The Best Cafes in Holwell, Dorset, United Kingdom (2025)

Great place to chill and enjoy fresh local food.Served by friendly staff. Amazing views across the Purbecks and Poole Harbour. Worth the drive for a wee bit of Dorset and peace🎉❤️😁

Great coffee, excellent gluten-free treats and the most cheerful service you could ever hope to receive. Top marks all round!

Lovely little coffee shop with amazing views, very friendly staff. Would highly recommend.

Fabulous! One of the best coffee stops for cyclists in this corner of Dorset. We're always made very welcome. Great service, great coffee and a lovely selection of food. Great coffee and pastries. A lovely friendly atmosphere, I keep meaning to visit when I'm not on a bike.

Good inexpensive traditional cafe. Lovely staff. Very dog friendly. Good food. Well worth a visit

I am giving this five as it is a museum piece. Opened in 1976 it has never changed. Been decorated regularly, but kept the original features. So if you want a 70's cafe with frothy coffee & fried food this is the place. They do have the modern coffee & up to date delights of the 21st century, but keep the old favourites. The breakfast are fun as are the lunches. Some good photos of old Shaftesbury on display. The manager has been there for 43 years, so the owners must be great too.

Popped in for breakfast 😋 and wasn't disappointed at all, it was delicious 😋 good portion size too, we had the peel breakfast and couldn't finish it, eyes bigger than our bellys. Tea is refilled as well for no extra cost, bargain.The staff were very friendly and helpful the premises were clean and the toilets were spotlessly clean too with free sanitary products, amazing touch. Thankyou for a good experience all round, highly recommended.

Nice little cafe serving excellent food and very friendly staff. The tables are very close to each other, so be mindful of that. Food was served quickly, and it appears to be a local favourite.

Only had drinks here this visit. They were really good and we enjoyed our visit. Drinks were really worth the money

Good food, tea and scones. The staff are very nice and friendly.

Had a delicious lunch sitting outside with friends... super attentive and charming team, good choice, easy going atmosphere and good coffee (smooth not citrus). Checked out the others nearby, except the usual high street brands and this is a great spot, location and so chose it. Recommended.

What an excellent find! This cafe is clean, modern and comfortable and serves great quality delicious snacks and drinks. I had a mouthwatering panini and was served in a very friendly manner. The coffee was great too. Highly recommend a visit. I will definitely be back.

A nice little spot to unwind, savor delicious food, and enjoy drinks if you’re in the vicinity.

Great coffee, pastries & sandwiches. Friendly staff.

Excellent service from friendly staff. The food was perfectly cooked, tasty and plentiful portions! Lush and highly recommended.

As always, friendly, efficient and very welcoming. Comfortable sofas and easy chairs as well as tables and chairs for eating at. Some had been reserved in advance. Great decaf coffee (& lovely mince pies - thank you!) And the sun streaming through the conservatory roof - though cannot promise that every time!

Great place to meet friends and have decent coffee, and if you are peckish plenty of choice on menus.

I love this little place that has a larger personality especially around the holidays, nice food, nice helpful staff, and full of friendlyness. It gets bigger and louder during the holidays and summer months when it opens the play area and the maize maze. Lovely for families and children. I have to say it pleases my heart to see this place set up for children's outside play, they certainly keep you on your toes, even when you are not part of that group or party, it has a little downside life everywhere when is busy hearing can be an issue even when sat face to face, so if you're expecting a wee cuppa or coffee or lunch in peace or relative quite here, you honestly won't know until you get there. It's just lovely hearing the children and youths being a play outside and not attached to their phones or computers.

Went with my sister ( a local ) and daughter and granddaughter. Food was really lovely. Highly reccomend the quiche. The play area is safe and really well laid out. If you are in the area it is well worth a visit. We live over an hour away but do make a beeline for Blackmarsh Farm when visiting. Staff are lovely too.

Good location on the edge of Sherborne to let the kids run and play while you sit comfortably in the old farm yard with a cake and coffee or maybe a light lunch.

