The rural centre where Wistow cafe is located is a lovely place to check out hosting a whole range of independent shops. The jewel in the crown is the Wistow cafe, a coffee shop stroke casual restaurant serving breakfast lunch and afternoon teas, hours 9.30am to 4pm every day and located in the Wistow Rural Centre at Kibworth Road, Wistow, Leicester, LE8 0QF.
This cafe is quite a special place, first of all for it’s stunning rural location right next to gorgeous historic Georgian mansion Wistow Hall. It’s a private residence so you cannot go in and snoop around but a beautiful palladium style building you can see from the road.
The cafe attracts all manner of walkers, cyclists, shoppers, ladies who lunch, the faire is hearty and homemade and the selection whilst not extensive, the usual stuffed baked potatoes and sandwiches, they do have a vegan plant based offering every day, rare for the area and the vegan afternoon teas (made to order and prebooking necessary) are better than anything else I have tried in the plant based sector. So good in fact we’ve booked plant based for everyone for a tea party in the past and didn’t tell anyone until after the fact. The cream tea lovers in our group didn’t know it wasn’t their usual scones topped with whipped double cream. And my family have used Wistow Cafe Bistro a couple of times around the holidays to cater parties at home and the food was polished off by all the guests to rave reviews and not super expensive. And because everything has a real homemade feel you can even pretend you made it all yourself if you don't want to let the cat out of the bag. I'll apologise to my sister here and now who planned to cook herself and then found herself with too much to do pre event.
The setting is rustic and shabby chic in style with lovingly hung fairy lights, the owners care about the decor, flowers on every table, blankets and cushions in the covered indoor patio and pooches very welcome. Be warned though muddy boots must be removed and left outside.
In the summer you’ll find the queue for Purdecks ice cream stretching around the building and you might find yourself waiting a while for a first come first serve table. It’s cafeteria style, you order at the counter and then grab a table either inside or out.
The food is not fancy but fresh and cooked to order.
The downsides, the loos are a good walk away at the other side of the Rural Centre and the staff can be a little bit bossy if you are slow to make your mind up or are not ready to pay on demand or on cue. Like I said it does get busy especially in the summer but if you are looking for somewhere to enjoy a walk, a stunning old church, wild life, the rare belted Galloway cattle are a sight to be hold and the birdlife on the lake, swans and ducks are a lovely sight whatever the season.
You might even see a mother duck ushering her ducklings across the road if you are lucky and the famous Wistow maze right across the street is also a fun attraction in the summer months when the sun flowers stand tall and make finding your way to the centre a challenge for adults and kids a like. It’s a treat for my nephews and nieces in the summer holidays that’s become a bit of a tradition. They also love going at this time of year when the maze is transformed into a pumpkin patch for Halloween.