The Beth Chatto Tearoom - Tendring

After a long journey to visit the gardens our first stop was the tearooms. The choice of sandwiches was extremely disappointing. The only sandwiches with any salad in them were on gluten free bread, great if you are celiac, not so great if you’re not. The vast majority of the sandwiches were either vegetarian or vegan, again great if that is your preference but not so good if you’re not but overall nothing looked very appealing. Bland slices of bread trapped behind plastic sheeting. There were a couple of salads that looked very nice but as salad was for dinner we opted not to have those. We opted instead for panini’s what a mistake! Vile! Ham cheese tiny bit of flavourless ham with the texture of rubber paired with some tasteless unknown stringy cheese. Mozzarella, tomato and basil tasteless mozzarella, bland, anaemic tomato slices with two basil leaves. We also had a sausage roll which was as equally unpleasant to eat. There was a limited number of sauces to go with the food (no brown sauce or mustard). The staff were very helpful and pleasant and the tea was fine. We didn’t complain as there was nothing the staff could do as everything is brought in from a supplier although one has to question why. It’s a shame that the cafe is so awful because the garden is lovely and this lets it down.

We’ve been here before but the relaunch has not improved things. Do yourself a favour and buy a sandwich and a can of coke from a petrol station and have them in the garden. You’ll pay two thirds of the price and the quality will be the same. Also weirdly, the prices marked on the shelves are sometimes *more* then you’ll actually pay.

Visited on Thursday 05th May 2022. Reviewed the gardens separately but found the tearoom, nursery and shop wonderful in themselves and they have the added bonus of being accessible without having to pay the OTT entry fee. Not great options if your on any sort of diet but putting that aside the pre-packed food choices were good. Could benefit from offering Jacket Potatoes. Great indoor and outdoor seating options including covered exterior seating near the nursery. One great thing was the size of the teapots and corresponding milk jugs, really generous and a real plus.

We had a pot of tea for two, and two cakes. First the good. The tea was excellent and a large pot which we were very happy about. And plenty of outdoor tables half in shade/under cover. But now the not so good There were several large layer cakes which just seemed much bigger than we wanted so we ordered raspberry/coconut cake gluten free cake and a raspberry/almond bake. Given that it was gluten free the raspberry/coconut cake was quite nice, moist and tasty. But the raspberry/almond bake was inedible a very nasty and unpleasant flavour. The tearoom gain a point back for the quick response to our email (especially given it was Bank Holiday weekend).

Have not been here since pre-covid so was shocked at the changes. My daughter and I are coeliacs and are used to having a reduced menu wherever we go. We've been happy to have a jacket potato on previous visits, but the only hot food offered today was carrot and coriander soup with bread or a cheese scone at £6.95! I had £1 taken off as there was no gluten free option to have with it. Rather pricey I thought. My daughter is a vegan and there was nothing to buy with a GF/vegan label, so she had nothing to eat at all. They used to have a bowl of fruit but even that has been withdrawn now. I suggest that whoever runs the tearoom has a rethink and get up to date with current trends. Ok you may say being vegan is a personal choice, but being coeliac is a medical condition, and we don't all want to eat just cake for lunch on a day out! We won't stop coming to visit these beautiful gardens, but we will most certainly be bringing our own food with us in future. If all the local garden centre tearooms can cater for us without any problem then why can't this tearoom?