Green Fingers Cafe in Wealden

Stephen and the Babylon team were brilliant, looked after 12 of us really well with great coffee and everything from gorgeous looking BLTs to delicious cakes (I can personally recommend both the Coffee Cake and the Lemon & Elderflower). The greenhouse is a hidden gem so you can be out in the daylight and still be warm even on a grey old day!

I spent a lovely evening last night at Babylon Eco’s Secret Kitchen event. Can I just say what a wonderful night. The food was inspiring (a special mention to the Greek salad granite which although looked like a bowl of shaved ice, contained all the tastes of a Greek salad – brilliant!) and the service was excellent, full marks to the chef Alex and his crew, I whole heartily recommend that you attend one of these special evenings.

Just came here with my mum. Such a lovely setting and the food was delicious, lots of flavours. Service friendly and relaxed. A lovely spot to enjoy and dog friendly.

A little gem! great food and quiet friendly atmosphere. Truffle and cheese chips in particular were delicious. Dog friendly and great selection of plants at good prices.

Excellent food, service, ambience and location. I eat here at least once a week. The best place for miles. Alex and his team never fail to impress.

We’ve just returned from a fabulous lunch at Babylon, my first visit and there will be many more! The menu is exciting, food beautifully prepared and absolutely delicious. The whole atmosphere of the place is almost other-worldly, an oasis of calmness and totally unspoiled and un commercialised, truly suited to its situation in the beautiful Ashdown Forest. The plants are very varied, ranging from the unusual to the humble petunia and do not look like the usual garden centre items that that been delivered en masse by a large lorry. A real gem of a place!

Came across this place when going to Hartfield and very glad we did. It was extremely busy and we were well informed that there would be a wait. We chose to wait and very glad we did. We were bought drinks very quickly. We had 2 breakfasts which was really tasty. The server was very friendly, pleasant and efficient given the popularity of Babylon. Staff couldn’t do enough for you. I live near the forest and have not noticed this place before so I can only assume this is a relatively new venture so I wish them luck and we hope to be back.

Visited today for tea and cakes, Nobody welcomed us and we waited ages for someone to take our order for tea and cake. Told only scone or a cake available and then waited ages for tea and scones to arrive. The waitress apologised for everything including to be tired at 300pm in the afternoon. Such a shame as have supported this lovely little place for so long but will not return. What happened to all those lovely cakes on the counter?

Called in today on way home from Brighton. £5.95 for Toasties I thought to myself these must be good at this price. Standard toastie plan white sliced bread a wafer thin tomato and piece of cucumber on top of a piece of lettuce that was smaller than them. The coffee was a small cup overpriced. The only saving grace was the fruit strudel with cream at £4.95. Total bill was £25.10! Would I go back not on your nelly at these prices. The toilets were to their credit spotless.

Visited for lunch & the tuna salad was crisp, well presented & plate full. Apple pie and custard delicious & filling. New friendly & helpful staff

We visit this cafe and garden centre on a regular basis after walking on the forest. The staff are always friendly and helpful. Coffee and cakes are delicious. Dogs are mad welcome with complimentary dog biscuits and plenty of water bowls. It’s especially lovely in the summer to sit on the deck or in the courtyard.

This cafe reuse milk left on the side in other peoples drinks from the days leftovers and milk bottles are visible on the side and do not seem to be refrigerated throughout the day in between use , no hairnets and only one chopping board visible. Overall, the owner was not very accepting or accommodating of people with learning difficulties or mental illness.Would not recommend the cafe, the food is poorly prepared and overpriced for the disappointing meals presented. When I visited, the bathroom appeared unclean and cats and a dog seemed to roam behind the counter of the cafe which is an issue for me as my daughter has a cat fur allergy so sitting inside the cafe was not a viable option for us. Overall, incredibly dissatisfied.

A lovely little cafe situated in a garden centre on Ashdown Forest. Having gazed at delicious looking cakes and scones on the counter, our light lunch arrived after a 45 mins wait, by this time very hungry. The large jacket potato was far from large and had been microwaved so no crispy skin and just cooked. The so call roasted vege as a filling, dare I say had not been roasted and tasteless. Plus a few slices of goats cheese. A small inadequate , poorly presented meal for the price. Instead of a lovely big chunk of fresh crispy bread on the ploughman’s, there was one of those small repacked frozen baguettes meant for the oven. Ours and all the others in the restaurant looked a pale insipid colour. We wished we had, had a piece of cake. But we were out for lunch and wanted a bit more. NOT a satisfying meal.

