Ruskington Garden Centre Coffee Shop and Restaurant

The attraction of choosing a garden centre for morning coffee, lunch or tea is not only the prospect of some fine food but also the relaxing surroundings.

You are usually within view of beautiful plants and the gentle hissing of any watering just adds to the ambiance. Allow time for a little pre- or post-meal retail therapy and you have the makings of a grand day out.

One of the county’s longest established, family run garden centres is at Ruskington and the Elkington family apply their years of farming wisdom in continually investing in the business and its facilities.

Ruskington Garden Centre is located on the edge of the village, with plenty of free parking space and is housed around heritage farm buildings. You will find there is always a great choice of seasonal as well as perennial plants and shrubs, gardening accessories, giftware and local speciality produce.

Many locals and visitors hone in on the garden centre as an inviting and convenient place to meet up. On the day I visited there were mums and children enjoying lunch, plenty of morning coffee takers and those just looking to take a break from browsing.

There is a long-established and tight-knit group of staff in the cafe who work seamlessly together and there was a constant flow of ordering and trays being delivered to tables. The menu is on a large, wall hung blackboard and you make your selection at the counter. The accent is on fresh food, with all meals prepared to order and a very enticing selection of cakes and bakes, homemade in the kitchen to tempt you even further. I really liked the look of the kitchen’s plum loaf or the fresh cream Pavlova.

There are freshly prepared salads and paninis, jacket potatoes with a wide variety of fillings as well as omelettes and hot meal options such as ham, egg and chips or Lincolnshire Mountain sausage baps.

I sat down to enjoy a barista latte while my order of cheese omelette with salad was prepared. The assurance that the chefs use free range, local produce from sustainable sources was very reassuring. What a colourful plate of food arrived. Cooking an omelette can be tricky, with tastes varying from runny in the middle to very firm, but this was still soft and airy with a generous helping of cheese in the middle. The colour came from the mixed salad of leaves, diced peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and a heaped spoonful of coleslaw on the side. This perfectly fitted the description of a lunch which more than satisfied but did not stop me in my tracks for the afternoon of work still to finish. I was too full, though, to try a cake. Sounds like this may be the perfect excuse to call back again soon.

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