We were staying just along the road on holiday so made a visit here on our last day. The bacon sarnies were delicious and the homemade cakes were amazing! Lots of cakes to choose from, we shared lemon drizzle and courgette and lime cake which was so good! A really lovely tea room, gallery and shop definitely recommend and very reasonably priced. The staff were all really friendly and helpful too we sat outside in the sunshine and they brought us out cushions for our chairs which was so nice of them. Definitely worth a visit if you are passing!

We had noticed posts appear on Facebook from the Old School Gallery, but had never been to Yetminster before and were curious to find out more. From the moment we opened the door, we were warmly greeted by Alex and the team, as well as other diners and were made to feel very much at home. The lunch menu was superb, with an extensive list of tempting hearty and unusual soups, quiches etc. I opted for the falafel curry with rice which was delicious. Throughout the meal, Alex, her Mum and Team were very attentive and the atmosphere of the Old School Gallery was incredible. I was tempted to a piece of flapjack - no ordinary flapjack and highly recommended. What an incredible find! We need to return very soon and wish all at the Old School Gallery the very best as they really deserve it.

Lovely cafe. We sat outside in the sunshine. There was a lovely selection of cakes to choose from. A vegan option wasn't available on our visit so my partner just had a cuppa but hopefully there will be one for next time.

Excellent cafe. I had a large plate of broccoli and stilton soup, OH had bacon and egg sandwich. Tasty cakes, good coffee, nice staff, clean loo. We were cycling from Oborne and found this place on the Internet. The Facebook page made it clear it was open and offering food. Busy with locals. It's clear this cafe is professionally managed. Turned up to too many places to find they are closed, very annoying.

what a amazing small business! friendly and knowledgeable staff, and a wide range of food and cake selections. Very generous portion sizes, fresh ingredients and thick sliced fresh bread! Fantastic from breakfast to afternoon tea, a quick pit stop or special occasion. Definitely one to visit!

I've been here a couple of times already! Let me tell you, today's omelette was one of the best I ever had. Served with a fresh, crispy salad and a coleslaw. I'll be back! Highly recommend ! 👌

Just excellent. I only had a Bacon Brie and Cranberry panini but it was excellent, served with super fresh crisp salad. A chap called Malc looked after me and I can honestly say I will be going back whenever I get the chance. Place was spotless, atmosphere friendly, and food and coffee excellent. Will use again without a doubt.

Great little cafe nestled in Gillingham not far from the railway station and main high street,great friendly service and nice grub. Nicely kitted out and atmosphere. Plenty to choose from. Downside is not much parking but this cannot be helped.

Great experience as a place, but also in the restaurant and in the store I would like to find things of very good quality, not just the basic one. The bread for breakfast can be one from a local bakery not a frozen baguette or the store could also sell organic milk in cartons not in plastic bottle or a yogurt in a jar not just plastic buckets...etc. Overall it was good with skilled and kind staff.

I could have spent endless hours pouring over everything in the shop. It’s a beauty to behold in the eyes of an American. There are assortments of wonderful pastries, cakes, cookies and breads. All types of condiments and sauces. An extensive meat counter with varieties of meat and fish (I regret to say my sausage and bacon from there were immediately seized upon my return to the US). Of course there are cheeses, spreads, pate and a great frozen section of many items including ready meals. The staff was friendly and the items I was able to enjoy (like the smoked trout terrine and a steak & kidney pie) were absolutely amazing

A huge, varied menu with very tasty, generous portions of food in a nice setting. A bit too easy to spend quite a lot of money! Great location with children when the weather is ok as there's a big field with football goals and some play equipment.

Great farm shop and very good restaurant, but has gotten incredibly busy. The farm shop is excellent, with a great butcher's counter and great selection of fruit & veg, as well as lots of posh nibbles. The restaurant is very reliable, decent food and good service. The only downside is that, with the large additional seating area they added to the restaurant, the whole place can get very busy. On a Saturday lunchtime we were lucky to snag the very last parking spot left in both the main and the *overflow* car parks.