The Forest Cafe & Visitor Centre Ltd

Lovely setting, brilliant for walks with the kids & dog, but the cafe is strangely limited. Great if you want a bottle of full fat coke and a pie & gravy, bad if you want a cold diet drink and a sandwich. The only no sugar drink is diet coke and the pie menu is twice the size of the sandwich list! Good coffee variety and some nice cakes, but for an outdoor activity place it was strangely lacking in healthy options.

Shockingly disappointing. Visited early this morning, my Granddaughter chose a cup cake (fairy cake actually & charged cup cakes prices) so ordered one for myself too.
So dry & stale they were inedible. How can a coffee shop get this so wrong.

Doesn't deserve 1*, all in all disgusting. Only good part are the walks. Car park far too expensive.

Cafe is OK, but if you have a dog you’re crammed in sharing one of two very-much-in-demand tables that allow dogs… whilst most of the rest of the inside tables are empty.

And that’s if you’re lucky - quite a few potential customers with dogs were turning up and having to leave, as the two dog tables were constantly full.

This cafe was chosen for Christmas present exchange and get together with daughter, son in law and new grandson on 30th December. We travelled 60 miles and though there were holdups on the journey we expected over an hour and a half together, eating, drinking and chatting. After just under half an hour we were asked to leave as the staff wanted to prepare for New Year. This was not on the Website. We went outside, but the baby did not like being woken up by the cold, and after a short attempt at a walk we gave up and said our goodbyes. The parking, at £4, was very expensive, but the toilets were very clean and well equipped. All in all, disappointing and would not be considered for any future get togethers.

Extortionate parking prices, the cafe is equally overpriced if the food options are actually available. My advice would be check with staff before you que to avoid disappointment or wasting your parking time.
I only gave this location a second star for the forest itself, it was clean, well signposted and had a number of great photo spots if that's your thing.
My advice for anyone with dogs would be to head to the Chef and Brewer just 2 miles down the road, dog friendly, plenty of choice on the Menu and with a proper traditional pub feel

Fair prices but limited menu with no chips for children. The cafe is also where you get Trail Packs from for Superworm which has replaced the Gruffalo trail.

Brilliant place for a rest and a coffee during a long walk. They also sell cakes, sandwiches, ice cream and other snacks. There are public toilets.