8Point ArtCafe — Restaurant in Kerala

Once upon a time, this was “the” place in Kollam. Now go only for the ambience. Sit, talk and leave without ordering anything. Nobody cares if you are there or not anyway.

I went with a friend on a Saturday night. The parking space is and was always aplenty. But the whole area was dimly lit and surrounded by barking dogs. Perhaps it’s a public road and hence scant lighting. And stray dogs are not the responsibility of the cafe, but of the Government. Nonetheless, it felt unsafe to get out of the car and go into the cafe.

The last time I was there, some 4 or 5 years back, the place was abuzz with people, music and lots of good food. This time there was nobody. It’s now a cafe that serves CCD vending machine coffee.

The tables were unclean from the previous person’s leftover tea. We sat there for 10 minutes wondering why no waiters were coming to take our order or clean the table. The staff sat at the table next to ours without even bothering to inform us that it is now a self-service cafe.

Perhaps regular patrons know it’s a self-service cafe. The staff was perhaps letting us be, to enjoy our time undisturbed. I might have believed that was true had they at least had the courtesy to turn on the fans for us instead of being glued to their phones watching videos the whole time. Perhaps turning on the fans and making ourselves comfortable was also part of the self-service we were expected to do.

Finally, we went to one of the only dimly lit shacks that looked like there could be some staff interested in taking our order. It did not even have an “Order Here” sign to let us know it was a self-service cafe. Perhaps intuitively knowing it’s a self-service cafe without anyone telling you or any sign letting you know is also part of the self-service we were expected to do.

We ordered one Sulaimani and one lime tea. Both were the same, they informed us. But the piece of lemon it came with was not even half of a quarter of a lemon. This can be forgiven because lime tea was not an item that was on their menu.

The tea came to our table without much delay, thankfully. And soon also came to our table a lizard, falling from the roof. It did not fall in our tea, thankfully.

Perhaps a lizard falling was a one-off incident, our bad luck. But when combined with all the dirty tables, apathy, and the general disinterest in giving customers a good experience, I am forced to believe that the whole cafe is not cleaned or maintained as it should be. Hence I recommended going, sitting, talking and leaving without ordering anything.

Starting from the dogs at the entrance to the lizard who paid us more interest than the staff, it feels like the cafe owners don’t care for you or your order or about taking care of the cafe itself. It is a broken husk of what it once was. It’s better to stay away. Nobody...

Strongly recommend the following. Please take these comments as constructive, positive and progressive. Experienced an evening with family, not satisfactory and impressive. I strongly wish this place need and has a huge potential and growth. Needs improvement in the service quality. Need skilled, talented and professional service staff at the table and in the kitchen. Variety and diversity must be included in the menu. Quality of the food and beverages needs to be ensured. Time delay in attending the customers and serving the products must be avoided. Ambiance and lighting needs urgent attention. Floor, furniture, rest rooms and courtyard need to be keep clean and well maintained. More hygiene practices and health standards need to be insured. Flies and mosquitoes ..... Billing and payment system needs more visibility, transparency and accountability. Itemized billing and codes need to be added. The cash counter looks sketchy and feels as a stop gap arrangement. Need professional uniform and name plates for all the staff members. They need to be trained for more politeness, courteousness and service oriented. Impression management is both a talent and skill. The compound and surrounding space with in the walls need a weed removal and beautiful artifacts and gardening. More relaxing furniture needs to placed with proper monitoring and surveillance camera. Clean and proper parking spaces needed with out the fear of reptiles and insects in the bushes Over ambiance, safety, security needs immediate review. This place can be developed into a hall mark art cafe, if proper effort is taken with...

I had the worst experience at this cafe from the unwelcoming staffs. Firstly, they have changed to self service which we came to know only after 10 mins waiting at the table(they haven't written it anywhere for customer awareness). I placed the order and had to wait 40 mins to get a part of the order served(sandwich & omelette). We had it and awaited for the drinks ordered and even after 15 mins nothing happened. When enquired to a staff, he responded its rush time and we need to wait more. After 5 mins the kids started crying needing something to drink and I then rushed to billing counter and had to put a fight and then they said they are short of staff. Its then they checked for the drinks order and started preparing it. Needless to say, I noticed them serving drinks to other customers who reached later than us. Moreover, the Espresso coffee is the worst one I ever had in my life.Neither was any drinking water or tissues provided at the table (the glass bottle in the picture is a leftover bottle water of a former client, I believe).There weren't any good options in the menu which they used to have too. Never ever take even your enemy...