Jordans Mill — Attraction in Biggleswade

The actual mill and grounds are just lovely, the restaurant could be fab as the setting is so lovely but again today it was as disorganised, overly expensive for the service and quality and lacking in any attention to detail. It is muddled when you arrive as there is a sign suggesting you find a table take the number and then queue up, nice and simple! Until you go outside where none of the tables have numbers, after asking another member of the public you are told outside tables are given an electronic device thingy. Back in side to the queue which is really slow and frankly lacking in any sort of customer service when you do get to the front. Despite the menu saying there was a range of freshly made sandwiches there wasn't any insight, so we ordered a coffee and two panini's for nearly £13, not such a bad price I guess! Was handed the electronic collection device, I enquired why there was service inside but if you sat outside you had to collect your own food, was curtly told because that is how it is! So off to track down napkins, knives and forks, water and teaspoons and back to the table, some 25 / 30 minutes later this arrives - see photo! not quite the delicious lunch I was expecting and this was the better off the two we received, at least it had been shown a little heat, my partners one was just a really thick slice of the rind of the brie, the brie was sweaty but not exactly warm, unlike the salad that was pretty wilted and warm, I had one piece of cucumber that looked like it had been prepared hours ago and had formed it's own skin. Whole baby tomatoes had just been randomly thrown at the plate! It was all in all a triumph of the mediocre, I was suggest take a picnic if you are planning a visit as cafe, for it certainly cannot claim to be a restaurant as it so poor. I would also say lots of tables were littered with dirty dishes especially outside but i guess as there is no table service outside, then there is hardly any staff members out there to clear tables, a couple at the table nest to us waited nearly 25 minutes in the hope that the old plates would be cleared away, went of to find a member of staff but was still waiting when we left some 25...

What a mixed bag. The site is very attractive and everything within it is professionally presented. The garden and woodland area are very engaging and informative. The best thing about these features is that you can access them completely free of charge. The downside, however, is that the very enterprising owners seem to be making up for this free entertainment via the takings from the cafe. I am hard pressed to think of any other tourist attraction in the area which charges over £10 for a sandwich. My party could almost contemplate finding this conscionable until the food actually arrived. My club sandwich must have been from the Free From range because it was largely free from any taste. The enclosing toast was blackened and the slice in the middle soggy. The whole was so unwieldy and unstable that it was necessary to cut it in half to tackle it but the knives available were too blunt for the job and the sandwich simply disintegrated. The only way to have managed would have been to get 2 friends each to hold one end of the sandwich steady while I cut in the middle. The sourdough bread under the smashed avocado one of us tackled was too thick and the texture was not pleasing. There is no conceivable way in which the quality of the food matched the price charged. In order to oblige guests taking advantage of the lovely site to buy the unappetising and overpriced food, placards forbidding picnics adorned many of the trees, being particularly prominent in the area liberally supplied with picnic table which, in all other circumstances, would surely have been designated the picnic area. Obviously the site owners need to be able to derive a satisfactory income from their offering. Indeed, they fully deserve to do so but, for my family at least, the present business model just does not work. We will undoubtedly visit again to enjoy the site' s attractions but I doubt we will ever eat there again unless we find the quality and value for money of the food...

Last time we visited here was about 6 months ago. What I can say is a lot can change in that time. First things first, it is a beautiful location with some really great flowers and views and the farm shop had a variety of foods at farm shop expected prices. However it has totally changed as far as a dining experience is concerned.

We visited on a Sunday and it was pretty busy, as you enter there was a sign saying wait to be seated. After about 5 minutes we just went and sat down. The food area and the cafe seem to be segregated now and it is not clear at all what seating is for what part of the place. After sitting down for about another 5 minutes waiting to see if any staff were going to greet customers we went over to the serving area where there were a few staff milling about doing nothing.

There appeared to be one person waiting and supposedly greeting customers, he was awful. Didn't acknowledge us when we were trying to speak to him and ended up speaking to the manager to find out how it works now. We milled over the very limited menu and decided to leave for two reasons. The price of the food and the awful service.

This place no longer feels welcoming and seems stuck for identity. I don't know if it wants to be a restaurant or a cafe but because they are neither they are doing both very badly. Won't be returning, for...