The UK’s best gardens for food
Avoid day-old sandwiches and microwaved jacket potatoes by visiting Britain’s most spectacular gardens that have been highly rated for their food.
When we surveyed Which? members about the country’s best gardens, we ended up with a list of more than 50 beautiful locations.
The only flaw with many of them was the quality and, in particular, the value for money of the food served in their cafés.
One visitor complained of a ‘notoriously expensive’ café charging £9 for a slice of cake.
Five gardens proved the exception, with four stars for both quality and value for money of food and drink. The two highest-rated gardens were both in Scotland, while the third-highest-rated was in Wales.
Gardens in Cheshire and Cornwall completed the list.
The gardens that get four stars for the quality - and value for money of food
Garden | Overall score | Attractiveness rating |
Dawyck Botanic Garden, Peebles, Scotland, | 84% | ★★★★★ |
Threave Garden and Estate, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland | 82% | ★★★★ |
Aberglasney, Carmarthen, Wales | 81% | ★★★★ |
Ness Botanic Gardens, Cheshire | 80% | ★★★ |
Trengwainton Garden, Cornwall | 76% | ★★★ |
Dawyck Botanic Garden, Peebles, Scotland
In the heart of the Scottish border country, these fabulous gardens are halfway up a steep hill, so the chance to rest in the café after a long walk round is welcome.
Set inside the modern, Nordic-style visitor centre, it serves classic Scottish breakfasts (complete with haggis), as well as scones, sandwiches and other light lunches.
Threave Garden and Estate, Castle Douglas, Scotland
Cared for by the National Trust for Scotland, the Threave Garden estate in Dumfries features a bat reserve, an osprey viewing platform, and a café that utilises produce from the property itself.
The café serves daily specials, cakes, pastries and traybakes, as well as homemade scones.
Aberglasney, Carmarthen
For hundreds of years, this garden, first laid out by the Elizabethans, lay hidden beneath the weeds. It’s now been spectacularly restored with rare plants and a formal cloister garden that harks back to its origins.
Its tearoom features a suntrap terrace and serves a popular afternoon tea, complete with homemade cakes and pastries.
Ness Botanic Gardens, Cheshire
Owned by the University of Liverpool, the Ness Botanic Gardens sit to the west of the Wirral, with views across the River Dee and North Wales. Its 64 acres are filled with trees, flowers and shrubs, such as rhododendrons and camellias that provide year-round colour.
The Botanic Kitchen café receives high praise online for its breakfasts, but also serves light meals, as well as scones and other cakes, throughout the day.
Trengwainton Garden, Cornwall
Just outside Penzance in the Cornish countryside, Trengwainton Garden looks across the moors in one direction and over Mount’s Bay in the other.
The café is sheltered within a walled garden that, according to local legend, was built to be exactly ‘300 cubits long by 50 cubits wide’, the size of Noah’s Ark, in the Bible. It serves Cornish cream teas, as well as one-pot stews, jacket potatoes and other light meals.
Which are the worst gardens for food?
The quality and value for money in many gardens doesn't appear to be great. In total, 15 of them got two stars or lower for both the quality and value for money of food and drink.
Only one garden received just one star for both quality and value for money: the University of Oxford Botanic Garden. This is probably because, rather than a café or tearoom, it just has a mobile kiosk serving snacks.
See how the gardens were rated for other categories, such as attractiveness, length of queues, facilities and value for money in our guide to the best UK gardens.
