The Best Cafes and Independent Coffee Spots in Torquay

Torquay’s cafe scene has quietly grown up over the past decade. Where once you had to choose between a chain-coffee station and a fading 1980s tea room, the town now has a genuinely good roster of independent cafes and coffee spots. Some are tucked along the harbour, some sit above the cliffs, and a few are in places you would never think to look. Here is an honest local guide to the best cafes and independent coffee spots in Torquay, with what to order, when to go, and where you can take the dog.

Harbourside and town centre

The harbour is the obvious starting point, and one or two places stand out from the crowd of look-alikes.

Burridge’s on the harbour front is a charming independent with a particular reputation for a proper Devon cream tea, generously scooped clotted cream and loose-leaf pots done well. Mid-morning is the sweet spot before the cruise-day crowds drift in. Expect £ to ££ for a cream tea for two; cash and card both accepted.

Kalipso Coffee & Bagel in the town centre does excellent flat whites and a strong line in flavoured syrups (pistachio, lavender, hazelnut) that are made properly rather than poured from a sticky bottle. The bagels are toasted to order. If you are working from a laptop, ask for the window seats.

Beachside cafes: coffee with sand under your feet

Torquay has several blue-flag beaches, and the cafes attached to them are some of the most pleasant addresses in town.

Meadfoot Beach Cafe, perched above Meadfoot Beach east of the harbour, is a friendly, slightly time-warped spot with barista coffee, proper breakfasts and homemade cakes. The terrace looks back across the cove. Park at Meadfoot Beach car park (pay-and-display, but reliable). Dogs welcome outside.

Anstey’s Cove Cafe, in a tiny clearing above one of Torbay’s prettiest small coves, is a five-minute downhill walk from the road. Coffees are decent, cakes are excellent and the cove below is one of the best swimming spots in Torquay between June and September.

Cliff Railway Cafe at the top of the Babbacombe Cliff Railway is family-run by Lindsay and Amanda Yelland. It is stylish, fully licensed, and you can sit with a coffee while looking down the coast all the way to Lyme Regis on a clear day. The cliff railway itself is reason enough to visit, and the cafe makes the trip worth lingering over.

Park, garden and quirky finds

One World Cafe sits inside Torre Abbey gardens, the medieval abbey grounds five minutes’ walk from the seafront. It serves a wide tea menu, vegetarian-leaning light bites and homemade pastries through the day, and the setting is calm in a way the seafront rarely is. The abbey gardens are free to enter; the abbey itself charges admission.

For something more directly cafe-and-cake, The Daisy Tea Rooms on Babbacombe Road serves cream teas in tea-shop teapots, with all the doilies and bunting you could want. Lovely if that is your scene; not at all if you would rather a minimalist flat white. Both have their place.

Coffee for serious drinkers

If you take your coffee seriously, you will want to track down the specialty roasters and the cafes that buy from them. Voyager Coffee Roasters, based further along the Devon coast, supplies several Torquay cafes, and a small number of independent spots in town roast or grind on-site. The harbour-area independents tend to use better beans than the chains a hundred metres away; ask what they brew and you will get an honest answer.

What to order

The Devon house style leans towards a slightly darker, chocolatier roast than London or Bristol. A flat white or piccolo brings the milk and the coffee into balance; a long black or filter is the route to taste the bean. Most independents will do oat milk, almond and soya as standard. Decaf is increasingly Swiss water processed.

Where to go when you want a working spot

If you need to plug in a laptop and answer a few emails on holiday, the harbourside chains have the strongest wi-fi and the most predictable seats. For somewhere quieter with character, One World Cafe at Torre Abbey is the calmest, and Kalipso in town has reliable wi-fi and tolerates a long sit if you keep ordering. Most beach cafes will not be patient with two-hour stays in summer, and rightly so.

Cream teas: the local lay of the land

Devon does cream tea slightly differently to Cornwall: cream first, then jam (a fight you cannot win). The best in town for a classic version with home-baked scones are Burridge’s, The Daisy and the cafe at Torre Abbey. Expect around £7 to £12 a head. If you are doing a cream tea as part of a longer day on the coast, time it for around 3pm when the lunch crowd has cleared.

A few practical notes

Opening hours shorten dramatically out of season. From November through to March, plenty of beach cafes close midweek or stop serving by 3pm. Always check social media for current hours before you set off. Dog-friendly outdoor seating is common across the cafes mentioned above; few of the smaller indoor spaces welcome dogs inside.

For all the talk of seafront restaurants and Michelin stars, some of the most enjoyable hours you will spend in Torquay are over a long coffee and a view. The best cafes and independent coffee spots in Torquay are not about chasing a perfect cup; they are about the bit of bay you happen to be looking at while you drink it.

If you are working out where the coffee fits into a wider day, our guide to the best seafood restaurants in Torbay is a good next read.