We tried the new Rogue Fox Coffee House in Newport

The Rogue Fox Coffee House has been a popular coffee and cake destination on Clytha Park Road for a few years now, but was limited by its small size, and fairly restrictive opening hours.

Moving three doors down to the former Meat restaurant was supposed to solve these problems – with twice the seating available, and longer opening hours.

With different licensing conditions in place, the café can now trade until 4pm, seven days a week.

But, with the local independent charm of the Rogue Fox one of its main strengths, has the move to a new site taken away some of the appeal of the venue?

Determined to find out, the Argus went along to see for ourselves.

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First impressions

It has to be said, the new home of the Rogue Fox is not particularly big. But, that really does serve to show just how tiny their old home was, if anything.

Paying a visit on a Friday lunchtime, many – but not all of the tables were occupied, which is an encouraging site for a local business.

Staff behind the counter were clearly busy, balancing serving customers and ferrying meal orders to the kitchen at the back of the establishment.

The cookie dough brownie at Rogue Fox Coffee House, Newport

Towards the front of the premises, a few of the tables are packed quite close together, and to the credit of the staff, they were able to recommend an empty – and much comfier table down a step and around a corner, which would definitely have gone unnoticed otherwise.

This meant that despite being a packed house, it still felt like the kind of place to have a private conversation or to get some work done in the peace and quiet.

As for the décor, the café is currently feeling exceptionally festive, with Christmas decorations throughout – so it is a little hard to see how the new venue looks in its typical form.

Food and drink

Of course, one of the reasons why the Rogue Fox is so popular is its menu, and being in a new venue, one key question remains – has the quality suffered?

Quite simply, the answer is no.

We opted for a latte and a cookie dough brownie, to see how it stacks up relative to expectations.

These were brought to the table pretty quickly, and in all fairness, were pretty good.

The coffee was a good quality and a perfect temperature – hot, but without being so hot that it would take half-an-hour to be drinkable.

A latte at Rogue Fox Coffee House in Newport

Meanwhile, the brownie was the right size – any bigger, and the sickliness would have been too much.

At £5.30 for coffee and cake, it a reasonably priced option, in a decent location, all the while supporting local business in Newport.

And with all that in mind, you can’t really go wrong with the new and improved Rogue Fox Coffee House.

The Rogue Fox Coffee House has reopened at their new home at 3 Clytha Park Road.