In Gloucester, a Restaurant Finds Its Menu in the Landscape Around It

Photo: Roots + Seeds brings locally inspired dining to Gloucester’s historic docks, occupying a beautifully renovated Victorian brick warehouse overlooking Victoria Basin.

Where The Landscape Meets The Plate

Roots + Seeds brings Gloucestershire to the table through seasonal produce, local suppliers and its own kitchen garden, combining modern British cooking with community spirit and a commitment to sustainability.

Looking for a pleasant short break this autumn before those dark winter nights set in?   If so, the city of Gloucester is a wonderful blend of history, nature, and community and makes for a terrific short break destination.

The area around the city’s historic docks is particularly impressive with major investment in recent years clearly evident with some wonderfully restored old buildings.

Occupying one such building, a lovingly restored warehouse is another addition to what is proving to be on the region’s most successful and popular resto “chains.”

It is called Roots + Seeds Café & Kitchen and, perhaps after a spot of exploring what this fine city has to offer, it really is a great place to sate any appetite.

• Local First — The restaurant prioritises Gloucestershire-sourced and seasonal ingredients.
• Garden To Plate — Produce is harvested from its own quarter-acre kitchen garden in Cirencester.
• Supporting The Community — The business works with local growers, producers, breweries and suppliers.
• Reducing Food Miles — Local sourcing is central to the Roots + Seeds philosophy.
• Low-Waste Ambition — Growing and sourcing carefully supports its goal of creating low-to-zero-food-waste restaurants.
• British With European Influence — The all-day menus combine modern British cooking with European touches.
• Historic Setting — The Gloucester restaurant occupies a renovated Victorian warehouse overlooking Victoria Basin.
• Growing Local Brand — Roots + Seeds currently operates in Gloucester, Cirencester and Far Peak, with another location planned for the Evesham area in 2027.
• Award Recognition — Its honours include Café / Coffee Shop of the Year 2026 at the SoGlos Lifestyle & Community Awards.
• Born During Lockdown — Founders Toby Baggott and Sam Lawson-King began their hospitality journey with The Scenic Supper in 2020.

Occupying the ground floor of a lovely old building this is an all-day café restaurant that offers brasserie style menus of modern British with European influences.

The beautifully renovated Victorian brick warehouse overlooks Gloucester’s historic Victoria Basin. The interior is inspired by the local vernacular with a nod to the Victorian greenhouse aesthetic in keeping with its ‘kitchen garden’ ethos. Original exposed brick walls are lined with banquettes lit from above by nautical wall lamps and there is a pleasant open kitchen. Black and white patterned tiled floors with marble-topped bistro tables and Hans Wegner-style Wishbone chairs in walnut complete the relaxing rear dining space.

The over-arching idea here is to showcase as much Gloucestershire-sourced, seasonal produce from trusted suppliers and growers as possible.

It makes no bones of this – advertising the fact on the back of each menu which identifies some of the producers it calls upon to help source its kitchen.

They include the Wood Brother distillery, Bensons “the family juicers” and the Bathurst Estate.

Gloucestershire products include lamb, pork and poultry from Jesse Smith Family Butchers, game from the Bathurst Estate and its neighbours, assorted home-grown produce and locally foraged ingredients along with fresh fish and seafood delivered daily from Brixham in Devon.

Timeline

June 2020
Toby Baggott and Sam Lawson-King launch The Scenic Supper, a socially distanced fine-dining concept created during Covid restrictions.

Easter 2023
Roots + Seeds Kitchen Garden opens in Cirencester, becoming the business’s first permanent location.

2024
Roots + Seeds wins Start-up of the Year at the Gloucestershire Foodie Awards, while head chef Sam Idoine receives a Highly Commended Chef of the Year recognition.

April 2025
The Gloucester Food Dock location opens in a restored Victorian warehouse.

2025
Roots + Seeds becomes a finalist in the SoGlos Foodie Award.

March 2026
Roots + Seeds Far Peak opens, becoming the group’s newest location.

2026
Roots + Seeds wins Café / Coffee Shop of the Year at the SoGlos Lifestyle & Community Awards.

2027 — Planned
A fourth Roots + Seeds location is expected to open in the Evesham area.

Vegetarian dishes feature on every course and all dietary requirements are catered for. A children’s menu offers healthy options and perennial favourites.

The owners state that by working with “incredible” local suppliers – wherever possible, that is – they are seeking to cut “food miles” and also support local communities in the area.

The chef and his young team work with everything from freshly harvested veg and locally reared meat to small batch drinks and handmade treats (see the dessert menu for ample evidence of these).

