Cartgate Lodge Cafe in South Somerset

Yummy sandwich, wanted to sit in but no dogs allowed thought tbh it's not exactly nice inside. Good staff though and good food.

Great. Nice, clean cafe. Very friendly and obliging staff and great food. Plenty of choice for both meat eaters and vegetarian/vegans. Able to sit inside and outside. Perfect for a lunch stop.

Was meant to be a 10 min stop only but ended up buying 2 delicious pasties

Always stop here when I can, whilst using the A303. Reasonable prices for roadside services and the toilets are usually clean, with some nice extra touches! Staff work hard to please and there are vegan options which have been good quality and decent size portions. Details below are regarding my latest visit but have often dined in for brunch, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner!

The best breakfast by far.....great service, fantastic food. Plenty of space and plenty of parking spaces. 👍👍

Such a Shame ! I have been coming to this cafe for over 30 years going back and forth to West Country, seen this cafe go from a 24hr stop with great honest food at a realistic price, over the years it has reduced it’s opening hour ( which I do understand due to cost ) but the food had gone down a little and prices have now risen which I think is now over priced, there are now more pre packed sandwiches and cakes which are pricey, I went in last week and asked for scrambled egg on brown toast to which I was told that they cannot do scrambled egg on Saturdays as they are to busy and only fried eggs were on offer, I went with the fried eggs and another plate of baked beans on toast, food arrived quickly on white toast, beans not really hot and fried eggs hard, two cups of tea and £15:00 later. Not great value. I think that in future if I want poor food with no real option I will go to the fast food chains that are increasingly available on the A303…please do not advertise that you can cater for individuals when you might be able to do that when it is not busy or is convenient for the business.

We always stop here on our way between Devon and London and we always get a warm welcome. The staff are friendly and it has a good "vibe".

A must when travelling, free parking, wheelchair friendly, toilets, food lovely.

Plenty of parking, good cafe , just don’t put A393 on your sat Nav. It’s the A303 near Yeovil Somerset not in Cornwall. .

Quick stop for a comfort break and food. Fresh food is available most of the day. Outside toilets being refurbished.

Not much to say really Clean rest area, watch the dog crap on the grass Breakfast in the lodge is amazing and go large of you can eat it Staff are a little odd but friendly enough

To small and couldnt cope with a coach load of customers

Service was fantastic and very clean and tidy the meals excellent and value for money will visit again

Been going there for over 30 years has an hgv driver.still working and visit often.still very good.don't like it when it gets busy .takes ages to get served.hey ho.

Great breakfast, reasonable price, very friendly staff. Always clean and tidy inside and out

car drivers park like dick heads. lorry driver have to park up by law yet can't always do this due to thick headed car drivers

Good menu at reasonable price. Plenty of parking and staff friendly.

Although the food (sausage and egg bap) was very nice, at £5:50 I thought it was overpriced. The cafe was doing a brisk trade with plates of breakfasts being brought out of the kitchen at regular intervals. It was clean and tidy in a peaceful location so perhaps this is what your paying the extra for?

Really peacefully place and reasonable parking for HGVs plus it's free, food is spot on reccomend this place

2 bacon rolls with 2 dry rashers of bacon with no butter a coffee and a tea £9.90 RIP off wouldn't bother again

A great little stop off on the A303. Staff very friendly, quirky decor, a good range of food on the menu and at a reasonable price. Outside there are picnic tables and dog bowls and a good area to walk the dog and stretch your legs. Plenty of parking.

Great little find but queues can quickly form when big groups arrive. Really good selection of food for all times of the day. It's rare to find services not owned by one of the big chains. No paper shop though

Not a very nice cup of tea. Staff were nice though.

Great place to stop for a break good food , drinks, clean toilet block

Stopped here for a coffee and a cornish pasty very nice.

Helpful, speedy, friendly service. Reasonably priced tasty bean burger and fries. Quirky and interesting decor.

We stop here all the time great spaces to stop good food and dog stop

Ideal stop halfway to Devon and Cornwall

Lovely place for a break on a long drive, there are toilets and a cafe. Perfect if you have a dog as there is a grassy area big enough for a leg stretch!

It is a useful pitstop for drivers ( I drive a Minibus). Easy parking. Toilets. Indoor and outdoor seating. Expect it would be busy over the Bank Holiday weekends.

Always a good place to stop on route to West Country and returning home, always friendly staff and excellent food

Bought a takeaway out coffee in paper cup. Sat putting cup on table and bottom of cup gave way and poured hot coffee through table slats onto me. I went back in and told them what had happened. No apology or offer of help to mop up coffee from trousers. Given another cup of same type and told they had complained to manufacturers about problems with cups! Just not acceptable.

Plenty of car parking spaces, toilets well kept as always, ideal stop off to have a breather & let the dog have a run around.

Beautiful spot to stop and amazing food at the cafe

I love this service stop. Great picnic area, or you can enjoy some fantastic homecooked food. No petrol garage, but some close by.

Did not go into cafe, however this service is vital for travelling on the A303.

