Roots Cafe, Rougham Estate — Restaurant in West Suffolk

An interesting experience, the food is reasonable, I quite like the uniqueness of some dishes, some work really well, some are a tad more questionable. For example the pork belly eggs benny sounds great but bacon or thick cut bacon would be far superior. The fried chicken is great but the battery falls off the chicken which is annoying.

Another aspect is knowing if juices are from concentrate, the prices would suggest it's actually juice but to serve what tastes like £2.70 concentrate orange juice is baffling.

However, the biggest key issue seems to be the staff, they do give quite abrupt responses to questions or additional orders. I appreciate they were short staffed but they don't tell you this until you order food, at which point you have ordered drinks and going elsewhere would be a faff. I also appreciate it can be stressful being understaffed but this doesn't change being polite and welcoming.

On the other hand I did over hear some unpleasant customers and if that's normal then I suspect I would be quite annoyed, although I likely wouldn't stay working in a negative environment.

Overall the service, the quality and the price it isn't that great, I'd echo what other reviewer's have said, particularly around wasps and the outdoor area.

There's definitely better places to have a brunch both in and outside of...

Food is lovely, had a nice brunch. Was a little chilly in the café but no queues, seated quickly and asked if I wanted to order a drink straight away. Waited a bit for food, but it was delicious, had the Roots fry-up, very nice.

Sunday 1 Dec 2024 review: What let's Rougham down is the service, especially when it's known how busy it gets at Christmas, literally queues everywhere. Appreciate once they are at capacity they are at capacity, but really the queue's were because they didn't have enough staff on, had a buzzer system with a 30min wait for a Table, then a 30min wait for food once sat. There were 10 tables free at 1pm waiting to be cleared and people sat but as the staff member at the till said we're short staffed and I can't seat people at the moment :-| There is an outside cafe, no queue with a few tables. There was a 20min queue to get into the Christmas shop. If you pay £3 per adult to get into the Barn to see the stalls, very cute, then you fast track into the Christmas shop. There is a 10-15 minute queue for the tills as not all staffed and extra staff are packing 'to speed through the queue'??? It is a beautiful shop but go on a weekday would be our advice, we went Friday morning for food...

Went for lunch with a friend yesterday and the weather was glorious for a change so we sat outside. The venue is lovely and quirky and something a bit different.

However, the menu had just been changed for the beginning of the month and it was VERY clear there had been no training given to the staff on duty.

My friend is GF intolerant and so she had to ask a few questions and there was constant need to run inside and check! I have to say the menu is very confusing with regards to veg/vegan/gf etc and just lists all the "issue" ingredients. Didn't seem to be any flexibility for GF so my friend had a salad. I had the flatbread and both were delicious but the reason for the 3 stars is the fact it doesn't really seem to cater for anyone with food allergies, intolerances or plant based diets (or if it does it's not clear on the menu and the staff aren't aware!)

I'll visit again as it's nice and convenient with free parking and not in town so much easier to get to. Hopefully next time the staff will have more of a clue on the...