolate and clementine marble cake, apricot and yoghurt cake, peanut butter brownies and home-made cookies. We loved that they had little tasters of a couple of the cakes and a taste of the apricot and yoghurt cake tempted me, J and R. The cake was a decent sized slice and lovely: moist, full of flavour and not-too-sweet – great for a mid-morning snack. D went for a peanut butter brownie – he was slightly disappointed by the size (definitely a girl-sized portion!) but not by the taste – he allowed me a crumb and it was rich, peanutty and delicious. 

I loved that the tea came served in mis-matched teacups and saucers – very fitting with the overall atmosphere of the tea-rooms. The tea itself was proper leaf tea and came with a very cute little egg timer – to let you know when the tea had brewed correctly! D had a big mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows, Mum had a latte and J had a Jasmine tea, which were all good. R ordered a white Americano but it came as a black Americano, but she decided to just use some of the milk provided with my tea, rather than asking for it to be changed.

Overall, I was impressed with this cute little café. Not sure if I’d return with EHH, but I’d definitely bring a couple of my girl friends – who would love it! I’ll definitely be back to Clifton in the near future though – I hadn’t been for a while and I’d love to have a bit more time (without a shopping-averse brother) to potter around all of the brilliant independent shops up there.

White Row Cafe at White Row Farm

Heading home from Heathrow after a fab week in Morocco (including eating lots of cake – reviews to follow!), we decided to pop into White Row Cafe for a bite of lunch.

Having driven past many, many times, we discovered this cafe a few months ago and popped in for a slice of cake and cup of tea, which were fantastic. The cafe is in a really convenient location on the A36 and is part of a small farm complex with a large farm shop (including fresh fish counter and butcher), florist and gift shop, and fish and chip shop. The farm shop won Best Farm Shop in Bath in September this year. It’s got a great outdoor space, including picnic tables, play stuff for kids and farm animals to take a look at.

Visiting on a Wednesday lunchtime, we were surprised how busy the place was – it’s a fairly large cafe and we were lucky to get the last free table. It was filled with a wide variety of people – families, couples, friends of all ages. Despite this, the service was quick and friendly.

The lunch menu had fairly standard cafe options – soups, sandwiches, baguettes, paninis, jacket potatoes, omelettes and a daily specials board. They take pride in using their own produce or that from local named suppliers wherever possible. Feeling cold and hungry after a fairly long car journey, I opted for a jacket potato with prawns (about £6), which came served with a side salad and coleslaw. The jacket potato was huge, with a nice crispy skin, and there was a decent serving of prawns in Marie Rose sauce – which I couldn’t actually finish (so handed on over to the EHH). EHH had a Coronation Chicken baguette (again about £6), which he declared tasty and the bread good. We shared a pot of tea for two, which came in a nice large china tea pot, with a generous jug of milk, providing about two and a half cups of tea each.        

Having stuffed ourselves with our main courses, we didn’t have room for cake, even though there was a very tempting display of delicious looking home-made cakes. An impressive array of 13 cakes included marmalade cake, lemon drizzle, fruitcake, chocolate hedgehog cake (which looked suspiciously like tiffin to me!), and carrot cake. They also stock a range of packaged gluten-free treats, which was good to see. On our last visit, I tried their lemon drizzle cake and it was incredibly good – moist and really lemony!

Overall, I’d highly recommend this cafe – food, service and atmosphere all great. It’s clearly popular and deserves to be so. We’ll definitely be back – with more time so that I can have a potter around the farm shop and gift shop. Would be tempted to visit for breakfast, which is very reasonably priced and I imagine would be fantastic, or for fish and chips!