If you're a board game enthusiast looking for a place where you can enjoy food and tabletop games, then look no further than The Ludoquist.

Located in Croydon, this board game café bar has recently been awarded the prestigious Blue Ribbon award in the Good Food Awards.

The Good Food Awards recognises quality food, exceptional service, and great value.

As well as that, on Thursday, November 30, the BBC went to The Ludoquist to film fans of Strictly Come Dancing to talk about this year’s series and they will feature in one of the upcoming episodes.

The Ludoquist was opened in November 2017 by business partners and ex-couple Nick and Carrie Smith.

Carrie told Your Local Guardian: “So, it was my business partner Nick.

“He had so many board games that were taking over his house.

“And he said to me, because I was looking for work, that he’s interested in opening a board game café just to have something to do with all the games.

“And I said ‘oh, yeah, I've got a background and cafe so that I could help you with that.’”

The Good Food Awards gave The Ludoquist the blue ribbon due to its “friendly staff and warm ambience.”

Carrie said: “We do amazing cocktails.

Your Local Guardian:

“They come with organised garnishes.

“People are usually quite surprised we do cocktails, and we do smoothies and proper ice cream shakes.

“We do great coffees and we do mulled cider this winter as well which is absolutely lovely.

“My favourite is definitely the mulled cider.”

One of the highlights of The Ludoquist is their board game nights, which take place on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Carrie explained: “So, Monday is mainly for newcomers’ people who are not really familiar with board games.

“They can always come in and enjoy getting into a group.

“They've got to sign up online first at the meetup website.

“And then they come along, and they're welcomed, and they play sort of easier.

“Games are ones that are maybe not so familiar to them.

“And then on Wednesdays, it's more for the ones who've been playing for a few years.

“And they all know what they want to play and they'll maybe discuss it beforehand.

“And it might be something that maybe the newcomers might not enjoy so much.”

The pandemic was a challenging time for The Ludoquist as board games had to be thoroughly cleaned and isolated each time somebody played with them.

Carrie was able to keep the board game café running so well that they’ve received this award.

She said: “We actually had no idea until we got contacted by someone from a newspaper.

“And then because the judges from The Good Food Awards didn't contact us at all, we had no idea so we lucked out.”

The Ludoquist is open from 3pm to 10pm between Monday and Thursday, 3pm to 11pm on Friday, 11am to 11pm on Saturday, and 11am to 8pm on Sunday.