Outside The Box Cafe

What a lovely spot!!! Called one cold Thursday afternoon for coffee and cake whilst visiting Ilkley for the first time. Hadn't seen many cafes ( and I refuse to queue outside and pay inflated prices of a certain other cafe in the area!!) when we spotted this by the car park. The cafe was lovely and warm. It is really quite big with some of the tables being out in an old, covered arcade. There were even blankets out here for the more colder days. There are tables for two or four then longer tables for larger groups. The tables and floor were spotless, the staff were welcoming. Our coffee was good and hot and full of flavour and the coffee cake was a proper Yorkshire size!! There are some vegan options - plus ice cream for dogs! And I saw a lady come for take away. It wasn't until I started looking at the boards in the arcade that I realised it was a Community type cafe and I started to take more notice. It was wonderful to see the adults working together! What a fabulous place! So, if it does take a minute or two longer for your food to arrive , don't moan , just think how lovely it is that people with disabilities are being given the opportunity to be trained up for a job! The beautiful young lady that served us couldn't have been more pleasant!! She had a constant smile on her face!! How gorgeous! She looked so proud to be working - and so she should be! Two words of warning - you do need to pay by card ( not a problem to the vast majority of people ) and, I've been told, they sell out of scones quickly on busy days!! So, if you give them a visit remember - There is still some good things happening in this world !❤️❤️❤️ Ps we added £1, as a donation , to our bill and they were so genuinely pleased. We won't miss the £1 but it means a lot to them.

A lovely, friendly place to spend time with family including my 4 year old grandson. Great facilities in such a beautiful building too!

A really great cafe. The staff are very friendly and always working hard. Food and coffee are a good and fairly priced for Ilkley. Free wifi available, so an excellent place to work during the day.

A great find for us in Ilkley. A reasonably priced cafe that supports and employs people with learning difficulties. The food was great. As was the service. The coffee is especially good.

Really terrible! We visited on a Sunday for brunch, the place was busy but not full. Tables of people waiting a very long time and looking very disgruntled. We waited for one whole hour for "loaded toast" (£7.50) and a bacon sandwich (£7) to arrive, which when eventually turned up felt to be a joke. The loaded toast was a tiny piece of sourdough with cream cheese spread and a bit of salmon which looked like it took 5 minutes to put together. I sent it back and asked for it to be taken off the bill. The staff were very apologetic to all the tables for the long delays, they explained they only had one chef working... Might be worth hiring more chefs for peak times? Also taking a look at your prices, if you want to be considered to be a reputable business.