Devon cafes: Speciality coffee shops to seaside tearooms
There are quirky independent coffee shops popping up all over Devon at the moment. Some focus on providing the highest quality specialty coffee, while others concentrate on serving delicious, sustainable breakfast and lunch options. We’ve found the best cafes for a perfectly poured flat white in the city or a traditional cream tea beside the sea.
Annie and the Flint
Location: Ilfracombe
Great for: Healthy breakfasts and light lunches.
Make sure you try: Their freshly prepared salads.
Exposed whitewashed bricks, fresh flowers and soft grey paintwork form the interior style of Annie and the Flint in Ilfracombe. Furnished with vintage travel trunks and leather armchairs, the café serves delicious cakes with coffee and snacks in a relaxed setting.
The menu includes granola with natural yoghurt, freshly prepared salads and healthy smoothies and juices. Homemade produce and local ingredients are key to this north Devon establishment’s philosophy. Renowned for its ethical practices and rich taste, Origin Coffee is the café’s house brand.
Find out more about Annie and the Flint
Artigiano Exeter
Location: Exeter
Great for: Specialty coffee.
Make sure you try: Their flat white coffee.
Artigiano is an innovative and stylish café on the high street in Exeter. This establishment prides itself on providing a relaxing space to enjoy speciality coffees, smoothies and feel-good food by day. During the evening, friends come together to appreciate craft beer, fine wine, cocktails and live music.
Artigiano’s large studio space allows for customers to sit down with a coffee and not feel rushed or overcrowded. The café embraces a stylish contemporary ambience comprised of fun coloured patterns and natural textures. Stainless steel furniture adds to the hip industrial vibe.
Find out more about Artigiano Exeter
Café ODE
Location: Shaldon
Great for: Sustainable food sourced locally.
Make sure you try: Their fish and chips.
Café Ode is renowned for its sustainable approach to using quality, ethical and seasonal ingredients in a family friendly environment. Architecturally, the café evolved out of some old stables in Shaldon. It’s considered a fusion of art renovation, conversion and eco-construction.
Café ODE also offers take-away dishes, served by chefs in their eco-conscious interior. It benefits from great sea views over the water, communal tables and outdoor seating. Nice touches, such as bike racks and electric car charging points have helped the café win awards for its sustainable practices.
The Winking Prawn
Location: Salcombe
Great for: Hearty buffet breakfasts.
Make sure you try: Their veggie breakfast with avocado.
The Winking Prawn is reminiscent of a large sunlit beach hut. Perched on the water’s edge at North Sands beach in Salcombe, this shabby chic café is strewn with colourful bunting and fresh flowers on the tables. Serving English breakfasts, fresh fish lunches, buckets of prawns and even summer BBQs, the Winking Prawn has been popular for over twenty years.
Its huge sun deck facing the sea is a perfect spot during the warmer summer months and great for a hot chocolate in the cool of the winter. The beach is a huge attraction, with the Salcombe Dairy ice cream van a regular visitor during the summer.
Find out more about The Winking Prawn
Mangos Café & Bar
Location: Exeter
Great for: Delicious Mediterranean inspired breakfast and lunch.
Make sure you try: Their eggplant shakshuka.
Mangos Café is the premier coffee house and wine bar on the quay in Exeter. This stylish café serves contemporary food such as superfood salads and smashed avocado alongside fine wine. The café is situated in one of the quay’s original cellars, which creates an atmospheric space. Curved ceilings and hanging filament bulbs add a modern touch.
The open terrace at the café overlooks the quayside and cobbled pavements. Combining locally sourced ingredients with popular Mediterranean breakfast and brunch dishes, the food and drinks menu is full of delicious options.
Find out more about Mangos Cafe & Bar
Sea Breeze
Location: Torcross
Great for: Afternoon tea.
Make sure you try: Their homemade scones.
Seabreeze in Torcross is a beautiful tearoom overlooking the beach within a 16th-century thatched roofed cottage. The interior is modern, light and airy with whitewashed walls and accents of sea blue. The counter is often brimming with mouthwatering home baked chocolate, carrot and orange cakes.
Miles of golden beach stretch in front of Seabreeze and the dramatic hills of Devon surround it. The café also offers breakfast pastries with lunches ranging from homemade soups to crab sandwiches. One of the favourite choices for regulars is their warm homemade scones with clotted cream.
