Eating at Hatfield Forest

The Forest Cafe

Our Forest Café is open every day from 9.00am to 5.00pm and is currently serving only a limited range of takeaway hot and cold drinks, light snacks, cakes, crisps, chocolate bars and ice creams.  Outdoor seating and picnic benches are available in the grassy area around the cafe, overlooking the lake.

We've introduced new safety measures including closure of our covered seating area (aka the Fishermen's shelter), screens at our till and collection points, and way-marked routes. We'll also only be accepting card payment.

We look forward to welcoming you and know that you'll support us to make this a safe experience for everyone.

Please bear with us whilst we have only a very limited offer.

Thank you to all of our supporters. 

Sarah and the Forest Cafe team

A special cafe

The cafe has been awarded the Soil Association "Food for Life" Bronze certificate.  To reach this standard, the majority of food on the menu has to be freshly prepared; free from undesirable trans fats, sweeteners and additives; cooked by trained chefs; and use ingredients from sustainable and ethical sources.

An outdoors cafe

The cafe is ideally situated in the centre of Hatfield Forest and is surrounded by newly restored Capability Brown parkland with big exotic trees and beautiful scenic views across the lake. There are plenty of picnic tables, some of which are easily accessible on hard standing.

For the time being, while we try to make your visit as safe as possible, we regret that there is no undercover eating area available in the Fishermens’ Shelter next to the Shell House.  We have also removed the picnic tables.

Further Information

For further information, please call 01279 870579  (during opening times)

Our values

Sustainable production is at the heart of National Trust values today. The National Trust team are the winners of several awards for the pioneering use of sustainably produced food in our cafés. As a conservation charity we are unique in how we cater for millions of visitors every year by putting welfare and conservation, not profit, at the heart of everything we do.

Today the National Trust is the UK’s biggest farmer looking after over 600,000 acres of farmland with our tenant farmers. Whether it’s for the Bensons juices in your glass or the butter you put on your scones, we require all our farmers to use nature friendly farming techniques.

For things we can’t produce ourselves we apply these same regulations to all our external suppliers too.

That’s why you will see labels such as ‘farm assured’, ‘free range’ and ‘rainforest alliance’ throughout our cafés.