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Brockenhurst & Beaulieu

Cafe

Esme's Tea Rooms

Thatched Cottage Hotel, 16 Brookley Road, SO42 7RR

A tea room in a sixteenth-century thatched cottage on Brockenhurst's main street, open daily for breakfast, lunch, cakes and afternoon tea, with gluten free baking that coeliac visitors go out of their way to recommend.

The menu advertises gluten free options across its daily cakes and bakes, including scones with a gluten free option, and diners report gluten free bread for sandwiches plus plain and fruit gluten free scones. A reader told My Gluten Free Guide in February 2026 of a wonderful gluten free cooked breakfast and cake here.

Diners report that gluten free items are kept separately and marked up, that the kitchen has separate areas to avoid cross-contact and that a chef is coeliac — encouraging, but none of this appears in the venue's own published wording, which promises only to accommodate allergies where required. The afternoon tea is a set menu, so raise gluten free needs when booking.

Diners mention separate kitchen areas and a coeliac chef — can you confirm how gluten free food is prepared and kept apart? Can the afternoon tea be made fully gluten free, including the sandwiches and scones? Is the gluten free cooked breakfast cooked apart from items containing gluten?

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This information is researched but not guaranteed — menus and kitchen practices change. Always tell staff you are coeliac.