Mothers Day Surprise!…read more We wanted to take the Mothers somewhere nice and out of town and had seen The Garden Kitchen had been visited by a number of our friends and family on Facebook, all giving great reviews and I can see why! We arrived for final service at 6pm and as you can imagine it was very busy on Mothers Day. The maître d' came straight over to us to let us know how long it would be until we were seated and continuously gave us progress updates. Whilst waiting we perused the small shop of local produce, had a drink and soaked up our surroundings. The Tea Room is a new addition to Holden Clough Nursery being built in the last few years, but looks like it should have always been there! It is beautiful and sympathetically designed to its surroundings. So, the food....WOW! I'd seen pictures but when our Afternoon Tea arrived on a mini picnic bench I felt like clapping!! (In fact, I think I did!!) Such a great idea and adds a little bit of originality and quirkiness to your experience. Everything on my picnic bench was delicious. The Mushroom soup was silky, creamy and full of flavour. The mini Roast Beef Dinner served in an individual yorkshire pudding was beautiful and of course came with a little jug of gravy and beef was tender and pink. The scone was fresh and light with jam that had just the right sweetness and fruit mix. My other main highlight was the Rocky Road, I'm not usually a fan because its too rich and sweet but O-M-G this was amazing. I still find myself thinking about it now two days on. The chocolate melts in your mouth to find small nuggets of biscuit and mini marshmallows.....all washed down with a great cup of coffee. John & Kate who own and run The Garden Kitchen have done a fanstastic job transforming Holden Clough Nursery over the last few years. The service, quality of food and surroundings are 10/10. We will be coming back during the day to visit the nursery (and no doubt the Garden Kitchen too). Thank you for a fantastic evening...and the Mums loved it!! : )

I seen this place on facebook so I added them and I kept seeing them put pictures on of the…read moreafternoon tea which looked amazing so I finally decided to book. I went with my mum, sister and partner for the Valentine's afternoon tea, it was great it was so different from traditional afternoon tea you got soup in a tea cup, two open top sandwiches and a mini quiche which was a nice change from just sandwiches. The cakes you got was a scone. A mini red velvet cake, a heart biscuit, marshmallows with chocolate, profiterole with white chocolate and a mini love potion in a glass boot. We got a glass of pink proseco it was £19.99 each which is a little expensive for the place as its a tree nursery but they do a different theme for different seasons so it's well worth a visit. I would defiantly go

I've tried dozens of little tea rooms over the years, but this one is one of the absolute best I've…read moreever been to. The decor is fantastic, relaxing, and quaint, but more importantly, the food is superb. Everything we tried, from the milkshakes to the desserts, were absolutely finger-licking good. The quality was simply superb. This place is worth going out of one's way to visit. If you're looking for a fantastic lunch, it's where it's at. One note, the place tends to be busy, so it can be a bit of a wait for the food or for the staff, but the food is worth the wait.

Lovely little find on the way home from a weekend away, great breakfast, staff are very friendly,…read morewould definitely visit again

Definitely the best tea room I've been to, English breakfast tea served has tea leaves and isn't…read moremade from standard tea bags, prawn and avocado sandwich a delight with beautiful side salad and a gorgeous balsamic dressing, lovely atmosphere and server Frances a delight and service with a beautiful smile.

We stop in at Holden Wood every trip but this was our first time nipping in to the cafe. We only…read morewanted a light snack so we shared a sandwich and a coffee and then back on the road! Great, friendly service and delicious eats!