Find out more about Sea Breeze
Port Espresso
Location: Brixham
Great for: Artisan coffee.
Make sure you try: Their avocado on sourdough with scallops.
Port Espresso began life when the two founders Karen Miller and Dan Joselin crossed paths. They decided to put their talents in food and design together to create the ultimate coffee shop in Brixham, South Devon.
Karen’s design talents have seen the coffee shop grow into a stylish and vibrant space with quirky accents. 3D wallpaper, geometric cushions and acrylic ghost chairs make the space fun and dynamic. The source of the coffee is a closely guarded secret. All we know is that it tastes fantastic!
Find out more about Port Espresso
Rockets and Rascals
Location: Plymouth
Great for: Bike-loving coffee drinkers.
Make sure you try: Their healthy breakfasts.
Rockets and Rascals is an outstanding venue for all things related to cycling. Successfully delivering on their mission to get people riding bikes, they are now Plymouth’s only award-winning bicycle shop.
What makes this exciting venture unique is the way it blurs the line between cycle store and café. It serves healthy breakfast options, cakes and great-tasting coffee. The emphasis is on community interaction at Rockets and Rascal. Visitors are encouraged to chat with knowledgeable staff and enthusiastic regulars over a delicious coffee.
Find out more about Rockets and Rascals
Sailor V
Location: Salcombe
Great for: Speakeasy vibes by the sea.
Make sure you try: Their healthy smoothies.
Sailor V is a cafe and restaurant situated at the top of the steps by the East Portlemouth Ferry in Salcombe. This delightful harbourside town in the South Hams was recently voted the best seaside resort in the UK. It’s certainly one of our favourites here at Snaptrip.
Formerly the old town bank, the decor of this reincarnation takes inspiration from the speakeasies of the 1920s. Hot dogs, ice cream sundaes and milkshakes are among the signature dishes. Breakfasts are good value, service is quick, the staff are friendly and dogs are welcome. This is a great venue for afternoon tea beside the sea.
The Clipper Café
Location: Shaldon
Great for: Locally sourced produce.
Make sure you try: Their Devon cream tea.
The views from the terrace of The Clipper Cafe in Shaldon are magnificent. The tables sit right by the water’s edge and the scones are baked fresh daily. We can’t think of a more lovely place to enjoy a traditional Devon cream tea.
The Clipper Cafe’s resident chef Gino is passionate about sourcing the best quality local produce. Their bread is baked fresh at the Shaldon Bakery and their seasonal vegetables are grown within one mile of the café. Gino has even been known to venture out to Lyme Bay to catch the fish himself!
Find out more about The Clipper Cafe
The Stores
Location: Croyde
Great for: Refuelling before or after a surf.
Make sure you try: Their iced-coffee.
The Stores in Croyde is a stylish, contemporary café and a popular choice with hip surfers and holiday makers. They source as much of their produce from Devon and Cornwall as possible. The breakfast and lunch menus offer numerous healthy options like smashed avocado on sourdough and homemade soup.
Bright yellow table legs and spots of colour among the muted greys and wood furnishings create a hip industrial ambiance. Regulars rave about the iced-coffee, freshly baked cakes and pastries.
Find out more about The Stores
The Wardroom Café
Location: Salcombe
Great for: Fine dining seafood.
Make sure you try: Their seafood chowder.
With beautiful views across the estuary, The Wardroom Café is a popular place to sit and watch the buzz of Salcombe. Seafront tables provide the perfect setting for a delicious seafood meal and a glass of chilled wine.
The interior is bright and spacious at The Wardroom. The walls are covered with illustrations showing the various boats that frequent the harbour. Everything they sell is freshly cooked in their kitchen and locally sourced wherever possible. Seafood chowders, crab cakes and crab sandwiches often feature on the blackboard and are customer favourites.
Find out more about The Wardroom Cafe
Venus Café
Location: Kingsbridge
Great for: Eco-friendly seaside food.
Make sure you try: Their plant-based breakfast.
Venus Café offers locally sourced food in a wonderful beachside tea room in Bigbury-on-Sea. The café has a strong focus on sustainability and their strapline is ‘Loving the Beach.’
Venus Café won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development in 2005 and 2010 and recently introduced 100% compostable cups. Enjoy exceptional views over the water as you munch down a delicious plant-based vegan breakfast.
Find out more about Venus Cafe
