The most beautiful garden cafés in the city

Something that makes many of us long for the summer are outside cafés. Sitting next to a sun-drenched wall with a cup in one hand and a pastry in the other is most people’s ideal of a true pre-summer dream. Being able to do so in a gorgeous green setting enhances the image all the more. Here we provide a list of garden cafés within and outside Uppsala in which to embrace the summer.

Café Victoria (Botanical Garden)

Café Victoria can be called something of a show-off in the world of garden cafés. It is a neighbour of central Uppsala’s perhaps most famous garden, the Botanical Garden, and its exotic cousin from the country, the tropical greenhouse. Locally produced, organic and fair-trade, but above all, very tasty and well-prepared food, savoury as well as sweet, features on the menu. Enjoy an exquisite summer lunch with your colleagues, or a light weekend snack al-fresco.

Open May to September.

Villavägen 8 (near the Tropiska växthuset).

Salsta Slottskafé & Bistro

If you want to immerse yourself in history over your next coffee, then make Salsta Castle your next visit. An avenue of trees, a castle courtyard and a magnificent castle, dating back to the thirteenth century, are a mere half-hour’s drive from Uppsala. Salsta Slottskafé & Bistro is reputed to bake the tastiest cinnamon rolls in the world and they also offer their home-made chocolates, which are best enjoyed when the castle gardens are in full bloom.

Open Wednesday to Sunday, all year round. Open all days of the week during summer.

Salsta Castle.

Tantens Gröna Parkcafé in the yellow villa (Stadsträdgården)

Uppsala City Garden is Uppsala’s main park and a veritable summer oasis in the heart of the city. If you’re feeling peckish, you only need to trot along to Tantens Gröna Parkcafé to continue enjoying the flower displays. This garden café serves a wide range of vegetarian dishes and cakes for all those with a sweet tooth and a passion for ice cream. The café is housed in the charming yellow villa in the middle of the park – the perfect place to relax after a day on the playground, an intensive game of kubb, or a jog along the Fyrisån.

Open April to June.

Sjukhusvägen 4 (in the Stadsträdgården).

Café Sara Lisa in Linnaeus Hammarby

The king of flowers, Carl von Linné, has left his mark on several sites in and around Uppsala. One of these is Linnaeus Hammarby, where he lived and worked during the summer months. These buildings are now a museum, which is worth visiting solely for the sake of the Café Sara Lisa. The café serves sandwiches, cakes and a wide assortment of teas in a gorgeous eighteenth-century garden, where we find numerous plants grown by Linné himself.

Open May to September.

Linnaeus Hammarby

The Café in the English Park

One garden café that children may want to keep coming back to throughout the spring and summer is the café located next to the Peter No-Tail playground. The café comprises a carriage, strategically located next to the fun playground. Enjoy coffee, juice, waffles and other sweet treats here. The café is open daily between mid-summer and school term start.

The English Park (behind Carolina Rediviva).

Café Ulva kvarn

You’ll find Ulva Kvarn a real treasure, and you can get there by car, bus or bike. It houses a beautiful garden café, where the sound of coffee brewing blends with the mill in the Fyrisån’s rapids. You can enjoy home-baked cakes, generously filled sandwiches and various kinds of drinks here, after visiting the traders and workshops on site.

Open Saturdays and Sundays.

Make your way to Ulva Kvarn.

Kaffestugan in Härnevi

Are you someone who avidly watches gardening programmes, or likes to potter around in the garden? Then Kaffestugan is just the place for you. Next door to Härnevi, which sells home-grown plants and hanging baskets, you will find Kaffestugan, which is every bit as charming as you would imagine a garden café in a rustic environment to be. With its comfortable sofas and little gazebos, you can take your pick of idyllic seats. It serves simple dishes, pies and a selection of cakes and rolls – well worth the half-hour journey from central Uppsala.

Open Thursday to Sunday.

Lilla Härnevi 23, Enköping.