In the heart of Bute Park, the Secret Garden Cafe is an independent business with great environmental values that promotes local produce, the environment and community.
There are five entrances in total to Bute Park, but the easiest and most straightforward is from the West Lodge entrance. Walk along this road, with the River Taff on your left-hand side, and after about 15 minutes you will see the cafe on your right.
This cafe begs to be seen out of doors, preferably amid natural surroundings. Thankfully, Secret Garden Cafe offers us the opportunity to get close to nature.
Situated in the heart of the Bute Park landscape, punctuating this peaceful spot with vintage red brick facade and archway, which echoes its contribution to the sustainability of the neighbourhood. Walking through the little door, a lively scene will immediately appear in front of you.
What makes this cafe so special is that everything is homemade by this team and ensures purchasing in local organic ingredients that are in season. Maureen Walters, 70 years old, comes here three times a month. She is so impressed by the charity work the cafe did, even though it is a private own business.
“It is just super lovely,” she said. “I love their homemade food, which have no additives, the cooking is excellent, and the atmosphere is absolutely relaxing.”
The Secret Garden Cafe sticks to an environmentally friendly way of doing business, working in partnership with the Cardiff Salad Garden. Using the waste produced by the cafe the Salad Garden creates compost used to grow salad leaves, which are then transported to the cafe for customers to enjoy.
The landscape outside the cafe mixes with the customers makes the Secret Garden Cafe fascinating. It also provides a range of activities for people to hanging out. There is a ping-pong table and a chess table made of concrete. You can loan a chess and checkers set, and bats and balls from the Cafe if you are interested in. Even the coffee tables outside the shop are arranged more of an outdoor gallery.
Surrounded by nature and with a green business philosophy, what is not to like about the Secret Garden Cafe?