A wonderful little cafe with indoor seating, picnic tables outside, toilets and parking. A nice varied menu from sandwiches, to breakfasts, lasagna and daily specials.

Great food, cooked to order. Lovely service and will be back as soon as I’m passing again

This place is just embarrassing, reminiscence of the old motorway transport cafes except these were actually better! How anyone on here has written the toilets where clean is beyond belief! They were just disgusting and stunk. Would strongly suggest stopping at the Mac Donald’s and coffee outlet services about 15 mins away.

I travel the A303 all the time and this has been my favourite stop for years. Really good, honest food, friendly people and it's not a rip off. I'm a vegetarian and there's always a good choice on offer for me (the veggie lasagne is the best). Also can't leave this place without a slice of bread pudding. It's iconic. There's plenty of room to park if you're in a camper van.

It's a typical 'services' area and gets pretty busy at times. Trees surround the area which is nice but there's lots traffic so children need to be kept an eye on when in the area

Nice place for a break in the drive. Staff friendly and helpful Toasted tea cake very nice

Good place to stop, picnic, stretch legs and visit toilet. Did not visit cafe so cannot comment on that. When we visited the toilets were clean and well serviced. Earlier reviewer claimed the toilets could be smelt from 100 yards; that's not the toilets, that's what we country folk call Farmyard Smells. This place is in the middle of farming land and sometimes you can expect to detect an aroma. If you can't stand the smell stick to the towns!

There was the worst cappuccino I have ever had. Lavazza is an excellent Italian coffee and I don't understand how it is possible to spoil the coffee like this. it was just hot water flavored with something, maybe it was coffee. Such a shame.

Great place to stop for a break. Free toilets. Large area to walk dogs.

Great full english and Gluten-Free options! Would highly recommend

Good proper food, reasonably priced in a nice setting.

Great place to stop for "rest & nourish" breaks during long journeys. Café offers extensive hot/cold snacks/meals with inside & outside areas for eating. Separate public toilets close by which are kept quite clean. Tourist office opposite, plus picnic area for motorists wishing to consume own food. Parking on left of cafe. (Recently, one of nature's gems decided to visit too, check out photos 🙂). Visited here on way down & return from Cornwall, weather lovely & almost all picnic tables within area being used. Enjoyed good cup of hot tea from café. Tubs of Impatiens outside toilets very pretty. On way back, toilets quite clean & plenty of paper but sadly on way down, as it was late afternoon/early evening, toilets were left with no paper & other customers had left most in awful state. So many have no shame in disposing soiled paper/nappies/sanitary items on floor of toilet, despite bins being provided for this. My heart goes out to the lovely staff who strive so hard to keep these clean, only for others to show zero respect.

Great place very reasonable price service Great, food excellent nothing to much trouble. Excellent

Nice cafe with good food and friendly staff.

Good rest area, and can park with caravan

Toilet's very clean 🫧 full time very nice lady work's there. Take's pride in her job. Cafe excellent. Nice picnic 🧺 area and a place to run the dog's. Car electric ⚡ charging etc. If on on long journey a place to break the boredom for the kids

An old fashioned transport cafe and none the worse for that. You will find friendly staff, plenty of dog bowls and very good home made cakes (the bara brith today was excellent and plentiful). Next time, I will try the puddings (spotted dick and chocolate pudding were on the menu today).

We stop here every time we visit family in Cornwall. It's a decent half-way (ish) location and we all happily tuck into a very reasonably priced full English breakfast. Always sets us up well for the second half of our journey.

Superb food as usual, Liver and Bacon with onion gravy mash and peas was excellent, my wife had the vegetable lasagne which was good also.

We stopped off for breakfast on our way to Devon and it was delicious. Traditional English breakfast was a real treat. Quick and friendly service.

Delicious traditional English breakfast was just what we needed on our journey to Devon. Friendly and quick service. Food was great.

Our regular stopping place on the A303

Quick stop. Food is good, service is slow

Fantastic place for a stop. Plenty of easy parking, clean, tidy and presentable.

Easy in, easy out. Great facilities, toilet, cafe play area for kids

Amazing cafe and pinic area! Food is reasonably priced and very tasty. Staff are very friendly and helpful always stop on my way down to Devon 👍

I tend to stop there on my way to Cornwall and home again, my favourite, egg and bacon sandwich.

A nice place for a short break during your journey. A cafe with nice staff, tasty coffee and quite edible food. The toilet is clean, there are plenty of tables. You can even take a walk to stretch your legs.

Really nice picnic spot just off the A303 with reasonably-priced cafe (eg fresh coffees under £3)

We always stop here on our way to Cornwall and home again lovely friendly staff. Nice and clean.

