5 /5
Rating
★
★
★
★
★
The layout when you get there on the ground, wasn't what I expected at all: A large and quite well-hidden gravel carpark, leading up to a modern barn with a building plugged into part of it. Walk through a passageway, and you're amongst picnic tables and covered seating in sheds carriages, set before a nice open space/view. It all makes sense from a planning permissions perspective though: They're not allowed to add permanent structures that aren't within the barn's footprint, and they're not allowed to tarmac the carpark. Meanwhile, they have huge amounts of spare land, which they want to use as effectively as possible. We visited as a party of nine, after our walk talk session. It was more surprising that it was already crowded: It's off a very narrow road. Even I pushed the boat out and caved into a bit of food too: It was the first time socialising after a long break, so there's no point making half-hearted engagements. The others did much the same, although at least two of us had a full breakfast-type meal. The little cakes and teas/coffees took a little while to arrive, which was puzzling as most of their components were pre-made. Oddly, the meals took exactly the same amount of time. Normally that's a sign of everything being cooked from scratch, to order, which mostly wasn't the case here. You have to cut them some slack though, as they were already rushed off their feet before we arrived. There was also quite a bit of fully-indoor seating, and it looked like they had toilets in a separate of the same building, reachable only by going outside, which seemed like a sensible separation. Despite their busy-ness, there were no shortage of staff to ask if they preferred us to sit first or order at the counter, and infact they found us first. (It's order pay at the counter, then explain where you want to be sitting, and they bring it out to you. It looks like they also have plans to do something with the remaining empty part of their barn, so it'll be interesting to see what.