What a pleasure it is to have the chance to write a positive review about a place, when so many…read morebusinesses just don't seem to try hard enough any more. We drove past this lovely place on the way to Blackburn over the Grane rd, after a shopping trip at Winfields of Haslingdon. We noticed the tea rooms in a church that was also antiques sales room. We decided to go in and the first thing we noticed was the car park was full. This is always a good sign, luckily someone was leaving and we had a space. As we entered the tearooms, people were being turned away as there was not enough seating (group of 6). Luckily there was only two of us and we found somewhere to sit right away. The place was packed and had a good atmosphere, we had to wait ten minutes to be served by the very friendly and extremely busy waitress. There were newspapers and magazines to read, the toilets were very clean, no hot water though and when it's minus 2 outside, it's a bit painful washing hands. Our coffee arrived first, as it should, but in many places seems to get delivered with the meal. It was very good coffee in a cafetiere, with cream, no fancy biscuits (which usually bump up the price of coffee). Big coffee cups and we got two cups each out of it. While we drank our coffee and warmed up, we noticed the side of the church and how the extension was built to emphasise the beauty of this old building. The whole place was kitted out very nice, with quality furnishings and a proper big Italian coffee machine behind the counter. Soon enough food arrived. I had ordered the Bowdens Steak muffin and chips and my wife had the mixed platter which included onion rings, chicken goujons, garlic mushrooms, salad and potato wedges. The steak muffin was absolutely fab, the meat was cook perfectly and melted in my mouth, the muffin was a very soft and tasty White flour bap. With the caramalised onions it made me smile for the rest of the day. Homemade Chips and a very thoughtful salad with very fresh and crisp ingredients. See pictures. Sorry, I didn't take one of outside, if the next Qyper could do that please, thanks! The platter was just as good, Jane let me have a few nibbles and I was thinking of ordering more, but the steak had me beat. Without shadow of a doubt, it was the best rump steak buttie I've ever had. The cakes looked amazing, but I was stuffed, so that didn't happen. I will go out of my way to come here again. Thanks to the staff for doing a great job and whoever they had preparing the food is someone who loves their work and should be proud. If you are nearby, go in, do it now and get stuffed! Heartly recommend by Chris Doc Strange!

Very pleasant tea room and cafe close by the heritage sites of Worsley. There is a garden and…read moreindoor seating. Staff are accommodating and although advertised to close at 1600 ( too early) I had a cream tea at 1600. All good, recommended. They do light lunches too, I am sure that they are good.

TL;DR - A truly unique venue combining art, food and shopping…read more One of Sparky's colleagues tipped us off about this place, and I'm amazed we'd never heard of it before. In case you don't know (I didn't!), Saltaire was built by industrialist Titus Salt (amazing name!) alongside the river Aire to bring all aspects of his textiles business onto one enormous site. He also built a town for the workers, and the whole area is now a world heritage site. The mill has now been converted into an amazing and huge venue spanning several floors. There's so much here it's hard to take in, but I'll try and summarise. The ground floor is a mixture of books on art, stationery and arts supplies, postcards and the like but interspersed with huge art displays. At first I wasn't sure if I was in an art gallery or a shop, but the answer is both. As with the rest of the mill, David Hockney features strongly throughout. There's a basement level which we didn't explore in detail, but it sells rugs and wallpapers and is just as big as the ground floor. The first floor houses the most. One end is a gorgeous bookshop, where the focus seems to be on unusual titles rather than breadth - I saw many, many books in the recipe section which I'd never seen or heard of anywhere else. The other end of the building is devoted to homewares - kitchen supplies, furniture, clocks and more. A lot of it is very expensive, but it's a beautifully curated selection of objects for sale. Between these two wings is Salt's Diner. It's a separate venue on Yelp but suffice it to say we had lunch here and it was great.Through the restaurant you can access a further wing of the building which is split into an outdoor clothing shop, a jewellers, an art exhibit, a treasure trove of an antique store and a small coffee shop. Finally, the top floor is split into three: an exhibit on the history of the mill, a major exhibition of work by David Hockney, and a further cafe/restaurant. On top of all these, parking is free on site and it's right next to the Saltaire train station, so there's really no excuse for not visiting.

