Poppy's Verandah Cafe — Restaurant in Newcastle-Maitland

I usually go to Poppy's atleast twice a week for their great coffee and service, unfortunatly my visit on the 24/10/22 was horrendous. I arrived around 11.30 to have lunch and after waiting for the 3 staff members to finish their conversation at the coffee machine, I was sat at a table. No menus were brought to the table for a good 5 minutes. After finally getting our menus I noticed only one staff member seemed to be interested in serving customers. The other 2 staff (must be new) were constantly chatting and seemed more interested in each other then working. Since the 2 of them needed to get drinks from out back to refill the fridges, the one girl was left by herself doing all the work. After ordering, I noticed the newer female staff member blatantly refuse to answer the phone, scoff at customers and make it look like she was busy so she didn't have to take orders. The coffees arrived pretty quickly (I'll give then that) my chai latte was lovely, so was the mocha however unfortunatly my so called 'cappuccino' was placed down on the table and had overflowed into the saucer. The newer staff member looked at it and walked away, didn't appologise, didn't offer me a napkin, no attempt to help me clean the mess. Lucky me a flat white at best and a saucer full of coffee.

I wish I could say I was the only case of unfortunate service but another table had to ask for menus aswell as another table asking for service. Its never usually like this when I go to poppys, the usual lady is a bit older and extremely friendly.

The food was delicious as usual but wasn't enough to fix the ruined experience from the staff. Honestly if you asked my option those 2 newer staff shouldn't be working in a customer focused environment, they will make other customers not want to return. The younger girl with the glasses needed more coffee training but again only lady actually working. You need a manger or supervisor or something on shift directing, it was awful watching them floundering about with no idea and no organisation. I went to find the manger but couldn't locate her to let her know my feedback. Its honestly a beautiful place to go, just unfortunate that the staff on that day have...

We had booked a table for a family brunch and were excited to revisit Poppy’s after it’s reopening. Very disappointed. Service was slow and one of our group ordered a coffee at the same time as the food was being ordered ( the others had ordered their coffees earlier). We ate and waited and then asked about the missing coffee TWICE. It was then brought to us but within a few minutes the manager said our table was needed and we told us we had to leave. We pointed out the coffee had not been brought to us even though it had been ordered much earlier. She then said we had not ordered the coffee earlier. This was untrue and she basically was saying we were lying. She then said she would pour it into a takeaway cup but she wanted the table vacated. The cafe was not busy - less than half full. She was quite rude and we left upset. We understand mistakes happen but her manner was unnecessarily rude. The waitress apologised for what had happened but no apology from the manager for the poor service or for her rudeness. We had been frequent customers of Poppy’s before it closed and this was our first visit since it reopened. We will not be back and definitely would not recommend it. The food, by the way, was only average so not good enough to overlook the rudeness and make a return visit.plenty of other good local cafes we can go to who pride themselves on good service...

Enjoyed an absolutely delicious and very generous high tea, one of the best I think I have ever had, just so beautiful and incredible selection too. Unfortunately though we were never greeted, the choices for high tea were never explained (so we went online to work that out for ourselves) and we did not receive what we ordered for drinks but were made to feel like that was our fault when we could see the waitress was clearly too busy to help us. There is a bubbles/wine package for high tea that costs more than the price of wine on the wine list and a cocktail package that costs more than the price of a cocktail on the cocktail list, unfortunately the staff push you into these packages even if you clearly state you do not wish to do so and would prefer to pay for alcoholic drinks separately. The food was amazing but the service was not and we made to feel very uncomfortable, therefore this will be...