Simpsons Garden Centre

The Glass House is a large, bustling cafe inside Simpsons Garden Centre offering hot food and cakes with a good selection of vegan options and a salad bar.

Savoury options include breakfast avocado bagel, vegan ploughman’s sandwich or toastie (served with crisps, salad and coleslaw), soup or a baked potato with beans. At their salad bar I tried a vegan pastry (butternut squash, spinach and feta) with coleslaw, pasta salad and rainbow salad. I wasn’t blown away by the bought-in pastry, but I was impressed by the amount of salad. I couldn’t believe how much the server kept cramming onto my dish! The rainbow salad is your choice of any, or all, the platters in the front two rows of the salad bar plus a hearty vegan pasta salad and vegan coleslaw. This gives you about a dozen, simple salad choices such as mixed leaves, tomatoes, pickles, olives, peppers. I’d probably have a selection of salads and skip the pastry next time.

If you fancy something sweet, try the vegan pancakes or waffles served with fruit and vegan cream. I’m afraid I was too full after my enormous salad, so I’ll need to sample on a return trip.

Vegan options are marked on the menu as (VV) and they have the choice of soya, coconut, almond or oat milk for hot drinks.