The one-line summary
Eastern and western stages: pubs, cafés and shops appear when needed. Central stages (Chollerford to Gilsland): carry lunch, carry water, and treat anything open as a bonus.
Stage by stage, east to west
Wallsend → Heddon-on-the-Wall. The best-fed day of the trail, Newcastle's quayside is one long refreshment opportunity. The catch: it all ends at Newburn. Buy lunch in the city; the last hours to Heddon are hungry country. Heddon has a pub and a village shop.
Heddon → Chollerford. One reliable anchor: the Robin Hood Inn at East Wallhouses, almost exactly halfway, the trail's most walker-calibrated lunch stop. Little else on-path. Chollerford's pub and nearby Humshaugh's village shop cover the evening.
Chollerford → Once Brewed. Now it gets serious: nothing until Housesteads (12 miles in), where the visitor centre café rescues the underprepared in season. Carry lunch and a full water load. The day ends generously, The Sill café and the Twice Brewed Inn, which brews its own beer and understands walkers at a molecular level.
Once Brewed → Gilsland. The seasonal snack van/café at Cawfields car park is the only likely mid-stage stop, and "seasonal" means exactly that. Greenhead (just off-route near the day's end on most splits) has a pub and tearoom. Gilsland is small: confirm dinner arrangements with your B&B in advance, this is the one village where "we'll find something" can fail.
Gilsland → Carlisle (the long day). The café at Birdoswald fort covers the first hour; after that it's a long, thinly-served 18 miles, so carry lunch. On the nine- and ten-day itineraries this stage is split at Brampton, a proper market town with real choice for dinner (the Explorer's Crossing overnights there for exactly this reason). Carlisle at the end has supermarkets, pharmacies and restaurants: buy the final day's supplies tonight.
Carlisle → Bowness-on-Solway. The remotest catering of the walk. Burgh-by-Sands has a pub (mid-stage; check hours, rural pub afternoons are a lottery), and that can be the lot until Bowness's King's Arms. Fifteen miles with one possible stop: carry accordingly.
Water
Refill every morning without fail, and carry extra on the two crag stages, between Chollerford and Housesteads there is reliably nothing, and the climbing raises demand exactly where supply vanishes. Cafés and pubs along the way will generally refill bottles for customers. On hot days the flat, shadeless Solway stage drinks more than its terrain suggests; don't let "easy" read as "low-thirst".
Dietary needs
Vegetarians do fine everywhere; vegans and gluten-free walkers do fine with a day's notice, village kitchens are small and shop ranges are short, so the winning move is telling B&Bs and dinner pubs in advance. When you book with us, we pass dietary needs to every house ahead of you; packed-lunch requests to B&Bs the evening before are routine and solve the carry-days neatly.
The rule that never fails
Never walk past food assuming better food ahead. On this trail the next café is a rumour, the pub keeps country hours, and the van at Cawfields answers to no timetable. Eat the bird in hand; the packing list has the emergency-rations line for a reason.