We checked 12 Dorset cafes, from the Upwey Wishing Well to Seventh Wave at Durlston, for prices, dog rules and hygiene ratings. Updated November 2026.
This guide puts 12 Dorset cafes in one place for 2026, with their opening hours, prices, dog rules and hygiene ratings. The Upwey Wishing Well near Weymouth is the county’s tearoom of the year for 2026. Cherries at Abbey Farm in Abbotsbury took silver in the same awards. Oliver’s on Cheap Street in Sherborne has served coffee and cake since 1986, and the National Trust’s tea-room in Corfe Castle village sits below the ruins. Below are those four and eight more.
All twelve hold the top hygiene rating of 5. This guide covers the Dorset Council area; Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole are not included.
West Dorset: Lyme Regis, Bridport and Abbotsbury
1. Town Mill Bakery, Lyme Regis
Town Mill Bakery is a bakery with a cafe in the Riverside Workshops on Coombe Street, a few steps from the Town Mill and the River Lim. It has no website of its own; it posts its news and hours on Instagram.
The summer hours below were posted at the end of August; check the account for winter hours before setting out.
Open 8am to 2.30pm through the summer holidays (posted end of August)
Address Unit 2, Riverside Workshops, Coombe Street, Lyme Regis, DT7 3PY
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 27 February 2025
Website instagram.com/townmillbakery
Good for bakery, riverside, near the Town Mill
2. Soulshine, Bridport
Soulshine is on South Street in Bridport. The Good Food Guide’s Dorset feature, published on 30 September 2026, describes it as “a café by day, serving coffee, cake and delicious, informal lunches” and lists it among its Bridport picks.
It has no website of its own, so check its social pages for hours and evening events before setting out. Food Standards Agency inspectors gave it the top rating in June 2026.
Address 76 South Street, Bridport, DT6 3NN
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 26 June 2026
Good for coffee and cake, informal lunches, Good Food Guide pick, evening events
3. Cherries at Abbey Farm, Abbotsbury
Cherries is a licensed cafe at Abbey Farm in Abbotsbury, a group of artisan studios and shops close to the Swannery and Chesil Beach. It says it is “no ordinary café”: the food is “all homemade, cooked from scratch, using the best local ingredients”, and its signature cake is Dorset apple cake. It took silver for cafe or tearoom of the year at the 2026 Dorset Tourism Awards.
Abbey Farm describes it as family and dog friendly.
Open Mon to Sun 10am to 4pm
Price breakfast from £10 for a granola pot to £15 for the Cherries Farm Feast
Call 01305 873925
Address Church Street, Abbotsbury, DT3 4JJ
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 3 September 2024
Website cherriesdorset.com
Good for licensed, dogs welcome, family friendly, Dorset apple cake, award winner 2026
Weymouth and Dorchester
4. The Upwey Wishing Well Tea Room and Water Gardens, Upwey
The tea room sits beside the spring known as the Upwey Wishing Well, on the edge of Weymouth, and calls itself a “Multi-Award Winning Tea Room & Water Gardens”. The Dorset Tourism Awards named it cafe or tearoom of the year in 2026, as they did in 2023, with silver in 2024.
There is a roast every Sunday. It says it is dog friendly, with water bowls and homemade dog treats, and has a children’s menu and high chairs.
The cafe is wheelchair accessible, with a disabled toilet; the gardens are partly accessible.
Open Mon to Sun 10am to 5pm
Food breakfast to 11.30am; last cream tea sitting 4.30pm
Booking afternoon and high teas need 24 hours' notice; afternoon tea takes a 50% deposit
Call 01305 814470
Address 161 Church Street, Upwey, Weymouth, DT3 5QE
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 22 May 2025
Website upweywishingwell.co.uk
Good for dogs welcome, children's menu, step-free cafe, water gardens, Sunday roast
5. The Horse with the Red Umbrella, Dorchester
The Horse with the Red Umbrella has been a cafe since 1970, according to a profile by Dorchester’s Business Improvement District. Its building, on the corner of High West Street and Trinity Street, housed a theatre that opened in 1828.
