The best restaurants serving British food in Claines Worcester West Midlands

Been coming to Julie’s (in both locations) for over twenty years. Best food. Best value. The loveliest staff. Immaculately clean. ❤️

Weather great so sat in garden area. Nice ploughmans and good value for money. Lovely pub with various pods outside. Relaxing atmosphere. Great staff.

Review of Worcester Garden Centre Café, Droitwich Road, Worcester Garden Centres and coffee shops/restaurants are like symbiotic plants wherein both enjoy mutual benefit. (For plants think rosemary, marigolds, lavender, etc.) This is particularly so for the likes of us who generally enjoy the environment provided when seated in a café surrounded by plants/horticulture/organized nature. Typically, this is not your ‘après ski’ kind of place - how could it be when there’s a literal forest of fresh greenness outside the window and the clientele around you are mums with kids, women with elderly relatives/companions and groups of middle-aged women together. There were few men in the café that day.. Inside, it’s a sort of restful place, full of light and surrounded by glass – walls and part roof both– wherein you can see into the sky above you and through into those green depths that surround you. Here you can spend time with the one you love, your family and/or your friends. You’re unlikely to meet that special person who may change your life in this kind of café, but … ever hopeful … you n-e-v-e-r know. It's better, perhaps, to take them with you (i.e. loved ones, family, etc.) and spend time sitting/talking/ruminating/reading/looking at photos on cell phones/etc. over a hot coffee or tea … if you’re a tea-person, which is more likely for those of us/you well-into those mature years – seeking an hour or more of comfortable familiarity with those whom we may have shared those same years. Visit a new place and, if there’s a garden centre/café available locally, it’s inevitable that we’ll eventually try to explore it. Which is how the four of us found ourselves in the WGC Café that morning in July. Outside the weather was cool, cloudy and threatening to rain. Mid-July … what else … it’s summer. The WGC is easy to find – north of the town along the Droitwich Road with plentiful parking to one side of the café, and a short walk from your car into the main glass building. There were four of us, one of whom was walking carefully with the help of a stick. Right outside the exit to the building was space in which to drop everyone off before parking the car. Good planning - it reduced the walking distance. Inside there was this sea of tables/seats many of which were already occupied. Mid-morning and the café, we figured, was around 60% full. It was a Tuesday. The place was alive with voices and the clatter of people eating/talking/calling across to those seated nearby and others handling/minding/watchful eye out for the kids and/or for their elderly companions. People were constantly on the move, coming, leaving and shifting back and forth from their tables to the counter to one side of the café. On both sides of the queue in front of the counter were cakes, breads, tarts, dolce and other snacks to match those coffees/teas. The waitress who appeared at our table was seeking breakfast requests. Ours was a ‘coffee & snack’ kind of visit, however, and she directed us to the counter to order our drinks, snacks and anything else, pay for everything and then wait by the counter for the drinks/snacks to be prepared. This took 12-15 minutes. Carrying a couple of full trays back to the table through seated and moving people was challenging. Complimenti to the professional cameriere for doing this for the entire working day/every day. As a group we had ordered three coffees, one pot of tea and four snack foods – 3x slices of cake and a scone – for which we paid £22.50. That represented around £5.50 each. The coffee/tea had been hot and the snacks fresh/tasty/delight to eat. There’s never a rush to vacate the table, but after about 90 minutes of raking over the issues of the family/world it was time to move on. It had been a pleasant interlude covering the many highlights, etc. in the separate but parallel lives that we had followed since making our respective ways from that original family home. We should have been so fortunate with an accommodating venue in which to share time that morning. For us the café represented an opportunity to talk one-with-the-other given that it was the first time for many years that the four of us had been together (from Scotland, Isle of Wight, Melbourne and, of course, Worcester). Imagine. People mature but also much remains the same – with those mixed memories of the good times and those times, it should be said, that were/are not so good: it’s what’s called ‘living’. For us that morning, the WGC Café had provided a delightful opportunity to reflect upon the years that have passed. The café had been comfortable, light and warm. The snacks/drinks had been welcome and good value. Peter Steele 29Sept24