I had written the glowing review below on Friday and decided to revisit on Sunday. I’ve now marked down from a 5/5 review due to the poor experience on Sunday:I went to the counter and began to place my order, starting with Welsh rarebit for my co-eater. The older (usually quite flustered) lady taking my order turned round and looked at the clock over her shoulder, which read 2:40pm. She then looked back at me with a pained expression on her face, as if expecting me to interpret her meaning. I enquired if it was too late for hot food (it can only take a few minutes to grill a few slices of cheese on a piece of bread?) to which she replied, “it is getting on a bit, yes”. There was no note that we had seen on the menu, no apology, just that she wasn’t willing to prepare hot food. We left and I phoned a few minutes later, to ask if there was a hot food cut off time. I’m sure I spoke to the same lady, who told me the cut off time was now, to which I asked if there was a set time listed on the menu; she replied 3pm, but they had run out of everything (even bread and cheese?!) and so had stopped serving hot food for the day. She made no mention of this to me when I tried to place the order! On the plus side, there is now the option of paying by card, but you must first be allowed to place an order!***Green Fingers Cafe is a hidden gem in the heart of the Ashdown Forest; we only discovered it via TripAdvisor! It is more of a nursery than a commercialised garden centre and it even has resident cats! The cafe itself is housed in a small wooden hut, which is cosy and decked out with homewares which are for sale. The menu is quite extensive for a little place and has a specials blackboard too. A wide variety of items feature, such as sausage and beans jacket potato and very reasonably priced ice cream sundaes. In fact, the only thing that seems to be missing is ice cream milkshakes. The service was prompt and friendly but the slight downside is that payment seems to be by cash only.We paid around £12 for a luxury hot chocolate (so impressive I wish I'd taken a photo!), a slice of treacle tart and a cream tea for one. The cream tea consisted of a large, warmed, soft fruit scone, a tray with butter, jam and cream and a 3 cup teapot with hot water and milk jugs and was presented beautifully. My co-eater said the scone was excellent, which is high praise indeed! The hot chocolate was not too sweet, despite the mountain of cream and marshmallows (and bonus marshmallows hidden under the cream!) However, the main draw had to be the treacle tart, which must be the biggest slice served in Sussex!! The photo doesn't really do it justice, but it must have been approaching 2" deep and 4" wide at the crust! I chose to have mine served warm with custard and ice cream (just in case my blood sugar level wasn't high enough after the hot chocolate). The tart was delicious; very sweet but tempered nicely by the ice cream, with light pastry. Whilst we were eating, we saw someone's order of quiche, which looked delicious and enormous, so we'll definitely be returning to try more of the menu!

I can’t say enough to recommend this cafe. We were lucky as not too many people when we ate here. I should imagine when full it is a little difficult to move around as tables packed in. However the service is really good. Nice and friendly. The food-home cooked was really tasty. My husband had the cheese board (decent size cheese wedges) and I had quiche Lorraine and salad. Will definitely eat here again and had the added advantage of being an independent garden centre with really reasonably priced plants.

A nice cafe with nice food. The customer service as a bit lacking though, with a particularly cheap trick of not asking which type of bread you would prefer and automatically selecting it for you if you forget to ask and then charging you £2.50 to rectify it.A shame as the meal was quite tasty. If they were just a bit more accommodating it would be much improved.

Such a lovely cafe, but was really upset when feelings were made very clear that younger children were not welcome...well they are welcome as long as they are stationary and silent! As a parent with high expectations of my child’s behaviour I felt most unwelcome!

Benefitting from Duddleswell Tea Rooms having their winter break, we arrived lucky to sit at a table only just vacated. Just a quick stop for us, but enough time for a slice of cake and a hot chocolate. Very nice and staff were friendly too.

I came across this cafe whilst out for a drive it was in a lovely setting. On arriving at the counter I was told there would be a wait for the food. I ordered tea for two and two meals. The tea took 20 minutes to arrive. I waited and waited and waited for my food eventually it arrived after 55 minutes. 10 minutes after the friend I was with. By the time my food arrived I was over hungry and didn't enjoy it that much. The best thing about this cafe is the location and the lovely friendly customers who I got to know pretty well after waiting for the food for so long.

We have always used the Duddleswell Tea Rooms after a walk but disappointingly this was close (for winter?). A short way up the road we found this garden centre cum cafe.Wow what a find! Typical tea room, lovely tea, cake, buns, cakes etc. Good friendly service and good selection of fare.Really enjoyed our visit.

Nice place and food when it arrived. But 30 minute wait to warm up a bit of quiche is a bit much! Was very busy though - think staff were a bit overwhelmed!