The name is reported to come from the last show staged there, though the BID says no surviving record confirms it. The cafe serves breakfasts, light lunches and its own cakes, including Dorset apple cake and lardy cake.
The BID calls it dog friendly. The cafe has no website, so ring to check hours.
Open Mon to Sat roughly 8am to 4.30pm (Dorchester BID)
Call 01305 262019
Address 10 High West Street, Dorchester, DT1 1UJ
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 13 June 2025
Good for dogs welcome, homemade cakes, lardy cake, cafe since 1970, former theatre
Sherborne and North Dorset
6. Oliver’s Coffee House, Sherborne
Oliver’s has been “serving the community since 1986” on Sherborne’s main shopping street, its website says. Jane Kurpierz bought it in 2011 when the previous owner, Lawrence Scott, retired, and she says regulars told her they “didn’t want anything to change”.
There are communal tables and smaller booths. It serves locally roasted Reads Coffee with homemade cakes and lunches, sourcing as much as it can from a few miles away.
Open Mon to Fri 9am to 5pm; Sat 9.30am to 5pm; Sun 10am to 4pm
Address 19 Cheap Street, Sherborne, DT9 3PU
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 17 April 2025
Website oliverscoffeehouse.co.uk
Good for since 1986, Reads Coffee, homemade cakes, booths and communal tables
7. Sherborne Abbey Tea Rooms, Sherborne
The Abbey Tea Rooms are in St John’s Almshouse at the entrance to Abbey Close. The Abbey says they run independently of the church and that the profits go to the Abbey Tea Rooms Community Project. Prices below are from the February 2026 menu.
Open Mon and Tue 9am to 2.30pm; Wed to Sat 9am to 4pm; Sun 9am to 2pm for tea, coffee and cake
Food last orders 3.45pm
Price scone with jam and clotted cream £6.50; sandwiches £9 to £9.50; soup with bread £7.50; afternoon tea £19.95 a head
Call 01935 713781
Address Half Moon Street, Sherborne, DT9 3LJ
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 11 April 2025
Website sherborneabbey.com/?p=6906
Good for historic almshouse, afternoon tea, community project
8. Grounded Coffee Roasters, Blandford Forum
Grounded is a coffee roaster with a shop on Salisbury Street in Blandford and a second at Kingland Crescent in Poole, according to its Instagram. The account was posting weekly in October 2026.
It sells its own beans in bags from 250g up to 5kg, and in October it was running an in-store offer of any two bags for £20 across Grounded and the decaf brand Decaf Nation. Its website is the place to check hours.
Price any two bags of beans for £20 in store (October 2026 offer)
Address 33 Salisbury Street, Blandford Forum, DT11 7AU
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 7 May 2025
Website groundedcoffeeroasters.com
Good for roasts its own beans, beans to take home, decaf range
East Dorset
9. Sonder Coffee, Wimborne
Sonder is an independent coffee shop on Wimborne’s High Street, with a sister branch in Salisbury. Its founder, Ebony, started it on what the cafe calls a simple belief: “genuine care creates genuine connection”.
The coffee comes from Extract Coffee Roasters, and the cafe also offers co-working and private hire.
Open Mon to Thu 7.30am to 5.30pm; Fri and Sat 7.30am to 6pm; Sun 9am to 5.30pm
Address 48 High Street, Wimborne Minster, BH21 1HT
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 20 June 2025
Website sondercoffee.co.uk
Good for independent, early opening, co-working, private hire
Purbeck
10. The Tea-room, Corfe Castle
The National Trust’s tea-room is in the village rather than inside the castle, in what the Trust describes as an 18th-century former cottage that “still contains many of its original features”. There is indoor seating and a rear garden looking up to the castle ruins.
