Charlotte's Tea Room (Salisbury Garden Centre / In-Excess)
Charlotte's Tea Room (Salisbury Garden Centre / In-Excess), Salisbury, SP2 8PR
At a glance
Charlotte's, a tea room inside the In-Excess Home & Garden Centre on Netherhampton Road, Salisbury. Part of the In-Excess chain, with cream teas and a savoury and sweet café menu — a popular local and family spot.
Gluten-free options
Charlotte's here is part of the wider In-Excess group, and their Area Catering Manager confirmed directly that gluten-free options — cake, mains or light lunches — are available at every one of their four Charlotte's cafés, including this one. Each site keeps its own allergen folder covering all 14 major allergens, and every new dish added to the menu is checked to make sure a gluten-free version exists alongside it.
Before you order
This site is one of the group's two smaller tea-rooms: there's no fryer at all and the kitchen mostly assembles rather than cooks, which keeps frying cross-contact out of the picture by design. All the scones are bought in — including gluten-free scones from a supplier — and the gluten-free cakes come from external bakeries (their gluten-free Dorset apple cake, from Berry's Bakery, is stocked at every site). Group-wide, staff complete a level 2 allergen-awareness course on top of food hygiene training, and allergen prep uses colour-coded (purple) knives, boards and tongs. A new menu is in development group-wide, so check what's current when you visit.
Worth asking?
Which gluten-free cakes and scones are in today — is the gluten-free Dorset apple cake available? How are the gluten-free scones and cakes kept separate from the standard ones at the counter?
What this means for coeliacs
Area Catering Manager Paul Hardiman confirmed the site-specific setup: an assembly-only tea-room kitchen with no fryer, bought-in gluten-free scones and external-bakery gluten-free cakes, on top of the group's level 2 allergen training and colour-coded prep equipment. Cross-contact risk is structurally low and the process is documented from a named manager.
Last checked:
This information is researched but not guaranteed — menus and kitchen practices change. Always tell staff you are coeliac.