juice-comedy
Well-Known Forumite
A new cafe located in St. Mary's Mews at the site of the old Stephanie's/Tapas bar. It opened up Saturday 14th April.
I popped along with Mohawk Pete (nobody calls him that) on Saturday afternoon to try things out, I do enjoy a good tea room/coffee house. The furnishings and decor look nice, and there were people on most of the tables. As we walked in there was a service bar which we started to queue up, but then there was also one of those podiums with menus on that you get at restaurants (in a "wait here to be seated" sort of way) so we were unsure where to go. A smartly dressed older chap (whom we seemed to be the manager) approached us and said he'd take us to a table. I should declare now, that this is not to my personal taste in cafe service. It's fine in a restaurant, but I find it annoying if I just want a drink. That being said, they are very clearly going after the Soup Kitchen customer-base (what with being right on their doorstep and all). I asked if we could get drinks first before we sat down and he said it was table-service and someone would take our ordered when we were seated.
Okay, that's fair enough. Personally I just want to get a cup of tea and sit down, but I am not everyone. We were took upstairs and seated, then the manager-fella said that someone would be along to take our order shortly. Okay, fair enough, he's the manager and surely has other duties. Across from us was a couple of older ladies who told the manager that they had ordered two coffees and they hadn't arrived yet. The manager said he would chase this up.
We waited and waited, nobody came to take our order. A member of the kitchen staff came up the stairs on way to the Staff Room. The older ladies stopped her and asked about their coffees which still hadn't arrived. I didn't hear what this member of staff said to them, but she left and went into the staff room.
We waited and waited some more, and still no one came to take our order. Eventually, after we had been sat there for around 12 - 15 minutes, the couple of older ladies had still not received their coffees, they got up and left. We soon followed suit as we had clearly been forgotten about.
I understand it was their first day and I don't want to be unfair to them, as teething problems will happen. But that was four unhappy customers on their first day. Oh, and a staff member spilt a hot coffee over a customer while we were there, so that's five.
We went straight to Number 15 for a pot of tea and some nice cake.
I popped along with Mohawk Pete (nobody calls him that) on Saturday afternoon to try things out, I do enjoy a good tea room/coffee house. The furnishings and decor look nice, and there were people on most of the tables. As we walked in there was a service bar which we started to queue up, but then there was also one of those podiums with menus on that you get at restaurants (in a "wait here to be seated" sort of way) so we were unsure where to go. A smartly dressed older chap (whom we seemed to be the manager) approached us and said he'd take us to a table. I should declare now, that this is not to my personal taste in cafe service. It's fine in a restaurant, but I find it annoying if I just want a drink. That being said, they are very clearly going after the Soup Kitchen customer-base (what with being right on their doorstep and all). I asked if we could get drinks first before we sat down and he said it was table-service and someone would take our ordered when we were seated.
Okay, that's fair enough. Personally I just want to get a cup of tea and sit down, but I am not everyone. We were took upstairs and seated, then the manager-fella said that someone would be along to take our order shortly. Okay, fair enough, he's the manager and surely has other duties. Across from us was a couple of older ladies who told the manager that they had ordered two coffees and they hadn't arrived yet. The manager said he would chase this up.
We waited and waited, nobody came to take our order. A member of the kitchen staff came up the stairs on way to the Staff Room. The older ladies stopped her and asked about their coffees which still hadn't arrived. I didn't hear what this member of staff said to them, but she left and went into the staff room.
We waited and waited some more, and still no one came to take our order. Eventually, after we had been sat there for around 12 - 15 minutes, the couple of older ladies had still not received their coffees, they got up and left. We soon followed suit as we had clearly been forgotten about.
I understand it was their first day and I don't want to be unfair to them, as teething problems will happen. But that was four unhappy customers on their first day. Oh, and a staff member spilt a hot coffee over a customer while we were there, so that's five.
We went straight to Number 15 for a pot of tea and some nice cake.