Museums may not be a place you visit for great food; they tend to be home to practical, casual eateries designed for quick lunches and coffees. That's slowly beginning to change, however, with some museum restaurants offering up interesting menus in recent years. One such museum is Lambeth’s Garden Museum, which reopened in 2017 with The Garden Café, serving a regularly-changing, seasonal menu overseen by head chef George Ryle, to much acclaim.

Wanting to cater to both museum visitors looking for a quick but delicious bite to eat and to those wanting something more substantial, The Garden Café is focused on providing a relaxed ambience in which to enjoy the varied, ingredient-led menu. Décor has been kept simple yet stylish in the light-flooded space; wooden tables and chairs are dotted around the main café space, while floor-to-ceiling windows look out over a small courtyard area, where a few tables are kept free during the summer.

The seasonal nature of Ryle’s cooking means that the à la carte menu at The Garden Café changes regularly depending on availability of produce, while daily specials provide customers with further options to choose from. A meal at the café might begin with a simple starter such as braised courgettes with feta and crumbs or perhaps salt hake croquettes served with aioli. More substantial main courses range from vegetarian dishes like borlotti beans served in a summer vegetable broth to a hearty beef shin ragù pappardelle, and you can also expect a short selection of classic desserts, with crowd-pleasers such as an indulgent chocolate mousse regularly making an appearance.

When it comes to drinks, there’s more to The Garden Café’s menu than your run-of-the-mill teas and coffees. A carefully curated selection of low-intervention wines accompanies the food, with beers and a wide variety of soft drinks also available.

The Garden Café is a wonderful example of how a museum can offer something a little more special than sandwiches and salads while still keeping the food ultra-accessible. It's no surprise that George Ryle's menu continues to prove popular with museum-goers.