Krys
Google
This place was recommended by friends as a convenient meeting spot with reasonably priced food. We met there for lunch a couple of times - each time, I booked online then followed up with a phone call because I'd never received any confirmation of the bookings. And each time, the person who answered had no knowledge of the booking, so I effectively had to rebook over the phone. Last Sunday, we were due to meet there again so I booked online and this time, got an onscreen acknowledgement so I didn't call them ahead of going there. Big mistake. I arrrived to find the place full and my friends sitting out in the cold on the terrace - not ideal when temperatures were barely above freezing. I went inside to say I'd booked a table but was met with a surly, offhand response from someone who literally shrugged her shoulders at a 70-year-old who'd booked and didn't want to freeze to death (after telling me that bookings were 'nothing to do with her, her boss dealt with them').
I went back outside and we collectively decided to leave, but one of my friends had just ordered a coffee so we waited for him to finish that. In the meantime, a very nice young chap asked if we wanted to order, to which I replied that we were about to leave and explained the booking situation. He immediately said that two tables would be free in around 5 minutes and that he would let us know when a table was available for us. He actually seemed to care about customers so we decided to wait. Sure enough, a few minutes later he came to tell us that a table was almost ready it just had to be cleared, and then again a few minutes later, he came to say it was ready.
We sat down and ordered and after a bit of a wait, our food and drinks arrived. The food was served by an older Italian chap who didn't seem to speak or understand any English (reminiscent of an Italian Basil from Fawlty Towers, at one point after things had gone even more wrong and he asked if everything was OK, I said no, and he answered 'good, good' with his thumbs up). A young waitress brought our drinks. So far, so good, well almost - my tuna melt was supposed to have green peppers in it but was weirdly served with avocado (both green but only one of them goes with a tuna melt) and my side of fries was forgotten and I had to ask. Then we wanted to have dessert and that's when things really went downhill. I asked the waitress if they had our favourite, the house special (Nonna's cake) and she said she'd check. Time passed and she didn't come back, so we caught her attention and asked again. And again, nothing. Eventually, I got up and went to the counter to ask her for the third time, and she said that not only did they not have Nonna's cake, the 'choice' for dessert was apple crumble or ice cream. Since temperatures were just above zero and by this point I'd had enough, we didn't order dessert.
So an ineffectual booking system, strange combos in hot sarnies, virtually no choice of desserts and inattentive/perfunctory service combined to make us decide never to go there again. There are plenty of other places to choose from close by. We can avoid chaotic cafes where the customer definitely doesn't come first!
