Well done Kate’s Café in Portswood for winning the Best Breakfast Brunch Spot 2026 – Neighbourhood Fave Award! HRA wrote an article about Kate’s in the Autumn 2026 Newsletter just released. Here it is! Kate’s is well worth a visit. All the food is all homemade!

Kate’s Café Lounge – Lease extended!

Local girl and qualified, classically trained chef, Kate Ledward, opened the Café on 1 August 2010 after 20 years of managing wine bars/restaurants in Bedford Place and Oxford Street. She has just renewed the lease for another five years.

Kate specialises in breakfasts and lunches with plenty of vegetables. She sources her produce locally and uses seasonal food. Everything is fresh, home cooked and there is nothing processed. She can tell her customers exactly what is in their food and caters for everyone’s needs including coeliacs (gluten free). When I visited, there was chicken and leek casserole and roast pork and trimmings on her extensive menu! Her cakes are divine. For Kate, cooking is her obsession.

 

She says the Café, “is all about my regulars”. Some of them received meal deliveries during Covid. Many have become friends: often Kate’s is a lifeline, their community.

The Café has experienced a turbulent time – a new landlord put the rent up 20%, her accountant disappeared, Covid had a substantial impact and in 2025 it faced closure with Bus-Gate. Thankfully, a regular couple kindly donated to enable her to overcome a difficult time.

Things are much better now as Kate’s is also the engine room for a sandwich shop she recently opened in Bedford Place. Cooking everything for ‘Breadford’s’ at the Café, enabled Kate to fill a financial hole.

To the people of Portswood, she says, “Thanks for supporting me. I want everyone to know I’ve got another 5 years”! Kate’s is open Tuesday to Saturday, 9am to 3pm.

Nadine Johnson HRA Communications