Came for breakfast, lovely cosy cafe. We had the Big Breakfast, Scrambled Egg on Muffin, Scrambled Egg on brown toast and a toasted cheese sandwich.

This is the 5 th time I have visited this lovely cafe . It makes the walk on ashdown forest even more enjoyable. The menu is extensive and great value for money . I had the most gorgeous homemade quiche with salad and baguette and my friend had a really tasty omelette loaded with cheese and ham . The service is very relaxed and friendly and the choice of cakes and pastries extensive . The lady who served us gave us a local map of the extensive walks you can go on around the area . Just wish we had the time to go on a 2nd walk of the day to justify going back for tea and cake .

We've been visiting Ashdown Forest Garden Centre for quite some time now. The nursery staff are as good as anyone with their excellent and detailed knowledge of plants and how to handle them and they have a great plant offer but sometimes you need to ask if they have something and miraculously they will produce a plant not out on display but awaiting transfer to the public areas.

We have been to the Green Fingers Cafe on many occasions in the past as we live near Crowborough and not too far away from this cafe.

Viajo regularmente entre Goudhurst y el Ditchling y hemos disfrutado tratando muchas rutas y muchos cafés. Último viaje llamé a Green Cafe dedos. Haré ahora un punto de llamar regularmente como este precioso lugar poco tiene de todo. Impecablemente limpio, personal atento, gran selección de pasteles caseros, en su mayoría excelente selección de comida, servicio rápido, precios más razonables, perros, limpio y encantador de loos selección de regalos. ¿Qué más podría pedir cualquiera. Si estás cerca del bosque de Ashdown son un punto de llamar aquí para refrescos. Si estás en cualquier lugar cerca de Maresfield o pasando a través de su gps a TN22 3JP y llegue al verde en los dedos Duddleswell. (cerrado los lunes) están en el SE2026. Yo estaba muy impresionado y estoy seguro de que será así. Muy raro en un lugar como éste hacer todo bien!

Nosotros somos visitantes habituales de café verde los dedos durante todo el año. Hoy decidimos almorzar y quería un sandwich. Pedí un jamón ahumado, tomate y mostaza sándwich en marrón sin mantequilla. Mi compañero tenía un sándwich de jamón y marrón de hongos. Después de arrancar nuestro café nos dijeron que sólo tenían suficiente para un sándwich de jamón, así que uno de nosotros tienen tocino. Yo estaba un poco sorprendido (como el jamón es un clásico) sin embargo me había tocino con tomate y mostaza.

Sándwiches y personal muy amable. Resto de menú parecía y olía bien. Centro de un pequeño y bonito jardín con algunas plantas decente. Pequeña zona de juegos para los niños. Aseos bien.

Salón de té junto al centro jardín en Duddleswell. Buena variedad de té y pasteles. Tuve el rarebit, que estaba bien. Venía con bacon Todo sabe mejor con tocino. Dada la ubicación, las vistas eran apagados. Vale la pena entrar a si están pasando y quieres un aperitivo ligero.

Probablemente aquí más de 100 veces para el desayuno con diferentes miembros de mi familia, se sienten muy orgullosos de que es en mi puerta, siempre comida genial y el personal siempre atento a todo, un lugar muy especial con un personal excepcional. Bien hecho. Jerry Jones

Es un buen lugar para parar a tomar un café y comer un bocado. Personal amable y una buena selección de comida casera. Puedes comer afuera si el clima es seco. También cafe es perros. Lo recomiendo altamente. Mucho aparcamiento y jardín también vale la pena visitar.

Estado aquí con mi novio que trabaja aquí y es absolutamente increíble mejores cafeterías alrededor y vivo en Newcastle con Starbucks y costa, pero esta es una completa revelación

Been here a couple of times with parents. Each time is lovely. Everything made to order with friendly courteous service.

This is a pleasant cafe but really quite expensive for what you get. The menu says large jacket potato I've never seen one so small. Most of the cakes seems to be about £4 per slice, it just seems a bit too pricey for a garden centre cafe.

We went here after our drenching on the pooh walk. The tea pot was a considerable size and good value. Nice feel and pleasant freindly staff - recommended

We always stop here for coffee or lunch when we drive from Surrey to Eastbourne to visit family! A wonderful place. Good food, good service etc

Excellent lunches, all freshly made, if sunny sit on the terrace or outside, small and friendly, and visit the nursery after!

This place has the customers needs on point! I've been going here for a few years and have never been disappointed.It is a lovely relaxing place to visit with Brilliant service! The staff are always kind to customers, even while buzzing around on the weekend rushes. Perfect little place just to sit down with the family!

