Tell me about your favourite cafe or tea room!

[SausageSimon]

For me, I love a cafe with homemade cakes, good quality meat and bread etc. I think regardless of how it looks, what brings me back is when I can see the owner loves what they do as it comes through in all of the finer details. I also love to see information about where their food is sourced!

What do you love about your favourite cafe or tea room? And what is it that makes you want to go back?

I'd like to open my own some time this year and I'd love to hear what you think makes a good one!

When I go to my regular tea room I know I’ll be welcomed, chatted to (even if I want a quiet read lol) and there will be decent food. The option to buy jam, maybe some bread is always good too!

No good ones that I know of around here

There's an absolutely fabulous one in Matlock called the Lavender Tea Rooms. It's really odd and quirky and lovely!

I think important elements are: delicious tea (and coffee, ideally ), pots that don’t dribble, enough milk, fast service, plenty of seating, very tasty cake - not stuff that looks OK but isn’t worth the calories - and basic, simple, savoury food.

There is a place in Denver called the Market that was more like a deli with hot drinks, but somehow had a tea shop vibe.

Loads. I love a good tea room. My favourite local one is Cha Bar in Knutsford - my kids love the little sand egg timers you get to time how long your tea brews. I also love one called ‘the fizzy tart’ in Bowness in the lakes. It’s probably more of a bar actually but you can get a lovely afternoon tea - it’s beautifully presented with yummy cakes and finger sandwiches and I always have a glass of Prosecco too. We’re going for my birthday in a couple of weeks and I’m really looking forward to it.

Another favourite is Bewley’s on grafton street in Dublin. I had the best soup I’ve ever had in my life there last time I went. It’s perfection really. My mouth is lieterally watering now!

I like Bramble Pie in Barnard Castle, it's quite down to earth and not fancy, but does lovely cakes and the portions are generous.

I also like the NT tearoom at the Treasurers House in York. The food seems a bit nicer than normal and I like the house.

walked up Southend pier on Monday , the tea shop ( where Jamie Oliver films ) had no cake 🍰! We were told they ran out on Sunday .... 3 staff , chatting happily... could not be arsed to make or even bring cake 🧁! .... so lesson is , if it’s a tea room , please have cake 👍

Any that remember to put the butter on the jacket potato before the fillings and not on the side get my vote of cafe of the year

Miller's cafe in Kilmington does every version of a cooked breakfast in a bap that you could possibly think.of. it shouldn't be my favourite, because it is literally tacked onto the side of a farm shop, has a scruffy toilet and a motley collection of furniture, but it works. The staff are lovely, dogs can wander around from table to table and it serves pure comfort food. The farm shop next door is brilliant too.

Blighty Cafe. Here’s the breakfast menu
blightycafe.co.uk/wp-content/themes/Blighty%20Cafe/menu/Blighty-UK-Menu.pdf

I live in a place awash with independent cafes. I have a choice of about 15 within walking distance of me.

My favourite serves very good coffee, doesn't have loud music, doesn't have metal chairs that scrape on the tiled floor (it has wooden chairs and old wooden floor boards), has a good amount of space between the tables, serves savoury dishes and really good salads as well as cakes (so you can go and have lunch), has a small garden out back for when the weather is good.

There's a flower shop cafe I love, its a small florists selling flowers and plants with old fashioned tables and chairs. They home bake all their cakes some of which include flowers like rose and white chocolate. They also home bake breads and do sandwiches with them including a lovely range of chutneys. Tea comes in china vintage tea pots and cups and saucers. They put flower boxes in the street and flowers for nearby shops, really transformed area. They did a lovely breakfast greek yoghurt with honey and banana. They do takeaway as well as eat in.

Trixie - I have been tempted to send back jacket potatoes where they've done that, if I ask for a cheese jacket potato that's what I want, not one oozing with butter. Also cheese freshly grated and not melted.

Bone china cups and saucers score highly for me, as does loose leaf tea in a pot and a strainer. Homemade cakes and savoury items. One near us does mini-meals, half portions of things like macaroni cheese for about £4, essentially children's portions but for anyone who wants them.

@Ronsters where is that? I'm there regularly and haven't ever seen it!

Like that one in the arcade in central Cardiff...squishy sofas and nicely messy not a tea room per se but 100 monkeys in Glastonbury..does nice cake and lovely gluten free farinata

I do love a Betty’s fat rascal

I do love fresh scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream as well and kids love hot chocolate especially when comes with options of cream, marshmallows, flake etc and made with real chocolate and milk.

One I love also does seasonal things / decorations like Easter chick / bunny biscuits and cakes and knitted bunnies.

Dowser is it Wally's? (I think).

There's a tearoom/cafe attached to Calcott Hall Farm Shop near us, the view over the fields is lovely, the food is all local and you can buy most of the produce from the farm shop itself. And they have lovely seasonal activities. Plus it's incredibly child friendly.

penguins are you in Devon? There’s a florist/ cake shop just like you’ve described in my town which I love.

There’s a really lovely cafe on a nature reserve near me - best scones ever. It gets huge groups of tourists sometimes and I get in a right huff (silently and without any fuss obviously) if I can’t get a table to eat my scone at.

Ooh I love cafés.

I don't drink coffee though, so a choice of loose leaf tea is a big plus for me. Lovely cakes, enough space between tables, friendly staff are the other essentials that spring to mind.

My favourite cafe does loads of really healthy options. They have “clean cakes” which are free from dairy, gluten and refined sugar. As well as matcha and turmeric lattes, iced coffee and tea, superfood salads, gluten free sandwiches and omelettes, smoothie bowls, oat and yogurt pots, etc. It tends to attract yummy mummies, fitness enthusiasts, passing cyclists, and a lot of young and achingly hip people who photograph their coffee for Instagram. Which is presumably why the place is tarted up to look Insta-worthy, everything comes on pink plates and they use stencils to put a pattern on top of your coffee. I’m definitely not trendy enough to be there, and it’s usually packed to the rafters so I can’t get in anyway. But when you do manage to get a seat it’s amazing.

BrainScience Would love to live in Devon but we don't The cafe is in London suburbs.

Decent mugs, not ‘vintage’ tiny cups and saucers where the tea is cold before you get a chance to drink it. Reliably good professional quality cake - Ie yummy and looks fairly handmade but not amateur - and reliably good lunchtime food of the interesting salad + quiche variety please.