The Tree Top Cafe

Overlooking The Sanctuary grounds, the Tree Top Café serves a section of delicious vegetarian food. Menu options include pizzas made fresh to order, sandwiches and filled baguettes, homemade soup, veggie bangers and mash and homemade cakes. There is a separate ice cream parlour which sells Roskilly’s Cornish organic ice cream and a wheel-chair accessible seating area.

WINNER OF THE VEGETARIAN SOCIETY AWARD: BEST VISITOR ATTRACTION FOR VEGETARIANS

Enjoy your meal in the sunshine on our new deck, or in the grassy picnic area beside the fragrant herb garden; or dine under the canopy surrounded by rainforest creatures and learn about recycling from our colourful displays.

Our Tree Top Café is an eco-friendly establishment. We endeavour to use local suppliers (thus supporting the Cornish economy and saving energy on transport) and fair-trade products such as our teas, coffees and chocolates. We aim to produce as little waste as possible and to recycle the waste we do produce. To this end we now provide recycling points to Sanctuary visitors and to the surrounding community. All food waste is composted and used in the Sanctuary gardens and orchards, which in turn provide food for the monkeys.

Open during Sanctuary business hours (11.00am-4.30pm, Sun-Thur).

The Managers of The Treetop Café explain the café’s ethical policy:

What!?  No meat?

Why on earth would a tourist attraction provide strictly vegetarian food?

Here at the Treetop Café we serve vegetarian food that we have sourced locally, ethically and organically wherever possible.  People sometimes ask us why we don’t serve meat, or major-brand soft drinks, or why we bother recycling or paying a bit extra for organically grown produce.  The answers to these questions are based upon the Monkey Sanctuary Trust’s stated mission ‘to lead by example to promote conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment’. 

Although the Trust focuses mainly on primate protection and welfare, it wishes to promote humane behaviour towards all animals.  A vegetarian diet is in accord with this goal, and the Treetop Café is a great vehicle for showing the public that vegetarian food can be healthy, delicious and satisfying!  Our milk, cream and eggs come from nearby Trewithen Dairy, where the welfare of the farm animals is a top priority.  We serve a few ‘meaty’ items such as veggie burgers and veggie sausages, but have also attempted to provide numerous other menu items that are delicious and satisfying in their own right, such as our ‘Real Tex-Mex Chile sin Carne’, our ‘Greek Salad Wrap’ and our moreish ‘Dips Platters’.

Much of our fresh produce, and all of our jams and chutneys, come from Keveral Farm (an organic cooperative just down the lane).  Organic farming practices tend to be more earth- and wildlife-friendly than conventional farming practices, and the fact that Keveral is so close by means that the food we get from them carries virtually no food-miles (in fact, it is often brought here on foot or by bicycle!).  Many people believe that organic food is healthier to eat as well as being healthier for the environment.  It also tastes delicious! 

We opt for organic flours, chocolate, herbs and spices and organic soft drinks rather than those produced by multinational corporations with questionable business practices which conflict with the Trust’s ethics and ideas about sustainability.  Our coffees and teas are bought from companies that trade fairly with their producers – ensuring that workers in ‘developing’ countries receive a living wage.  Human welfare is also important to the Monkey Sanctuary Trust!

Finally, we try to reduce waste as much as possible by avoiding disposable dishes, straws and cutlery, by composting all kitchen scraps and uneaten food and by reusing or recycling everything that we can.  We encourage visitors to use the appropriate recycling bins located throughout the Sanctuary and Café grounds and provide information about recycling in the Sanctuary itself.

All profits from The Treetop Café go directly towards the Monkey Sanctuary Trust to be used for the care of the monkeys on site and to promote conservation and primate welfare worldwide.