After going on a walk with the wife on the forest we stopped off on the way back in the car after hearing from a neighbour this place was a hotspot for good meal and drink!We arrived at 1pm on a Saturday and the place was packed, most tables, inside and out were taken but we managed to scoot on a little table by the window inside the cafe just as another couple left, the empty plates were soon taken away.My wife and I both had a much needed all day breakfast and a coffee, we were certainly pleased when we saw the size of the meal which kept us full till tea.All the staff seem very friendly and helpful just a shame there is no table service but despite this the wait was not too long in the line for the till and the food was worth the 15 minute wait!Will definitely be having tea and cake some time soon.

I've eaten here a few time since moving to Crowborough in 2013 and every experience has been great. They serve a lovely cooked breakfast and a good range of light dishes, such as their excellent quiches and ploughman's lunches. They also offer a range of home made cakes and cream teas. Portions are generous and the (small) cafe is usually busy and bubbling. It's wise to get there early as it fills up fast, as it's very popular with the locals. Staff have always been friendly and efficient on my visits, so I don't recognise the grumbles from some of the other reviewers. Take cash though, as the cafe does not have a card machine (although it is possible to pay via card at the garden centre shop counter). Give it a go. It's a little gem and it also sports a lot of local artwork (available for purchase) on its walls.

My daughter had been told by a friend that there was a childrens playroom . so we all went there for afternoon tea and what a shock to find yourself in an awful airless basement room with no windows . wont be going back . No atmosphere at all !!

It was an impromptu visit about 1pm. The place was busy. The food looked very good and there was a welcoming aroma. As a rule we avoid Garden Centre Cafes on our travels. The Green Fingers Café is now the exception to that rule. We waited a while but the meal was freshly cooked and absolutely delicious.

I have visited this tea room regularly over the last couple of years with either my wonderful mother who sadly died in May or with a friend who I meet up with for a doggie walk. The menu is extensive with light meals ,sandwiches and home made cakes and quiche. The staff are friendly and the food delicious and good value for money. The only advices I would give is if you could pay with a card customers would be more likely to buy some of the beautiful cards and china on display.Definately recommend this cafe!

This is a regular haunt which never disappoints; particularly the excellent home-made soups and quiche which represent really good value!Staff may be busy at times but they still have time to be friendly and attentive.It is a relatively small establishment which means it is probably best suited for groups up to four persons.

We love this place, the staff are always so good and the food is excellent. It is my number one spot for coffee/lunch or afternoon tea. Whenever we visit the tea room seems to be busy so obviously we are not the only ones to enjoy visiting here.

OK, it is not the Duddleswell Tea rooms, but it is still very good. And if the famous establishment next door is full you can get in here. Not sure why it is slagged off. I enjoyed the visits here. You can go to the nearest Nero coffee bar and pay the same price for standing in a queue. This place is just as good, has a better location, and they serve you.

We have eaten here lots and the owner still does not acknowledge us!We have eaten delightful home cooked meals here for a good price. Lately they have been less ambitious (ie just quiches and soup) rather than the beef bourgignons and lasagnas of old. I hope this is not a trend as the meals had a lovely Mums touch to them.They serve an excellent breakfast and the staff are really charming young girls from a swiss finishing school or something.Good straightforward fare.

We visited this cafe for a bite to eat one Saturday afternoon. We ordered a sandwich and a juice, it took 20mins for the juice to arrive and 45 mins for a sandwich to appear. This seemed an unacceptably long wait. I did query the girl serving about the length of our wait, and i expected her to come and give me an update, she just kept walking past our table avoiding eye contact. I then queried the wait with a woman who seemed like she was in chance. Without looking up from what she was doing, she just told me it was coming - no apology, no reason, no comment as to how long it would be. this is disgraceful service! They seemed to be really disorganised, with the girls constantly struggling to find which order belonged to which customer.when my sandwich did arrive, it was disgusting. There was no effort made, with most of my sandwich filling not making it into my sandwich. All the ingredients were cheap and nasty, with no thought given to the taste of my sandwich.Our lunch out can be summed up by rude, unthoughtful staff, and lack of attention to taste.

Discovered this lovely little tea room totally by accident on Mothers Day. Although we turned up pretty late in the day and they had obviously been busy they still had a reasonable selection of sandwiches and cakes and were very friendly and approachable. They also had a pretty extensive range of home cooked goodies on offer although on this occasion we had arrived too late to try them, it was nearly 1600 so fair enough. The inside area is pretty small and I guess could be cramped when busy but is really cosily decorated. There is also a couple of outside areas to the front and side but it was a little too cold to make use of them during our visit. Although the Green Fingers cafe is slightly hidden from the road this little gem is definitely worth looking out for.