Turnip House - Banbridge

We visited this delightful cafe and craft outlet while visiting family in Northern Ireland. The soups were really good, our hosts were welcoming, the dog was friendly and there was an interesting collection of local crafts for sale. Also it was our first time using a sawdust loo a good experience.

Us four popped in here for a spot of lunch . Wow what a treat . Choice of soups , freshly baked scones to accompany followed by cakes . Lashings of tea and coffee. Total bill !!!!! Are you ready £30 in total . What a bargain, what service , what quality . Gorgeous large table, unique crockery . Great great place . Go go go !

The Turnip House, close to the village of Leitrim, is a quirky but cosy place for a coffee and cake or a bowl of soup. The menu is limited to soups and cakes etc....but with everything being home made, the value for money and quality is second to none. With stunning views and friendly staff, including their gorgeous dog, it’s a place that you’ll definitely come back to.

Lovely friendly welcome at the turnip house . We had leek and potato soup with amazing wheaten scones. Followed by tea and homemade lemon drizzle cake just perfect. We will return again .

Well I’d guess you could count the number of these soup, coffee and cake places around the country on one hand and likely have fingers left. When they say here that the food is home made its exactly that; this charming place is part of the home where the delightfully genteel couple who live (and work) here with Freddy. Freddy is a Doberman that one could, for now, hold in one arm and love. They had a dog called Charlie but alas it seems Charlie is no more and as anyone who owns pets knows the heartache at their loss we didn’t enquire. We had our own Charlie on tow. Well more accurately on his lead. A rather demented and playful Bichon frieze not ours but our son’s. So another plus it’s dog friendly even senseless, playful ones. So here we were. To use a Northern Ireland expression we were in the back end of nowhere surrounded by fields in part of a house where soups, brown scones and cakes are made on the premises. I’ve photographed the menu. I had cauliflower channa dal soup which came with two warm brown scones ‘straight out of the oven’ and served with a generous wedge of butter. Five star all the way, but if I were being very picky I’d have preferred the scones to have been baked a while longer and some more salt in the recipe, but that’s personal taste. The soup was delicious, served hot and gently spiced. My wife opted for their vegetable soup again with two brown scones. There was a tomato red pepper soup on offer too which was impressive given that the cook was operating in a space smaller than our bathroom at home. We were told that their lemon drizzle cake was ace so after the soups we had lemon drizzle and ginger cake. Again truly home made and darn good. Two other cake types were also available one chocolate brownie style and I don’t remember the fourth. There isn’t a coffee machine so no lattes frappos nor cappuccinos. I had French press (cafeteriere) coffee and my wife opted for hot chocolate. A selection of teas is also available. It’s also a craft place with books, paintings, knitwear and similar for sale. They also focus on environmental considerations and we should all remember there’s no planet B, the earth is our only home. There’s no disposable plastic cups here, there’s no coffee to go and there’s an environmental sawdust eco toilet out back. I bet there’s not many of these toilets about and it sure warrants 5 green stars.