Best Cafes in Cameron Highlands for Scones, Tea & Pastries
If you're visiting Cameron Highlands for its classic tea-and-scone tradition, start with these three. Each offers a different experience, from a casual scone stop to a proper afternoon tea and a pastry-focused café.
The Lord's Cafe, Tanah Rata
If Cameron Highlands scones are the priority, The Lord's Cafe is one of the easiest recommendations to make. This small, unpretentious café is known for its fresh scones served with cream and strawberry jam, with a strawberry version available for something a little different. The café also serves cakes, pies and drinks, including local teas.
What to order:
- Cream Scone with strawberry jam and cream
- Strawberry Fruity Scone
- Apple Pie
- A cup of BOH Highlands tea
The appeal here is the simple, affordable scone stop, rather than an elaborate afternoon tea setting. It works particularly well after exploring Tanah Rata or returning from a morning walk when you want something warm and sweet without turning it into a formal meal.
Jim Thompson Tea Room, Cameron Highlands Resort
Jim Thompson Tea Room has an unusual connection to Cameron Highlands that goes beyond its afternoon tea menu. It is named after Jim Thompson, the American businessman who became known as the “Silk King” of Thailand for helping revive the country's silk industry.
In 1967, Thompson was holidaying in the Cameron Highlands when he went for an afternoon walk and disappeared. Despite an extensive search, he was never found, and what happened to him remains one of the region's most famous mysteries.
That story gives the tea room an interesting connection to the destination, but the afternoon tea itself is the real reason to visit. The menu includes warm scones with clotted cream and jams, finger sandwiches, savoury quiches, pastries, and Cameron Highlands tea.
What to order:
- English afternoon tea set
- Warm scones with clotted cream and jam
- Cameron Highlands tea
The tea room is a good choice if you want to turn your café stop into a proper afternoon tea experience, rather than simply grabbing coffee and cake.
Naux Pastry Cafe, Tanah Rata
Naux Pastry Cafe is the pick for travellers who would rather have proper pastries and cakes than a traditional tea-and-scone spread. It has a small, intimate setting and a menu focused on cakes, Swiss rolls, macarons, and other baked treats.
What to order:
- BOH tea Swiss roll
- Fruit cake
- Sesame matcha Swiss roll
- Tiramisu or a seasonal cake
Its appeal is the pastry-focused menu and smaller setting. If you've already had your fill of scones and strawberry cream elsewhere in Cameron Highlands, Naux gives you something noticeably different while still fitting naturally into a café-hopping itinerary.
Best Cafes in Tanah Rata for Coffee & Brunch
For a break from the usual tea and scones, these Tanah Rata cafés are better suited to coffee, savoury meals, and brunch-style stops. Each has a different menu, so the best order depends on whether you want a full meal or a lighter café break.
Growing Seed Cafe
Growing Seed Cafe is one of the more modern café options in Tanah Rata, with a menu that goes beyond the usual cakes and tea. It is known for coffee, matcha drinks, scones, and strawberry-based treats, making it a useful stop when you want both a drink and something to eat.
What to order:
- Scones with strawberry jam
- Strawberry matcha
- Coffee
- Strawberry desserts
The café is worth adding for its mix of modern drinks and Cameron Highlands ingredients. It also gives your café list some variety after the more traditional tea experiences in the first section.
Scott's Cafe
Scott's Cafe is one of the better choices when you want to turn your café stop into a proper meal. The menu includes European and Italian-style dishes, so it works for more than just coffee and cake.
What to order:
- Big Breakfast
- Eggs Benedict
- Pasta dishes
- Pizza
The reason to choose Scott's is simple: you can actually eat a full meal here. If you're exploring Tanah Rata and don't want to stop separately for breakfast or lunch, this is a practical café to build into your itinerary.
Barracks Cafe
Barracks Cafe stands out first for its setting inside a restored former military barracks, but the menu gives you another reason to visit. It offers a mix of Western food, desserts, tea, and coffee in a more substantial dining setup.
What to order:
- Barracks Big Breakfast
- Fish and Chips
- Chicken Chop
- Scones with cream and jam
Choose Barracks when you want the café stop itself to feel like part of your Cameron Highlands sightseeing. The historic setting, rather than just the food, is what separates it from a standard brunch café.
Best Cafes in Cameron Highlands for Local Food & Desserts
Cameron Highlands cafés are not all about scones and coffee. These three are worth adding when you want local favourites, strawberry-based treats, or cold desserts that feel more specific to the highlands.
Yong Teng Cafe, Tanah Rata
Yong Teng Cafe is a good pick when you want to move away from Western-style café food and try local dishes in a casual setting. It is known for Chinese and Malaysian comfort food, making it a useful breakfast or lunch stop while exploring Tanah Rata.
