Soup, bara brith and a pot of tea
The Lean-to Café
A small café in the glass lean-to: soup from the kitchen garden, Welsh rarebit, home-baked cakes and tea in a pot. Dogs are welcome at the outside tables.
We opened the lean-to in 1996 because people kept asking whether they could sit down. Sandra has run its kitchen since 2008.
There are twenty-four seats inside and sixteen more on the terrace in good weather. The soup changes every day and depends on what is ready in the kitchen garden behind the glasshouse. In February that is a lot of leeks.
Everything sweet is baked here: bara brith, Welsh cakes off the bakestone, lemon drizzle and whatever Sandra fancies on a Friday. Sandwiches are cut when you order them, so they may take a few minutes at lunch on a busy Saturday.
Ask at the counter about allergens. Our kitchen handles the major allergens including gluten, nuts, milk and eggs, and we cannot promise any dish is free of traces. Tables are first come, first served, but groups of eight or more can book.
What you get
- Soup of the day from the kitchen garden
- Cakes baked here every morning
- Dogs welcome on the terrace, with a bowl of water
- Tables for groups of eight or more, by booking
What it costs
Soup and bread £6.50, rarebit £7.50, tea and a slice of cake £5.50. Prices are on every label; the price list has the common ones, and the soil calculator works out how much to fill anything.
Questions about the café
Do you do gluten-free?
There is usually one gluten-free cake and a soup without flour. It is made in the same kitchen as everything else, so it is not suitable for coeliacs. Ask us at the counter.
Can I come just for the café?
Of course. Plenty of people do, some of them every Tuesday. There is no need to buy a plant.
Open every day but three, on the hill above Bedwas.
Bring a photograph of the bed or a leaf in a sandwich bag. Free parking for sixty cars, soup in the lean-to and a van for anything that will not fit in yours.