Where to eat on working farms: 13 great restaurants and cafés
Published 18 March 2026

Possibly Bristol’s best-kept secret, this tiny trailer kitchen on an inner-city farm is an idiosyncratic delight. Reached via an overgrown, graffiti-strewn lane, with the trains rattling past, it's a cool green oasis if ever there was one. Choose between a great-value meat or vegetarian dish of the day: the former might be a hearty pile of merguez sausage and Padrón peppers on toasted focaccia soaked in tomato and fennel butter, plus herbs and leaves from the farm. A summer dessert could be a blackcurrant, gooseberry and jostaberry fool with crumble topping. Drink water from the farm tap or very good coffee from a proper espresso machine. Sit at rickety tables among the fruit and veg beds in summer or inside a yurt in winter.

Coombeshead is a working, developing farm with owner Tom Adams making new decisions all the time about what livestock to keep, what to grow that will best suit the soils, and how to present the bounty of the land to its best advantage. The accommodation aspect of the business is its principal attraction (not least for the excellent breakfasts) but a four-course evening menu at £65 is well worth a detour.

Proceedings open with the famously good bread served with sunny-yellow farmhouse butter before a starter of mangalitza pork terrine or a simple preparation of just-picked vegetables. Main courses could be a hefty leg of guinea fowl, served with stewed tomato and string beans, plus dressed salad leaves. Our inspector's dessert – a perfectly rendered frangipane tart of haskap berries with clotted cream – felt like the best kind of farmhouse cooking.

As for wine, it's a matter of browsing the cellars for yourself and picking out something suitable. If you've arrived hot-foot from far away, take a long, meandering wander around the fields. Smell the wild garlic. Look at the chickens and the piglets. Relax.

‘A must for a family day out,’ this enterprising set-up brings together a farm shop, restaurant, butchery and events space on Penllyn Estate. Not surprisingly, the daytime menu is tailored to all palates and preferences – although everything is dictated by produce from the Estate (much of it organic). Start the day with a full Welsh breakfast or spiced eggs Benedict, linger over coffee and cake, or drop by for a lunchtime fill-up (a home-smoked chicken club sandwich, Nepalese lamb with Asian slaw or beer-battered haddock). There are grills on Friday and Saturday evening, while Sunday is a showcase for juicy roast joints and the freshest home-grown vegetables. Pizzas and burgers ‘to go’, too.

*Higher Farm is closed for the winter season and will reopen for service on 30th April*

When the sun is shining, this simple but artfully decorated barn on a working regenerative farm feels a bit like heaven. The small dining room is flooded with light from a large picture window, while stone walls and a rough concrete floor are given character by earthenware jugs of dried flowers, blackboards listing the month’s harvest, and shelving made out of wine crates. It feels a bit like a pop-up, and the staff greet you like an old friend.

A regularly changing menus showcase the farm’s produce alongside the best of what’s grown or foraged in this particularly bountiful corner of Somerset. Meat and fish in the form of, say, a glistening hunk of ham with smooth buttery mash and a vibrant parsley sauce or trout fillets on a neat plinth of potato salad, share equal billing with vegetable dishes – maybe leeks smothered in a rich rarebit topping and dressed with shards of pickled onion and rye croûtons. You would be a fool to leave without ordering a side of ‘chips’, fat bricks of compressed potato slices, slow-cooked in butter overnight and then deep-fried to crunchy perfection. To conclude, perhaps opt for a light dessert – a quenelle of refreshing rhubarb sorbet, say, or some homemade Neapolitan ice cream. 

The short drinks menu highlights Somerset ciders and English wine alongside inventive cocktails, while a longer list of low-intervention Italian wines chosen by the farm’s owners Matteo and Giacomo Grasso is also worth considering – although by-the-glass options are thin on the ground. 

Stock up on raw milk and dairy produce, home-reared or locally sourced meat and East Anglian cheeses at this little deli on family-run Old Hall Farm, a few miles from Bungay. A bright, busy café offers spectacular breakfasts, vast homemade cakes, and light lunches that could include a grazing board with Mrs Temple’s Copys Cloud, Binham Blue and Wells Alpine cheeses, a burger made using Old Hall beef (served in a brioche bun with sriracha mayo) or a special of slow-roast shoulder of pork with mustard mash.

*The restaurant closed permanently on 17 April 2026 and will be relocating to The Old Point House in Angle on the Pembrokeshire coast.*

A 'field to fork' farmstead restaurant is always a bracing proposition, and this one, deep in the Pembrokeshire wilds is no exception. Whatever beaten track there might be hereabouts (actually the B4320 near Hundleton), they're off it. It's a testament to the success of the formula that somewhere so remote can still receive as many nominations as it does for our Best Local Restaurant awards, with the super-friendly, helpful and enthusiastic staff receiving lots of plaudits.

