Urban Jungle

This is not your average garden centre: you’re about to experience a mini-break in the tropics! Banana trees, giant ferns, bamboo, succulents, cacti, climbers all thrive in this extraordinary Norfolk jungle. They invade the glasshouse café too, where scrubbed tables and a pretty assortment of chairs and large, floppable sofas nestle among tropical branches.

Children will vanish into the thick vegetation while you relax among cushions to peruse the enticing menu. It’s all gluten free and either homegrown or ethically sourced, and includes cakes through to frittatas, toasties and salads with a definite Middle Eastern vibe (the harissa chicken and slow-cooked pulled lamb were mouth-wateringly delicious). Tea is loose-leaf (hurrah!) and coffee carefully sourced from single estates and served in a cafètiere.

This place is a one off – well, a two off, if we include its other, equally exotic, branch in Beccles.