Birthday breakfasts have become a bit of a tradition for us.
Back in March, for my husband’s birthday, we went to The Lakehouse Café and set the bar fairly high for ourselves. So when my birthday rolled around, and with our child safely dropped off at school, we decided to find somewhere that felt like a proper treat.
After an extensive amount of research, I came across the Willow Tree Farm Café in Glemsford, near Sudbury. It sounded exactly like what we were looking for: a café using local produce, attached to a farm shop and backed up by consistently good reviews online.
We visited on a Wednesday morning, which, as it turns out, is fish van day. Outside the front of the café, there was a steady stream of customers gathering around the van, and it was clearly doing a roaring trade.
After parking up, we immediately spotted one of the unexpected highlights of the morning: a field full of goats, chickens and rheas. The rheas had apparently just laid their first-ever eggs and looked pretty confused by the whole experience – according to the farm’s owner, they hadn’t quite yet realised that they were supposed to be sitting on them…
It wasn’t the warmest day when we visited, but there’s a lovely outdoor seating area that would be perfect in nicer weather and extends the café’s already generous dining space.
Walking inside, the first thing that caught our attention was the cake cabinet. It was loaded with cakes and savoury pastries, with even more tempting bakes visible behind the counter.
We were shown to our table and handed menus, and immediately noticed Willow Tree Farm Cafe’s transparency about where their ingredients come from.
Suppliers are proudly listed, including pork from Great Garnetts Farm in Essex, smoked fish from Pinneys of Orford, local eggs, Tiptree jams, ice cream from Saffron Walden and more.
The dining room itself is beautiful – modern, bright and airy, and with plenty of seating available. The only minor criticism was that our table felt just a little too small once everything arrived. Plates, cups, sauces and the fact that the cutlery was brought over in a basket which took up a lot of space made things feel a little crowded.
Service, though, was quick and friendly. Our lattes (£3.85 each) arrived first: beautifully presented and nicely balanced — not over-milky.
Because it was a special occasion, we both went all in and ordered the Hungry Farmer Breakfast.
At £20 each, it’s certainly not your average café breakfast price, but what arrives easily justifies it: two sausages, bacon, two eggs cooked to your liking, grilled tomato, mushrooms, beans, hash browns and locally sourced black pudding, plus a choice of white, granary, sourdough or gluten-free toast.
From the moment the plates landed, you could see the quality. And while it might seem like a tiny detail, one thing immediately stood out: the butter was actually soft enough to spread. We’ve had so many breakfast experiences where we’ve torn holes through toast with fridge-cold butter, so this little touch suggested that the Willow Tree Farm café team truly had thought about the entire dining experience.
The breakfast itself was exceptional. The eggs were perfectly poached, the sausages were juicy, the hash browns properly crisp and everything felt carefully cooked, with the flavours from the local produce really coming through too. We appreciated the beans being served in their own little pot, too, to avoid making everything else soggy!
The standout for me was the Fruit Pig black pudding from Cambridgeshire. I’d never tried it before, but I’ll definitely be buying it if I spot it again: rich, flavourful and far better than standard café black pudding.
This was definitely up there with the best breakfasts we’ve had in Suffolk since moving here.
Before leaving, we had a proper browse around the farm shop and were impressed by the selection available. We picked up a couple of treats to take home: a tub of honey and lavender ice cream (my favourite flavour from the Saffron Ice Cream Company) and a bag of Bret’s salted butter crisps.
I’d been looking for Bret’s crisps everywhere after seeing people talk about them on social media, and can confirm: the salted butter flavour genuinely tastes like a buttery jacket potato – they’re well worth seeking out!
Willow Tree Farm Café gave us exactly what we were hoping for: a relaxed weekday breakfast date that felt special enough for a birthday and managed to match the standards set by the Lakehouse Cafe earlier in the year. I definitely recommend a visit (and we’ll be back to try the cakes!)