Tea Room Laurent — Restaurant in Bruges

I ignored the reviews...

"How bad can it be? It looks nice inside, good view and quiet." we thought.

Walk in, greeted in French. Makes sense "Laurent" is a French man's name. That's lucky, I'm perfectly bilingual, French & English. So I start asking about waffles in French, she doesn't understand. OK, I'll switch to English, I ask again.

She berates me, almost shouting "Are you English or French?". So I say that I speak both and ask (politely) which she finds easiest? She irritably responds explaining "We aren't in the French part, we are in the Flemish area so obviously, English."

This already feels uncomfortable, especially as I have the most posh Oxford, accent, so usually very easy to understand. I also work for a company that specialises in ease of communication across countries through English and techniques for better communication. Usually I would question my own technique but here it felt more like I was just unwelcome.

We just stick to a coffee, get asked to pay up front. I wouldn't mind but anyone speaking Dutch didn't have to pay up front (yeah, it's was done right in front of us).

Frankly, expensive and for a disgusting service.

Avoid it and don't ruin this beautiful city of Bruges/Brugge for yourself.

Also, if you struggle with languages, most places speak English, French, German and Dutch, I've even met multiple people that speak 7 or more languages. It's not about the language barrier, my job is all about dealing with that but we still want to be treated like a human when we want a coffee.

Go to the central square and enjoy a better view and the staff treat you well and...

Went in this lovely looking cafe to treat my Mother to a Birthday Waffle. But the terrible experience ruined what should of been a day of celebration! Firstly we walked in and got no recognition or acknowledgement so made our own way to a seat. The very straight faced waitress asked to take our order straight away but we asked if we could have 5 mins to check the menu. I then asked her back over at 12:02 to place our order I was barked at that they don’t serve waffles between 12–14. Even though she was holding another customers waffle in her hand. She didn’t wait around to see if we wanted anything else she just stomped off when I was asking what they did serve at these times. Very very rude waitress who put a damper on our time in Bruges! Would never step foot in this place again and would suggest no one does. Looking at similar comments on here I’m surprised they have any business! I never write a bad review as I understand we all have off days and I believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt but she was beyond rude! Luckily we found a lovely tea room down the road who...

Just spent half an hour searching for this café just to leave this review. DO NOT COME HERE!! I think restaurants and cafés should be forced to display their Google/ Tripadvisor ratings at the door, that would save many tourists from this trap. Like many people we only saw the ratings afterwards - I've never been in an establishment with such a low rating, but it is absolutely warranted. I can't comment on the food quality as we left before - I was ordering a coffee, my partner said he didn't want to drink anything. To which the waitress only chirped: "No free seating!" and went away without a further word. No explanation, no "I'm sorry, but we are so crowded that we are implementing a minimum order per guest" (they had still free tables btw). Never experienced such rude staff. At least we were able to snatch the toilet code from a receipt that was lying around, so went to the toilet for free before...