Its easy to spend the best part of a day wandering round the amazing Salts Mill with its extensive…read morecollection of David Hockney's work and its eclectic selection of "shops" which include an excellent book shop, the wonderful home section with its stunning array of furnishings and kitchen porn, and the antique/collectables area. At some point you are going to need to get some fuel on board and Salts Diner is not a bad option. Its situated on the 1st floor of this wonderful labyrinthine industrial building in a large area between the book shop and the home shop. It was very busy on our visit between Christmas and New Year but we managed to get a table for 6 without much difficulty. The young waiting girls were all very helpful and attentive and we soon settled down with a reasonably priced bottle of Merlot to have a look at the menu. There is fairly wide choice of available, and while there is no real theme to the menu, there is enough to satisfy all the generations of family visitors that Salts Mill attracts. There are lots of ankle biters about so be careful in your choice of seating if you want a peaceful lunch. I had the roast butternut squash and lentil soup from the daily specials board which was tasty and wholesome, obviously a popular selection as it was soon rubbed off the board. B and I both went down the pizza route for our main and shared a bowl of nicely cooked crispy fries; nothing to complain about but pretty bog standard. The most successful main seemed to be Danny's beef meatballs and pasta in a rich tomato sauce, again from daily specials board, although the other boys were quite complimentary about their beef and ale pies which came in a nice white dish topped with puff pastry. All in all while this was nothing to write home about it was a pretty decent lunch in a great building. Salts Diner itself its not somewhere I would go out of my way to visit but works well a part of a visit to the Mill (I would particularly recommended a visit at the moment to see the amazing "Flowers" show on the top floor of work created by Mr Hockney on his iPad - just stunning). 3 for Salts Diner and 5 for the Mill.

An adorable hidden gem. This traditional tearoom is set up in the lovely home of the former mayor…read more Booking is required but the food is home cooked by the lovely chef Alan, and is delicious. It's an older crowd so the atmosphere is very peaceful and relaxed. The service is quick but never rushed. The staff are so attentive- Linda, the hostess, was friendly and very helpful. This is a great place for a Sunday dinner with family in the countryside! Top tip. Save room for pudding!

We were in Blackburn town centre for a street festival of food. We had an enjoyable bit of lunch,…read morethen spotted flags outside of a shop declaring it was Mad Hatters Cupcakes and Tea Room, which had me floating over like a moth to a flame for a little dessert! It has a nice big window allowing the tearoom to be well lit, and seen clearly from the outside, making it all the more inviting. The first thing you see as you walk in is the fantastic blackboard wall full of hand drawn chalk images of quirky scenes from Alice in Wonderland, and various picture frames containing images of cupcakes, signs saying "eat me" and the such. A really nice touch. It's nice that despite being Mad Hatter/Alice in Wonderland themed, they haven't gone absolutely crazy with colour and made it gaudy and horrid, but have gone for some vintage touches, and soft varying pastel colours and bunting, to take the Mad Hatter and soften him a little into a vintage English tearoom. As expected, the space is light, bright and relaxed as various mirrors bounce light around the room. Large and impressive cakes sit on cake stands and bell jars dotted around the space, and on the counter sits a display stand of delicious cupcake varieties. Staff are friendly and welcoming, and happy to reel off the various tea flavours when I asked what was available. The menu has both hot and cold drinks, and offers breakfasts, salads, sandwiches and light lunches, as well as a full afternoon tea. In this instance, we can't stop looking at a large salted caramel cake which seems to be giving us the eye from a stand on one side of the room, and decide to have a slice each, and share a pot of tea. The cake was delicious, and we were offered cream with them too should we want it. It was marvellously sweet and tasty without veering off into "sickly" territory, and naturally it went perfectly with a big pot of tea, which was served with traditional vintage china. Staff were friendly and social, and informed us that they have only been open for around 5 weeks, so everything was still settling, but from what I can see, they're doing very well, and should hopefully continue to do so! Although this was only a fleeting and unplanned visit, we enjoyed it, and agreed that we will definitely pop back in whenever we are next in Blackburn, especially as I had my eye on a strawberries and cream cake that was flirting with me from a cake stand on the opposite side of the room, in all its lovely pink splendidness... I shall be trying that one next time! Well done, Mad Hatters! I wish you luck in your new business! :)

Excellent little coffee shop beautifully decorated in Alice in Wonderland. The staff are very…read morecourteous and welcoming. Food delish and plentiful has a Ploughman's salad which very filling indeed. Well be calling back soon

One of my absolute favourite venues to photograph - so much so that I'm getting married there…read moremyself in 2020! Lovely staff, stunning venue! Bill Nessworthy Nessworthy Photography - www.nessworthyphotography.com