Exceptional Garden Centre Cafes

for hungry people

Garden Centres are the perfect, public space in which to discover exciting cooking. 

They are run by passionate, outdoorsy people who are expert, mightily concerned with origin and provenance, and who want to create beauty and contentment.

Problem is, that theory is often abandoned in the execution. Instead of using their space wisely by offering it to creative cooks, and capitalising on the fact that people browse slowly and carefully in the centres, GCs often hand the food concept to caterers.

Cooking and catering are not the same thing, of course.

We have all had those experiences of catering foods in diverse public spaces and, just as we find the same low standards in railways stations, airports, museums and other public arenas where the cooking should and could be masterly, garden centres often deliver the clichés.

But, thankfully there are exceptions and, here are a selection of truly delightful Garden Centre destinations where, having chosen your begonias and your privet hedge, you will also find true modern cooking, food to relish. Actually, you don’t even need the begonias or privet. 

Village Deli & Cafe at Ravensdale Garden Centre

Village Deli & Cafe

Ravenscourt Garden Centre Kerry Pike, Cork, Co Cork

Bryan Phelan is one hell of a cook.

His cooking in the pretty Village Deli & Cafe, in Ravenscourt Garden Centre, Kerry Pike, close to Blarney and Cork city, has a pit master muscularity fused with a Ballymaloe domestic precision. 

In food terms, this duality means he can make a pulled pork flatbread with echt Southern States seasoning, and he can also make a cheese toastie that defines the art.

His skill, however, is a secondary concern to the thing that defines his food: he cares about every bit, and every bite. No detail is too inconsequential not to be finessed, improved, coaxed into deliciousness, minded until it’s as good as it can be. Yes, the pork flatbread is definingly good. But so is the potato salad, and so is the coleslaw. A Ploughman’s Wrap is a play on a home-cooked ham and cheese burrito, adroitly assembled.

The dishes appear simple, but they are laden with delicious details, so a chickpea and cashew curry comes with golden rice and house pickles, yoghurt, peanut rayu and garlic flatbread, a festival for the senses in a modest bowl. 

The pastry on his empanadas is so deft and light that it would earn him honorary citizenship in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Galicia. 

Phelan’s painstaking attention to detail means his food lights up your senses, and the modest setting of his dining room and terrace in a little garden centre in County Cork makes this brilliant food even more cherishable. 

Woodfield Garden Centre Cafe

The Woodfield Café

Woodfield Garden Centre, Birr, Co Offaly

How might you describe Hannah Ward’s cooking at Woodfield Garden Centre, just outside Birr, County Offaly?

“Heartfelt. Simplicity. Calmness. Niceness…” That’s what we scribbled down, and that’s before we had a slice of Hannah’s lemon sponge cake, at which point the language strains for celestial metaphors and you wind up saying: Wow!

Hannah and her brother, Dermot, run an exceptional destination in Woodfield. It’s not a well-kept secret, because on the Thursday afternoon we ate there, the room was jammers at 2.30pm.

Woodfield food has an energy that put us in mind of the early days of Avoca, in Kilmacanogue. The cooking is amateurish, in the best possible way, with a sense of a kitchen exploring, discovering, experimenting and enjoying, and creating lovable food with a confidence that simply says: this is what we do.

The blackboard menu is a riot of choice: parsnip, potato and pea soup with organic rye bread; green lentil and yellow split pea dahl with parsnip pakora; roasted red pepper and goat’s cheese quiche; felafel wrap with carrot tzatziki and sun-dried tomato hummus, with a trio of savoury sandwiches – and prices are very keen with sandwiches less than a tenner and mains in or around €14.

We had the quiche and the dahl, and both were superbly executed and elegantly plated: honest, creative cooking that is worth the drive to Birr. And then we had the cake: lemon sponge cake, to die for.

But Woodfield isn’t just a daytime destination. You can order their cakes, and good food boxes, whilst their pizza oven swings into action on Friday nights – Hannah learnt pizza making from the iconic Reggie White, one of the modern masters. There are wines to go with the pizzas and, of course, there is a fine garden centre too.

The Garden House, Malahide

The Garden House Cafe

The Garden House, Malahide, Co Dublin

The Café in leafy Malahide’s The Garden House is found right smack in the centre of this emporium of plants, pots and patio paraphernalia. Flower displays adorn the space, in vivid seasonal presentations, with table top displays and hanging baskets.

The food in the cafe is elemental to the experience, with a day time menu that spans brunch and lunch. Having a good wine list and cocktail menu shows just how much people are happy to kick back when visiting. Mimosas and begonias? They certainly have the lifestyle vibe sorted in Dublin’s wealthiest postal area.

The secret of Brian Maher’s café is the home-cooked ethos behind every single ingredient, from the slow cooked ham to the flatbreads, to their chipotle hummus or hand cut fries. Their inside and outside seating areas are jammers, and they make sure it all runs smoothly, professionally and elegantly. 

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, the room was packed, and everyone seemed to be ordering the signature beef burger, served with cheddar, bacon, gherkin, caramelised onions, mustard mayo, tomato relish and iceberg leaves, with a rubble of fries. The feta toast dresses the cheese in smoked paprika and honey, and with beets, cherry tomato, crushed avo, grapes, hazelnuts and chipotle hummus, it’s a belter of a dish.

The Garden House is the home of patio furniture, plus a BBQ centre for both Weber and Big Green Egg. The shop sells fashion and gifts as well as everything you might ever need for your outdoor dreams.

“We have a great team of people who share my passion to always strive to be the best we can be” explains Bryan Maher. That striving shows in every element of The Garden House.

The Grain Store at Killruddery

The Grain Store

Kilruddery House & Gardens, Bray, Co Wicklow

Kilruddery has been transformed over the last decade, and now offers a panjandrum of possibilities for garden lovers, whether you want to tour their formal gardens, or capsize your economic sensibility whilst splurging in their splendiferous garden and farm shop.

Best of all, Kilruddery doesn’t fall neatly into any conventional categories: there is a lot of original thinking going on here in just how the garden, food and visitor experience concept has been shaped, so everything is sui generis, and there is a plethora of extremely good cooking, thanks to Head Chef Niall O’Sullivan and his team. 

Niall O’Sullivan is one of those guys who knows exactly what a plate of food needs to make the ingredients harmonise: burrata salad with garden spring herbs; cod with Wicklow sea beet; Kilruddery farm lamb with Parmesan gnocchi; vanilla set custard with lemon curd. This is charming, classy food, food that reveals patience and care. 

In addition to the Grain Store, there is a pizza shed, a tea room, and the Dairy Yard coffee shop. Come on a Saturday and you get to enjoy their excellent farmer’s market, before heading into the grand bricolage style of the dining space. 

The ingredients for their cooking, from their ready-to-go meals to their formal banquet dinners to their simple lunches, all come from the farm, including meat, vegetables, eggs and their own honey. Growing and foraging are central to the culinary ethos – Niall is a founding member of Nádúr Collective, and their dining room is adorned with cut flowers from the garden.

Leave a comment if you have a favourite garden centre cafe to reccommend.