Balcombe Tea Rooms in Mid Sussex

Really friendly, great cakes, altogether a pleasure to visit.

Feb 2024 Only found this place by accident. Glad I did on the way back from Haywards Heath. Very polite and friendly staff. Good quality food. My milkshake was huge! Would recommend. Lovely English breakfast cooked well. Good produce. Lovely display of cakes. Clean and experienced great service. Will definetely visit again to try another dish. Thankyou

Very much something of the past, very gentile old fashioned tea room, with friendly service and a good selection of cakes.

The Steak Pie was simply amazing. Lovely food

The number one reason for passing through the village was to have cream tea on a sunny Saturday morning, and Balcombe Tea Rooms exceeded all expectations. The staff were super friendly and we felt very welcomed. The cream tea was very good, as was the bacon, egg & mushroom Club Sandwich (I’m salivating just thinking about it!) Couldn’t have had a better experience stopping by the tea rooms. I look forward to returning when I’m next in the area - thanks you looking after us :)

I visited this gem of a cafe today with my auntie and cousin - my first time and was so sad to hear that it’s up for sale - hope someone takes this lively little place over, as it is clearly a popular place with visitors and locals alike. All the food is fresh and home made. We had between us carrot and coriander soup, cheese omelette and salad and Eggs Benedict, all delicious. If you have room, there is a vast array of mouth watering home made cakes. Friendly, cosy and welcoming. Top marks from us.

Hi marc kitcher my favourite tea room Balcombe as relly in joy come with my friend the food his lovey the are lovey and frendly marc kitcher

Lovely, friendly, cafe. INCREDIBLE selection of cakes & treats

Proper homemade food, delicious & large portions. I’ll miss them when the two fantastic ladies retire

Excellent, been regular customer for nearly 20 years, bit rustic but great food, all homemade 😜

Checked opening times for Balcombe Tea Rooms on Google and it said it was open on Wednesdays. We decided to do a nice 3 mile walk from Ardingly Reservoir car park, have some lunch in the tea rooms and walk back on a Wednesday. After reading all the reviews we were looking forward to a nice lunch and when we got there, it was closed and the sign in the window said it’s not open on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Someone needs to update their info on Google.

This is a lovely cafe for traditional English food. The waiting staff are friendly and attentive. The hot dishes come to the table steaming. The cakes are fresh. The prices are reasonable. It is a cafe rather than a restaurant and I don’t think it is licensed. The table are quite close together as it is very popular. Beware it is not open on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday.

Made us sandwiches and chips 30 miles into a 50 mile charity walk despite us turning up after closing time and in doing so pretty much saved our lives. Thank you so much

I have not been for a few years but always reliably good home cooked food. Make sure you book a table ahead.

Just a brilliant English Tearoom. Great home made food friendly staff and dog lovers too. Sit inside or out on small front terrace. A regular stop for us and never fails to be great. Sometimes gets busy so go early or reserve a table. Personal favourite Omelette & half n half ! Half salad & half chips. If you're hungry you will certainly enjoy. Their range of home made cakes are just temptation personified! Sadly they are planning to sell and will be hugely missed Hope whoever eventually takes over keeps up the high standards.

Fantastic fabulous home cooked food and very nice owners. The macaroni was lovely. South a shame will be closing.

This is a legendary institution. Much loved and , horror of horrors, up for sale! Experience this before it goes the way of all good things.

Cosy village atmosphere and the best fresh, warm apple cake I've ever had. Can't wait to go back.

Great home cooked food, large portions, good value for money, lovely ambiance and dog friendly. What's not to like - a real gem.

Super friendly service, busy with all the locals which brings in a lovely atmosphere! Very nice home cooked food. We came here after the local pub turned us all away as tables where all reserved but no one was there. Ended up being super lovely in the cafe. Very much recommended!

Loved it friendly staff good food

We've been coming here for many years and the service and food has always been excellent. Christine and Maria are the most fantastic cooks and produce some of the best home cooking we've ever had. The portions are more than enough to fill you, so much so that we usually take our dessert home with us to eat for our tea making it good value for your money. Going for the roast dinner this Sunday and we're all looking forward to it.

Wonderfull home cooked cakes and food is lovely. The girls are very friendly keep going back f or more decent food .

The best breakfast 😋 amazing, excellent service friendly and dogs 🐕 are welcome, always go the extra mile to please everyone, fabulous 👌 well done. We will definitely be back 🙂

We visited the tea rooms a few years back and decided to come back after staying in Haywardsheath for the night. The full English breakfast and scrambled eggs on toast that we had were amazing. The service was excellent we will definitely be returning.