It serves hot and cold meals, lighter snacks, cakes and bakes, mostly made on site. The Trust’s page does not give the tea-room’s hours, so check the Corfe Castle page before a winter visit.
Address The Square, Corfe Castle, BH20 5EZ
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 26 November 2025
Website nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/dorset/corfe-castle/eating-and-shopping-at-corfe-castle
Listing Our listing
Good for National Trust, garden with castle views, 18th-century cottage, made on site
11. Clavells, Kimmeridge
Clavells calls itself “a traditional restaurant” with its own courtyard and garden in the middle of Kimmeridge village. By day it serves homemade breakfasts, lunches and afternoon teas. It is closed from 2 to 17 November, according to its opening hours page.
Dogs are welcome indoors and outdoors all year, and there is a dog menu.
Open October, Mon to Fri 10am to 4pm; Sat and Sun 10am to 5pm; closed 2 to 17 November; then Wed to Sun 10am to 4pm until 16 December
Price afternoon tea £32.50 a head, or £40 with a glass of fizz
Booking essential for afternoon tea, £5 deposit per person
Call 01929 480701
Address Kimmeridge, Wareham, BH20 5PE
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 22 September 2025
Website clavellsrestaurant.co.uk
Good for dogs welcome, dog menu, courtyard and garden, afternoon tea
12. Seventh Wave, Durlston, Swanage
Seventh Wave is a licensed restaurant and cafe inside Durlston Castle, in Durlston Country Park above Swanage. It says it has “some of the best coastal sea views on the Jurassic Coast”. Fish and shellfish on its specials board come from local fishermen, and almost every dish has a vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free substitute.
Open Mon to Fri 9.30am to 4pm; Sat and Sun 9.30am to 4.30pm
Food breakfast to 11.15am
Booking online or by phone
Call 01929 421111
Address Durlston Castle, Lighthouse Road, Swanage, BH19 2JL
Hygiene rating 5, Food Standards Agency, 11 November 2025
Website seventhwaverestaurant.co.uk
Good for licensed, sea views, local fish, vegan and gluten-free options
How we chose
We started with the cafes and tearooms the Dorset Tourism Awards have judged over the last four years. To those we added cafes the Good Food Guide picks out, and places with a long public record: a coffee house on Cheap Street since 1986, a Dorchester cafe since 1970, and tea-rooms in historic buildings run by the National Trust and Sherborne Abbey. Each one was checked against its own website or social page on 26 October 2026 for hours, prices and closures. We left out anywhere with a food hygiene rating below 3. Prices are the cafes’ own published prices and can change. Run a place that should be here, or spot something that has changed? Email newsdesk@dorsetpost.co.uk.
For more to do, see things to do in Dorset, what’s on in Dorset this month and Dorset’s dog-friendly beaches. For a full meal, read our guides to Dorset restaurants, Dorset pubs and Sunday roasts in Dorset. Every cafe in our directory is in the local business directory, and the latest inspection results are in our Dorset food hygiene ratings round-up.
Frequently asked questions
Which is the best tearoom in Dorset?
The Upwey Wishing Well Tea Room and Water Gardens near Weymouth won gold for cafe or tearoom of the year at the 2026 Dorset Tourism Awards, as it did in 2023, with silver in 2024. Cherries at Abbey Farm in Abbotsbury took silver in 2026.
Which Dorset cafes allow dogs?
The Upwey Wishing Well says it is dog friendly, with water bowls and homemade dog treats. Clavells at Kimmeridge welcomes dogs indoors and outdoors all year and has a dog menu. Abbey Farm describes Cherries as family and dog friendly, and the Dorchester BID’s profile of The Horse with the Red Umbrella calls it dog friendly.
Are any of these cafes closed in November?
Clavells at Kimmeridge is closed from 2 to 17 November 2026. From 18 November to 16 December it opens Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm, and it is open on Christmas Day. The other cafes on the list published no November closure when we checked on 26 October 2026.
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