You eat in the former milking parlour, perhaps snuggled into one of the old stalls, beneath clumps of pampas hanging from the rafters, with an open kitchen at one end generating a steady stream of ingenious and heterogeneous plates from Michelle Evans' fertile culinary imagination.The seasonal set menu is a rolling feast that changes every day depending on supplies from the farm and beyond, but the following should give a clue to the kind of food on offer: asparagus with crab, pickled chilli, lemon and dill, with the brown meat folded through a silky mayonnaise; baked whole bream with romesco; glossy, golden-crusted mutton, leek and smoked Snowdonia cheese pie served with garden kale and Café de Paris butter. Veggie options are always intriguing too – perhaps wild mushroom and truffle arancini or BBQ hispi cabbage lathered in umami-rich miso butter with some chilli heat and soothing, creamy aïoli.

Dessert could bring chocolate mousse or cherry and tahini ice cream; otherwise, opt for a plate of Welsh cheeses. There might also be honey madeleines by the half dozen, too. 'Even the drinks are in season,' gasped one reporter, wholly appreciative of a rhubarbed-up version of pisco sour – although there are some 'fantastic natural wines from a young importer,' too.

Farm restaurants are all the rage, and here – on a smallholding deep in the Vale of Belvoir between Grantham and Nottingham – is Jericho. Richard and Grace Stevens opened for business in 2022, having kitted out the place with salvage from the farm buildings, a Japanese-style moss wall and displays of agricultural implements. The dining room presents an expansive, welcoming space in contrasting dark and light tones, with plentiful daylight through numerous windows. There is a kitchen bench for ringside views of the culinary action, and a couple of tepees outside for overnight accommodation.

A measure of the hosts' serious dedication to the cause is the fact that the standard menu is a 20-course taster that will typically take the better part of four hours. That said, the first few meaty mouthfuls arrive at the double: a mutton croquette cooked over coals and served with quince paste; blackberry-glazed pork belly skewer, its fat beautifully rendered; partridge leg in a pear coating. The balance of flavours in succeeding dishes is never short on ingenuity. A hit of elderflower sharpens white beetroot soup, while wild mushroom ‘chawanmushi’ is full of earthy tones, with some pickled mushrooms and a dash of dashi to electrify it.

When the meat dishes return, they come in style: lamb with turnips, in a dressing of lamb fat and walnut oil; mixed-pedigree sirloin with an artful swirl of Jerusalem artichoke foam and black garlic purée. Sometimes the balance skews – the Granny Smith apple and sloe jam accompaniments were just a little too astringent and bitter for the mallard they chaperoned. A pre-dessert of ‘whole crop silage’ ice cream tasted hauntingly of the farmyard (file under ‘acquired taste’), but the following sweet things were treats indeed – from parsnip custard topped with honeycomb to smoky Bramley apple cooked in Marmite butter and served with a clod of clotted cream.

The personal touch extends to a non-stop playlist, set at a level that just manages to drown out the descriptions of the more softly spoken servers. The wine list is crammed with biodynamic and low-intervention gear, but most will sensibly opt for the drinks pairings, which might take in the heterodox likes of Pét-Nat, Chilean Chardonnay, Hungarian rosé and Muscat de Rivesaltes.

Almost lost amid the tangle of east Devon villages, Darts Farm is rather more of a hive of activity than the nearby Exeter airport. It's a family-run enterprise (and then some), with a wellness spa, extensive farm shop, butcher and deli counters, vineyard, farm walk and bird hide, among other amenities. Alongside a maze of other eating possibilities, serving food in the very precincts where much of it is grown, there is also now the Farm Table for ‘agricultural fine dining’ – a very 21st-century style.

You might feel you are eating in a large hangar, but the quality of what the kitchen puts out tends to encourage people to get a little glammed-up for the occasion. The rattle call of ice-cubes being shaken is a sure lure to the bar, and a dedicated pizza chef always raises expectations, amply fulfilled with the arrival of grilled flatbread topped with pancetta, hot honey and garlic butter.

Nibbles are full of allure: burnt broad-bean pods sprinkled with chilli salt or crispy brawn bites with rhubarb and apple sauce might kick things off, ahead of a simple salad of sweetly delicious picked-this-morning beetroot, chicory and truffled Graceburn cheese – an array of incomparable ingredients. Fish dishes are forthrightly but sensitively handled, as when a hulking fillet of a sea bream is teamed with pickled cockles, tomatoes and jalapeños, all sauced  with a thick ajo blanco.

Gold-standard meats range from a starter portion of grilled pigeon breast with lentils and redcurrants to Ruby Red steaks and Creedy Carver duck, the latter with grilled radicchio and pickled cherries in red wine. Portions tend to the hearty, meaning that two might easily share a whopping rhubarb sponge pudding topped with a gigantic clod of clotted cream, but if you are feeling a little delicate by now, consider gin and strawberry parfait with pink-peppercorn meringue. Special-occasion menus add to the offer, and there is an excellent range of drinking to contemplate, from fruity cocktails to a well-chosen list of wines at manageable prices (from £6 a glass).