Breakfast please! Wow. First visit to the tea rooms with a friend for a hearty winter breakfast. A warm welcome was followed by good menus, and shortly after, a Full Breakfast option was delivered. What makes a good “Full English” all day breakfast? Well, for me it’s two things. 1) all the likely candidates on a plate, and most importantly 2) really good produce cooked really well. BAM! (A technical review term) The Balcombe Tea Rooms nailed both of these pre-requisites. It was obviously good produce, obviously freshly cooked to order, and delicious. (Hash browns cooked to slightly crispy perfection too 🙂). I ventured to the rear of the rooms, walking slowly past the 21 different home made cakes, (phew, on another day will make a start on those) to visit the engine room and pass on my thanks to the team. Thanks passed on, and talking more of my slow pass of the cakes, we got into memories of My Mums jam tart with lattice pastry. This led to me walking way with “The Balcombe Tea Rooms Secret Pastry Recipe” affording me the chance to try and replicate my own tart. (No, I am not going to pass on the recipe so please don’t ask). So, in summary, if you are passing within a hundred miles of The Balcombe Tea Rooms, and fancy a cool breakfast (or any of their other wares including the 21 different homemade cakes) please pop in and support a local small business. Well done folks.

Very much like breakfast, my favorite place, thank you.

Went for take away coffee. Asked for latte and received filter coffee in a cup / lid that wasn’t fit for purpose. Cup broke and got hot coffee all over me. Sure nice place but need to sort out takeaway experience

Good place before hike. Great variety of cakes and pies

My husband and I visit this tearoom fairly regularly and have always had delicious food and wonderful service. However, today we took our baby Granddaughter for the 1st time and we were so impressed with the way she was welcomed. They prepared a small dish for her with toast already cut into fingers and gave her baby cutlery and plate. So thoughtful, a lovely touch and she ate it all without any fuss. Thank you for another enjoyable lunch and see you again soon.

It was closed with no information online. We were looking forward to it after our 3 hour walk :( You might want to call and confirm it is open

What a delightful tea room! Friendly staff, lovely home cooked food, gorgeous home baked cakes and great coffee.

Lovely atmosphere and good food

Went back for breakfast after a previous visit.did not disappoint.He had full English I had Bacon .egg and mushroom triple sandwich on granary bread all freshly made to order.also grabbed so.e cake for takeaway later All home baked there.A gem of a place tucked away in the Village.a must visit if your hungry

I stopped here on my hiking trip to Wakehurst for a cup of tea. The smell of scones made me order one, and it was a good choice.

Homemade cakes, friendly owners, and filling sandwiches (3 bread layers!) Nice to way to start and end a hike :)

Amazing chicken pie all home cooked and piping hot

Very nice to relax and always a nice welcome.Food is freshly cooked and served and very good.cakes are splendid to eat in or wrapped to take away. Lovely all round

Visited for lunch in February 2022 and both the service and food were excellent. Highly recommend and will definitely revisit.

My husband and I had the most wonderful full English here. Highlights in particular were the quality of the bacon, and the toast, made with fresh bread and oozing with butter. It was clearly cooked with care, like if you got a fry up cooked by your family’s best chef. Very reasonably priced too and very very friendly service. Will absolutely be back soon!

Nice food friendly people Very cosy

Great food, great service as always and an amazing selection of cakes. Would definitely recommend going.

Ordered latte and Americano. So bad had to leave it.

We've just arrived, at 14:15 on Saturday 20 November to find the door locked and yet people inside enjoying their afternoon tea. I would have given zero stars if Google had let me. Not very welcoming after a 10 mile walk! Avoid.

Amazingly tasty home food and wonderful cakes. Highly recommended!

Excellent service, impressive range of cakes (the ones we bought were fresh and tasty), great coffee and a satisfying cooked breakfast.

Great home made quiche. Good food selection. Owners are very helpful and attentive. Pet friendly and, nearly as important, human friendly.

Sorry but over rated! Service very slow and when the food arrived it was at the best poor! Ciabatta and sandwiches were under filled and very tasteless! Only 2 staff members with too many customers to cope with! We will probably not be returning sadly!

Wow what a little gem this place is! The lovely ladies were very friendly and the coffee and food selection are amazing! Very well done x

Stopped here on a circular walk from Nymans. It is about halfway on the walk so excellent place to rest for a while. Staff were friendly and took great care over COVID procedures even though the rules have been relaxed so very reassuring. They had gluten free bread so I had a bacon sandwich which was good whilst we also had a piece of coffee cake which was excellent. The actually had a very extensive selection of cakes so something for most to choose. They also offered freshly made takeout sandwiches. Definitely a pleasant place to stop for coffee and cake and I am sure that their lunch selection would have been just as good.

Lovely cafe! The owner is so friendly and welcoming, food and drinks were delicious and arrive in good time, prices are very reasonable,and my friend and I both were impressed with the attention to detail with covid-risk reduction measures.

Incredibly friendly service. Delicious home made food. The perfect tea room.