What to order:
- Nasi Lemak
- Curry noodles
- Ipoh-style hor fun
- Kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs
The reason to visit is the local-food angle. Rather than ordering another slice of cake or cup of coffee, you can use Yong Teng for a proper Malaysian meal before continuing your day around Cameron Highlands.
Mr. Aisu, Brinchang
Mr. Aisu is the dessert stop of this group, particularly useful when you've spent the day around Brinchang's farms and markets and want something cold and sweet. The café specialises in ice cream and dessert-style treats rather than full meals.
What to order:
- Strawberry yoghurt ice cream
- Strawberry desserts
- Ice cream-based desserts
- Milkshakes
What makes it worth adding is the change of pace. After several tea and coffee stops, a cold strawberry dessert gives you something completely different while still fitting the Cameron Highlands food experience.
Rasa Soya Cafe, Brinchang
Rasa Soya Cafe is a good stop in Brinchang if you want fresh soy-based drinks and traditional Chinese desserts rather than another strawberry cake or cream-heavy dessert. Its speciality is taufu fa, a soft soybean curd dessert served with sweet syrup, alongside freshly made soy milk.
What to order:
- Taufu fa
- Fresh soy milk
- Soy pudding
- Soy-based desserts
The reason to add Rasa Soya to your café list is its focused soy menu. It offers something you won't get from the typical scone, waffle and strawberry-dessert cafés around Cameron Highlands. It's also an easy option to work into a Brinchang day when you're exploring the nearby farms, markets and other attractions.
Lemon Button Cafe & Dining, Tanah Rata
Lemon Button Cafe & Dining is located at Zenith Suites Cameron, and its menu goes beyond the usual coffee-and-cake café setup. It serves a mix of Western mains, pastries, cakes, coffee and tea, so it works better as a relaxed meal stop than a quick dessert break.
What to order:
- Croissant for a light pastry stop
- Big Breakfast if you want something filling
- Fish and Chips for a proper savoury meal
- Coffee or tea alongside your meal
What makes Lemon Button useful in a Cameron Highlands itinerary is its all-day dining menu. You can stop here for breakfast, come back for lunch, or simply sit down for coffee and a pastry without having to plan your visit around a dedicated tea service.
Plan a Cafe-Hopping Day in Cameron Highlands
A café day works best when you build it around meals rather than trying to collect as many cafés as possible. Here is a practical route that gives you scones in the morning, a proper lunch, afternoon tea, and dessert without constantly crossing between Tanah Rata and Brinchang.
Morning: Start With Scones in Tanah Rata
Begin at The Lord's Cafe in Tanah Rata for its scones with cream and strawberry jam. Have them with tea and keep breakfast light, especially if you plan to eat again later.
After breakfast, spend the late morning exploring Tanah Rata or head towards Brinchang and its nearby attractions. This is also a good time to visit a farm or market before the afternoon crowds build up.
Afternoon: Make Time for Proper Afternoon Tea
Around 3:00 PM, head to Jim Thompson Tea Room at Cameron Highlands Resort for its afternoon tea.
This is the one stop worth planning around because the experience is more substantial than a quick café visit, with sandwiches, pastries, scones, jam, cream, and Cameron Highlands tea. Allow around 1 to 2 hours rather than treating it as a grab-and-go stop.
Late Afternoon: Coffee or Pastry in Tanah Rata
If you still want another café stop, return to Naux Pastry Cafe or Growing Seed Cafe for something smaller.
At Naux, choose a cake or Swiss roll rather than another full meal. At Growing Seed, you can switch to coffee or a matcha drink. Keep this stop light because you're heading towards dinner.
Evening: Finish With a Dessert Stop in Brinchang
If you're staying around Brinchang or heading there for dinner, finish your café day with Mr. Aisu or Rasa Soya Cafe.
Choose Mr. Aisu for a cold strawberry or ice-cream dessert, or Rasa Soya Cafe for taufu fa and soy milk. This gives the day a completely different final stop instead of ending with another tea-and-scone experience.
Final Thoughts
Cameron Highlands is the kind of place where a café stop can easily become part of the trip itself. Start with scones and strawberry jam at The Lord's Cafe, make time for afternoon tea at Jim Thompson Tea Room, or head to Brinchang for a dessert at Mr. Aisu or Rasa Soya Cafe.
The easiest way to enjoy them is to choose cafés around your sightseeing plans rather than crossing the highlands just to tick places off a list. Pick the cafés that match what you actually want to eat, leave room between stops, and let the food become part of your Cameron Highlands experience rather than another item on your itinerary.