Stepney City farm is a working farm covering 4 acres of land in Stepney Green in the London borough of Tower Hamlets. 4 acres may seem small for a farm but in a city like London, where prices of land and buildings are frankly ridiculously high to the point of not being long-term sustainable, local people are lucky to have a farm of this size they can visit.
Many people in London literally never go outside London and the M25 so Stepney City Farm, and the handful of other city farms in London help children and indeed adults who ought to know better, see and understand that lamb chops come from real living animals. They are not created pre-wrapped and ready for the supermarket shelves!
Pigs, ducks, goats, sheep and other animals are reared on the farm. Salad crops and other vegetables are also grown but for the purposes of this blog, the main focus is the shop and café.
The café is open on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday between 09.30 and 14.30 and on Saturday and Sunday between 10:00 and 16:00
This café sells food that is either produced on the farm or produced locally in London and the surrounding area. Generally the salad and vegetables are grown on the farm with meat brought in from the Ginger Pig which is a well-known butcher and supplier of top quality meat in London.
I’ve had a lot of food at the farm over the last 18 months or so as it is only a 10 minute walk from where I live. Among my favourites are the home-cured bacon sandwich which includes thick bacon and homemade door-stop bread with homemade tomato chutney. If I remember correctly, it costs around £4.50 but it’s a big sandwich and the bacon is far thicker than that which you buy in a shop. I also highly recommend the home made cakes. There’s usually flapjacks, brownies and a really nice vegan banana bread which comes with Almond butter.
Sunday is brunch day and the bacon is home cured, and the black pudding and sausages are home made. The breakfast also comes with homemade baked beans, potato roti, egg, mushrooms and homemade bread with tomato jam. It costs £7.50 but it’s a good big plate full.
Tea and coffee are also available. My only criticism here is that the cups are rather small. This is understandable as space in the café is quite limited and the cups do stack easily if required. In an ideal world though, I’d like to have the choice of a mug.
In general this is a really nice café and it’s well worth combining a visit to the café with a look round the farm. Sometimes popular dishes do run out quickly so what’s on offer can be slightly unpredictable. Given the space available though, and the need to conserve rather than waste food I think the chef and other staff do a good job and I would highly recommend a visit. Being a city farm, there are lots of activities for children. This is probably not the place for you if having any crying child within 10 metres of you makes your hairs stand up on end and causes you to start screaming!
On Saturday there is a farmers market between 10 and 4. There are stalls selling vegetables, meat, bread and cakes. Often there is also a stall selling precooked food also and the café generally does food too.
It’s hard to mark the food here as it is very good but visitor numbers are unpredictable so you may have to wait a while when it’s very busy. Due to size the range is quite small so if you are a very fussy eater, check to see what is available.
Over all I would give the café 8.5 out of 10 and I think most people will find a visit to be quite enjoyable.
For more information visit
or telephone 020 7790 8204
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