Went here with friends, our second visit. Lovely meal as before, I am only a small eater, so the waitress very kindly suggested she would make me a (doggy bag)😀so I could take the remainder home.

Excellent tea room, huge selection of home made cakes, drinks and main meals. Generous portions at very reasonable prices served by helpful, attentive staff Recommended.

Today was my first visit to the Balcombe Tea Rooms and I intended to have just a pot of tea and some cake but when I saw the meals on the other tables and the specials board, I suddenly became very hungry and had to order. Was I disappointed, definitely not. Freshly cooked to order, much of the menu is homemade and very generous portions. Run by two lovely ladies who work their socks off. Couldn't manage the cake, so got some to take home with me. Love it and will be going back. Thanks for a lovely afternoon.

Fabulous and charming tea room with an amazing selection of cakes. Their carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and filling is a must have! The English breakfast was a huge portion and tasted delicious. The service was also excellent.

Lovely service, space restricted by covid but we sat in the bus shelter and were served in there.

Delicious cakes but expensive at £6.50 each so we decided to share one. Very friendly staff.

Slow service, and overpriced. Cake wasn't nice and didn't compare to the price. Coffee was OK and staff seemed lovely.

Lovely food lovely service and wonderful people. A quaint English tea room.

Very friendly service with a smile. We were just passing so could not pre book table however take away just fine. Brunch - egg and Bacon granary bread samwhich absolutely delicious. Standing at the door the wonderful smell of the food 🤤.

A real delight Great food and cake selection excellent Always a friendly welcome and dog 🐕 friendly

Best ham, egg and chips. A lovely, friendly establishment. Everything clean and adhering to Covid-19 guidelines. They do take away too, which is really useful. We were so full but the cakes were so tempting we had the cake to take away and enjoy later.

Warm welcome and good homecookedfood.

Me and my partner wound up in Balcome after following a trail from Haywards Heath. We stopped for a coffee and a chocolate fudge cake. There was some problem with the service due to the fact that they were officially past their closing time but people kept coming (and I know why). The cake was very nice but really surprised me was the cofee. I am used to espresso or moka coffee made with arabica beans (guess where I'm from) and I've never really got into "the rest of the world coffee" but this coffee made me rise my eyebrows with surprise! I loved it! I highly recommend this place!

Great service from the loveliest lady. Made a fuss of our dog with some yummy biscuits for him. Our lunch was tasty - the home made quiche was delicious. Highly recommend

Coffee and cake were had here , rather than another overly expensive beer at the pub. Staff polite and helpful, and made all customers feel at home. Can't recommend enough

Make sure you're hungry before you go as portions are huge. Food is good, cooked to order

Amazing staff and the cakes are to die for not only that but the menu is full of lovely homely food that makes you miss living with your mum

Very lovely tea room. Good quality food and nice service, most important is they are very children friendly. We have two under two, but I felt so relaxed at this sweet tea room. Highly recommended!

I'm really sorry to say this was not good. I don't like complaining and would rather have sent you a quiet email than give you a bad review, but couldn't find an email address. First the good - the cup of tea was ok and the waitress was friendly and helpful. Lockdown has started to ease so a reduced menu is fine, but there's no reason why the quality should be poor. Things that were bad you could so easily put right - put sun umbrellas outside so people can eat with some shade on hot days. My husband's milk shake was meant to be 'raspberry' - it looked yellow in colour and had no flavour, just sugary sweet. My 'pavlova' was uncooked, soggy egg white inside a thin layer of outer crust and a thimbleful of strawberries. Then to my horror I found a cluster of hairs inside!! Not just a single one!! The waitress was apologetic and I was not charged for that item but, particularly during these times of Covid and MORE hygiene being needed, I felt this was inexcusable and I couldn't trust their hygiene protocols after that. What is the point of a waitress in visor and gloves and sanitiser at the door if the kitchen hygiene is such that multiple hairs can fall into a meringue mix??!! This was absolutely shocking and unbelievable. We were so disappointed after making a trip to this place based on good TripAdvisor reviews.

Me and my parter went on a walk from the reservoir and ended up at the tea room. The 2 lady were lovely and friendly. We had the cream tea it was great!!!

Stopped here for the 1st time today for a cheeky coffee and cake while out bike riding. Lovely ladies, very friendly, great coffee and even better Carrot cake. Thanks

My first visit to my Mums favourite cafe. We were greeted like old friends. It was difficult to choose from the huge lunch menu and specials board. Amazing that just two ladies could provide so much variety of lovely home cooked meals and such excellent service - so friendly and helpful. We will be going back soon - got to try afternoon tea next as their cakes looked delicious too.

Great service. Very attentive. One of our members commeted, "The best bacon sandwich I've ever had." The food was certainly good and served without delay and a big smile. All members vere (7) well satisfied and said they would deffinitely visit again.

