A POPULAR restaurant has scooped two prizes at an awards ceremony recognising the best cafes and bakeries across the country.

The Glasshouse Restaurant at Dunbar Garden Centre was among the dozens of entrants hoping for success at the fourth Scottish Café and Bakery Awards.

Winners were revealed last week with the county business highly commended in both the Garden Centre Café of the Year and Restaurant of the Year categories.

The garden centre, off Spott Road, opened in 2013 and employs more than 50 people.

Ilmars Bogdanovs, garden centre manager, said: “Our restaurant is a big part of the local community, which is pleasing to see to ourselves.

“We are just looking to improve and hopefully down the line to expand the restaurant itself as well as the services that we offer, including something like a hall for people to have meetings, like a conference room.

“It is pleasing to see that our hard work is getting noticed by our customers but we are looking to improve it even further.”

The Glasshouse Restaurant at Dunbar Garden Centre, which has 200 covers, lost out to Rouken Glen Garden Centre in Giffnock in the Garden Centre Café of the Year category while Spoons Coffee House in Paisley was named restaurant of the year.

Formerly the Scottish Café Awards, the awards aim to celebrate the best in the Scottish coffee industry who are the real masters of coffee.

The awards seek to reward the very best professionals and establishments in the cafe industry and celebrate those who put so much effort into providing high quality of food, snacks and hot beverages on-the-go to the customers.

A spokesperson for the awards said: “This year’s winners reflect those who put so much effort into providing high quality of food, snacks and hot beverages to the customers across the country.

"We would like to congratulate all of our winners and Highly Commended recipients on their accomplishments.”