Cartgate has been our cafe pilgrimage and resting and eating place for a very long time. Cool trees to sit under and eat your picnic or purchase one of the many wonderful dishes on offer from the cafe. I would highly recommend Cartage picnic area and cafe. Very clean lavatory facilities with baby changing area within the disabled toilet area or in the outside Lavatories . Seperate male and female Lavatories are inside and outside of the cafe. Good cooked food and a good selection of cakes and sandwiches to takeaway. Eat in or outside. The tables have umbrellas for the protection from sunshine. Everyone working at Cartgate are very friendly and kind. There are little colouring activity packs to buy for a £2.00 donation. There is enough space for wheelchairs and access inside and outside is good. The decor inside is very interesting. Items made from mechanical paraphernalia of good quality and cleverly constructed. The interior is light and airy with comfortable seats and non wobbly tables with a variety of free sauces. Teas and coffees and soft drinks to. Soya milk or cows milk to add at your discretion. The vegan/vegetarian and English breakfasts is lovely and are available in small, medium or large . Specials are offered to. All food prepared on site by a brilliant chef. Well worth a visit. Parking facilities are very good. Whether in car, camper van or motorcycle. Thumbs up for Cartgate. Do hope that the visitor centre opposite to the cafe will reopen one day. Thank you to all at Cartgate for your service.

Nice little service area right on my doorstep. I noticed they had installed Swarco car chargers, which I thought would be great... That's half an hour of my life I won't get back! Won't accept credit cards or rfid you have to download their app. It then won't accept the location code because as I found out from swarco cust services. They had put a full stop on the code that the app won't accept...Life is too short to waste, go somewhere else to charge.

Good cafe on the a303 for a breakfast stop. Nice tasty breakfast.

Friendly staff Good breakfast

Always a good choice of food / snacks

Good honest food and much better value than Costa or Starbucks

Pulled in to cartgate at 16:20 today ordered food to be told they close at 17:00. I said that was in 40 minutes time. They said they had already started cleaning down in the kitchen and where not cooking food. I only wanted a bacon & egg bap and a jacket potato. This is not the first time this has happened. They should wait until the place closes and then clean down. Why advertise that your open until 5pm and not take orders 40 minutes earlier.

Very clean and friendly ,and lovely food all freshly cooked.we have been coming to cartgate for years.on our way ,to and from Holiday..

Good no frills food, ideal for the hungry traveller. Excellent value for money, friendly staff and service.

Nice area to stop. Dog bowls were full of green water. Unacceptable in my view. Luckily we had our own.

Handy, but uninspiring and gets really busy (queues for loos and drinks). Exit back onto main road can be slow if lots of traffic - although better when travelling eastbound.

Good place to break the journey back from the south west

1 of the best breakfasts on the way to West Country. Easy parking especially when you are 13mtrs with the caravan on the back!

Very nice food and drink there in a good location

Stopped for a rest and a sandwich. Pleasant area with picnic tables outside on the grass.

Good food again, 3 different meals all rated really good, chicken curry, cottage pie & mushrooms on toast , really nice place to stop off to take a break

Great place for a breakfast on your travels along the 303. Can sit outside with your dog

A very welcome break today from the madness that was the a303!!

Whenever we travelled to Cornwall as a family when I was a child, we always stopped at Cartgate. Recently took my own family to Cornwall and naturally stopped here during the journey. The food was delicious! Cooked to order, we were told there could be quite a wait due to this but food was served in more than reasonable time. Enjoyed looking at all the metalwork art as well. Our little boy was particularly taken with the reindeer and bird of prey.

Best food, best service, cleanest facilities. Friendly staff. Lovely outside area for dogs. Consistently excellent.

I was going to get a coffee but after using the stinkiest mens toilets I decided against it, honestly, toilets smelt like they have never been cleaned, ammonia, I will give it a miss on the way back from cornwall.

Great place to stop when travelling on A303. Food is better than the usual motorway service stations and freshly prepared.

Great place tracy is great lady to cleaning up loos and the bins great friend past 6 years

2024 We use this as a rest and picnic stop on our way to Devon for comfort and walk the dog A lot of rubbish and full bins Loos are clean though It's the rubbish that has annoyed us

Lovely setting in which to stop for a rest and some food from the road. Easy access and picnic area with toilets.

I can't comment on the food. I purchased a ham and tomato sandwich and a bag of crisps and was charged £7.45 it seems a bit steep for that. We will see what the response is from the cafe.

Handy plus to stop but can be very busy

Ok for a quick pit stop whilst giving the dog a break from the car

Unheard of! Wait for this!! Fasten your seatbelt!!! …. Waitress delivers your cooked-to-order food to your table!!!! Obviously on a plane far above national chains.

Have used Cartgate as a rest break for years. As far as services go this is a lovely stop on the A303. Toilets, little cafe offering everything from chocolate bar to full English. Plenty of parking for cars, caravans and HGVs.

Food did not taste fresh cooked and have a bad tummy for 2 days may not be related but never know .service was great and the place is so clean go there regular but was not as good this time

Bacon for bacon sandwiches were microwaved, slimey and probably the worst bacon sandwiches that the three of us who ordered them, have ever had the displeasure of trying to eat. Wouldn't go back here for food in future unless things change dramatically.

Great location, quality food, will definitely be making this my pit stop to Cornwall

Nice stop off poibt when travelling