Friendly, personable home cooked food

I Had a delicious Gluten free breakfast here today and it was so nice i will be going back again Its Brilliant when people understand allergies Thanku so much xxxxx

Best food for miles around! If you‘re looking for a tasty, home-cooked lunch with all the trimmings, this is the place for you. If you allow yourself a little extra time, you won’t be disappointed if the meal takes a little longer than expected — and it’s not because the service is slow, it’s that the place is packed, the food is cooked fresh, and the owners are running around trying to please everyone. Great value, great food, great experience — don’t miss it! (Oh, and the afternoon tea is wonderful, too)

Delicious traditional Sunday roasts, can't wait until friends and family come from abroad to bring them here. How the duo manage when it's busy I'll have no idea but when I've been there and it's been busy I still felt like I was their only customer as they were so attentive. The food is amazing, often a large variety means nothing is done well but it's so well managed that it works. Every meal our family have had there has left them raving and everyone else excited by something different. The cakes are beautiful, large and delicious. A good variety of flavours so everyone we were with, multiple times, was excited by at least one of them. I often have to make the tough decision between a few but fortunately my wife has similar taste so we share. I cannot recommend this place enough

Marvelous little tea room that does gorgeous big meals too.

Delicious food, especially the Sunday roast, and the cake selection is wonderful. An adorable cafe and the staff are lovely. Would recommend booking as when it gets busy could be tough to get a table, but that also likely depends on the day.

Loved the Full English and veggie breakfast, big pot of tea as standard, will come back sometime and eat all the wonderful home made cakes that were on display. Fuelled our long, muddy autumn walk perfectly.

We popped in to get a couple of take-away slices of cake and were pleasantly surprised at the wide range available - all seemingly home made. Not bad value either at (I think) £2.75 for a generous slice. We'll definitely be back.

Best place ever been going since I was young and never turned it down to go any were else

Having tried a good amount of Cream Teas in my life, I can nearly call myself a cream tea expert :P This is one of my favourite places to come for a cream tea and not just because this place shares the same name. If you do feel like walking off those calories, there is a lovely walk to do around the corner that takes you through a sweet little forest and fields with grazing horses. But no one is judging in Balcombe. So you could just go straight home :)

Our Paninis were undercooked. There was a vast menu which led to us wondering how they could have such a big menu in such a tiny place.

A lovely tea room cafe, with lots to choose from on the menu. Food is delicious and the staff are very friendly and welcoming.

Maria & Christine looked after us superbly, setting up tables & serving up delicious breakfasts and irresistible cakes. Thank you ladies - we will definitely be making a return visit.

We regularly eat here for a family Sunday lunch or a sandwich after a dog walk. The food is delicious especially the Sunday roasts, the homemade soups, all the puddings and cakes! The simple things such as sandwiches and snacks are perfectly done. Portions are generous. The staff are nothing short of miracle workers ... always friendly and kind, calm under pressure and how they produce such a varied menu and so much food from the tiny kitchen with one lady cooking I do not know. But they consistently exceed expectations. There are lots of local regulars and walkers etc., and everyone is warmly greeted with a kind word. It's very dog friendly and great for children. A little gem.

Lush food, great friendly local service, the cakes these ladies produce are phenomenal and so many different flavours

Great place for all types of refreshments and all home cooked, - yummy 😋.

We stopped for lunch. Everything is home made and is totally delicious. The staff are very helpful and efficient. Main meals are huge but because the food is so good you regret leaving any.

Arrived after a big rush, all tables full of dirty dishes but efficient and professional waitress greeted us outside and sat by a nice window table. Had a BLT chicken sandwich which was very large made with real chicken breast. The portion of chips was truly amazing, twice cooked so very crispy, I even thought they were cooked in goose fat! Quite scrumptious! Top little gem.

Superb local tearooms with an excellent range of food at good prices. All cakes are home made an delicious.

Cracking little local team room with lovely friendly staff. A perfect stop for a cup of tea and lunch when out walking in the beautiful surrounding countryside.

In centre of village,. Varied light food Village meeting place

Absolutely lovely little cafe. The staff are incredibly friendly and the food is amazing. We had a hot main, which was delicious, and some some of the best cake we have had in a long time.

Chris & Maria the owners are lovely people, so kind and accommodating, we have been visiting their tea room on a regular basis for the past 12 years, they have seen us bring up our children from new borns. Today they provided us with afternoon tea for 26 guests for a party back at our home. All our guests loved the food and said how amazing it was, we was only to happy to tell them all to visit the tea room for the best homemade food and scones around.You will not be disappointed if you like quality homemade lunches and cakes, don’t hesitate to visit.

Very pleasant tea rooms, friendly courteous staff, reasonable value, excellent triple decker BLT, very generous pot of tea. Quiet when I called in mid week but parking might be tricky at weekends.

This is a great place to drink and eat