What started out as a communal dining experience in the old milking byre of this family farm has morphed into something more flexible, with a seasonal carte now providing plenty of choice. Seating is still at rustic trestle tables peppered with plant pots, but you can now swing by for Sunday lunch as well as dinner. It is considered a 'magical set-up'. On the menu, you’ll find the farm’s produce in all its glory: the owners rear and butcher heritage Dexter cross cattle, Shetland sheep and mangalitza pigs, as well as growing organic fruit and vegetables. They also love their smoker – even the sourdough bread is tossed in to create a cindery hard crust, before being served with whipped butter zig-zagged with sticky honey. 

Expect small bites ranging from a garden 'scrumpet' with kimchi mayo or a no-nonsense hogget offal flatbread with charcoal mayo and Corra Linn (a strong local ewe's cheese) to coffee-roasted beetroot on a bed of creamy crowdie and skirlie. Main courses are farmyard-hearty: salty slabs of hake in a smoked mussel sauce; Shetland hogget loin with kale and a 'wee hogget pie'; hay-baked celeriac with fava beans and sunflower seeds. On Sundays, expect a mound of pink roast pork and potatoes in their skins, with plenty of gravy. 

To finish, there could be a blackcurrant-leaf custard tart with flowering currant topped with scorched meringue or a pale pistachio pumpkin-seed ice cream with porridge praline and tiny cubes of caramelised swede adding a toffee tinge. Staff are friendly, and the drinks list focuses on sustainable wines (including a hefty contingent of skin-contact varietals) alongside foraged cocktails and craft beers. They’ve also started making their own cider with donated apples.

In the lea of the magnificent ruins of Binham Priory and part of Abbey Farm, this lofty-roofed flint barn was renovated in 2022 to provide a stylish, dramatic space for breakfasts, light lunches and afternoon tea – and even a view of the cattle when they’re in their winter quarters. Come for kedgeree, gnocchi with wild garlic pesto or the 'Parlour platter' with hot-smoked salmon pâté, Marsh Pig charcuterie, Binham Blue and beer-washed Norfolk Tawny cheese (made with Abbey Farm milk). The milk is pasteurised on site for the café, but available raw from a vending machine in the adjacent Little Dairy Shop.

The winner of our 2020 'Chef to Watch' award has justified the faith we had in him. Not only has Will Devlin opened another restaurant in the area (Birchwood at Flimwell), but he's also built up the marvellously rural Small Holding as a destination with a fondly loyal following. Readers are impressed by the unflustered efficiency with which it is run, and the measurable sense of refinement that has taken place in the cooking. The multi-course menu changes daily, and while the lack of choice may not suit everyone, there’s no doubting the quality of ingredients. What hasn’t been grown or reared on the one-acre plot (on splendid view from the large terrace fronting the simple white-painted building) is sought from small-scale sustainable artisan producers in the area. Nor does the cooking pile on ingredients or decorative bits for the sake of it, but concentrates on essentials. At one meal, a Maldon rock oyster was served with an ‘exceptional’ lovage cream, perfectly timed halibut came teamed with fermented wild garlic, sea herbs and a ‘sweet and delicate’ sauce made with Squerreyes sparkling wine and chives, while hogget (two-year-old lamb) served various ways – pink rump with tenderstem broccoli, sweetbreads glazed with honey, a brioche bun made with hogget fat and stuffed with lamb shoulder – was beyond reproach. Desserts tend to stick to a theme of iced and crumbed things, though an apple sorbet offset by some aged cider vinegar and sprinkled with powdered pine was a masterful play of sweetness and acidity. An enticingly broad-minded, well-sourced wine list includes a good selection of Kentish labels.

On the brow of East Portlemouth's hill, with the sweeping landscape of the Salcombe-Kingsbridge estuary below, this charming café is part of an artisan centre that embraces a campsite, smallholding, boat building and more besides. The kitchen makes productive use of the farm’s rare-breed pigs, Devon red cattle and organically grown vegetables for a seasonal menu of simple brunch and lunch dishes (plus all-day coffee and cake). Sourdough is baked on-site to go with soups, quiches and the likes of Salcombe smokies with horseradish crème fraîche, while deftly executed ideas including sausages with skordalia and braised greens keep locals and visitors coming back for more. Usefully, the café is open all year, and there's a sister kiosk, The Old Stable, now open at the ferry steps.

It takes a bit of finding, but persevere because this collection of farm buildings turned cosy café/deli/glasshouse restaurant is the very definition of quirky. Anchoring everything is a no-dig market garden and a herd of Saddleback pigs that provide year-round supplies for hyper-seasonal chalkboard menus and style of cooking that is firmly from the gutsy, no-frills rulebook (don’t miss the spicy Tuscan fennel sausages). The kitchen satisfies the coffee-and-cake brigade, Sunday brunchers and those in for something more substantial: in winter, that might mean puntarelle alla romana (with anchovies) followed by confit Worton goose with beluga lentils. Come summer, the place really delights – especially if you're seated outside amid the greenery.