“Together,” state the owners, “we are creating food that celebrates the landscape around us and the people who help it thrive.”

The Gloucester resto is, in fact, one of three in the “Roots and Seeds” fold. The others are in Cirencester and the Far Peak estate at Northleach. A fourth is said to be in the offing (in the Evesham area) in 2027.

A brand new menu has just been introduced which, for the first time since the company opened a few short years back, now embraces all three of the venues.

It is open from 8am to 5pm and serves breakfasts, including a full English, plus a great range of sandwiches  and some very tasty lunch offerings such as salads and burger.

Among the customer faves is the houmus egg sandwich and fish goujon which, according to staff member Elysia, is a “real show stopper.”

You really must also try the frites which are delicious and will be particularly appreciated by Belgians where, of course, the frit is a national institution.

There’s some very satisfying drinks to wash it all down with.

Roots + Seeds Gloucester’s fully stocked bar includes its own award-winning London Dry Gin, made by co-founder, Sam Lawson-King and used for his renowned cocktails muddled with home-made shrubs, cordials and mixers using locally foraged ingredients. There’s also a selection of great wines curated by local specialists, Talking Wines and beers by Gloucester Brewery and Cotswold Lakes Brew.

Not forgetting, of course, those mouth watering desserts, such as carrot cake, to round off a very tasty meal.

The prices, particularly considering the quality of the food, are very reasonable  which it always commendable, not least in these economically tight times.

Worth noting that the resto takes daily deliveries of the very best, home-grown, fresh produce picked daily from its own ¼ acre kitchen garden at its Cirencester site with additional fresh produce grown specifically for its menus at Cirencester Royal Agricultural University’s seven-acre No Dig Market Garden.

Head chef, Sam Idoine of Roots + Seeds Kitchen Garden at Cirencester, created the all-day menus for the Gloucester site.

This booming business is the brainchild of Cotswolds born and bred, local school friends, Toby Baggott and Sam Lawson-King who opened their first hospitality venture, ‘The Scenic Supper’ in response to lockdown and on-going Covid restrictions in June 2020. A unique, socially distanced fine dining experience,it revolutionised the way customers could dine out at the time.

Roots + Seeds Kitchen Garden opened at Cirencester launched at Easter 2023. It was their first permanent site and the start of the company’s evolution to “create a place to engage with both the environment and the community around us.”

The Gloucester Food Dock site opened in April 2025 and Roots + Seeds Far Peak is the newest, opening in March this year.

The popularity among the public has been matched with recognition by their peers.

Since opening, Roots + Seeds has won ‘Café / Coffee Shop of the Year 2026’ in the SoGlos Lifestyle & Community Awards and was a finalist in the SoGlos Foodie Award 2025.

In 2024, it won the ‘Start-up of the Year’ Award at the Gloucestershire Foodie Awards and ‘Highly Commended’ award in the ‘Chef of the Year’ category for head chef, Sam Idoine, at the SoGlos Lifestyle Awards.

It was also awarded ‘Best Restaurant in the Cotswolds’ at the inaugural Slow Cotswolds Awards, chosen by Bradt travel guide publishers, and which also included Roots + Seeds in its ‘Slow Travel Guide to the Cotswolds’ guidebook.

Said Toby, “We are just thrilled that so many people voted for Roots + Seeds Gloucester in the SoGlos awards and would like to thank each and every one of them for doing so.

 “I’d also like to thank our wonderful team of front-of-house and kitchen staff for their dedication and hard work and our wonderful suppliers and producers too.”

The Gloucester venue is smashing place that can seat 40 inside and about 20 on a very pleasant terrace that overlooks those wonderfully restored docks.

The area, as Elysia recalls, was nothing like it is today about ten years back. Back then it was pretty rundown, she says, but it can now boast a great choice of shops plus flats and a college.

But one place visitors here would do well to ensure is on their “must visit” list is a visit to this lovely eatery.

There’s something for everyone to enjoy. Here is a selection of things to see, do and visit during the chillier months.

The owners say the focus has always been about engaging with the wider community whilst offering a fun, lively, family-focused environment and celebrating the fantastic fresh produce grown in its own 1/4 acre kitchen garden and from suppliers within a 25-mile radius. 

Growing its own food also helps them achieve another very laudable goal that others would do well to follow…of creating low to zero food waste restaurants.

Further info:

Roots + Seeds Café & Kitchen, 23-29 Commercial Road, Gloucester GL1 2EP.

Book at eat@rootsandseeds.co.uk

Photo credit: Visit Gloucester

Tel 07873 621376