Cafe Villa — Restaurant in Douglas

Allow me to set the scene. A gentle breeze blows over the picturesque Douglas Bay. The sun warms my body, the general surroundings and increasingly, as I enjoy my time on this unique isle, my temperament. My time on the Isle of Man was in all an absolute pleasure. Until the displeasure of Café Villa. Having perambulated the full length of the promenade I felt the need for light refreshment, and potentially even a sweet treat. Spotting a seemingly quaint café I decided to stop and gather victuals for the rest of my day. I entered the café and made my way to what seemed the counter, When I asked the young server where I could order an ice cream I was directed to a separate counter. I gave my order (for the second time) at the second counter, at which point I was met with the overbearing, overwhelming and incessant rudeness of the owner. I’ve no desire to share the specific details of my encounter, but you can rest assured “customer service” should not be included in the attributes of this person. My experience was in the main part shocking, the young staff member who served me gave me a large (not excessive) scoop of Ice Cream, a welcome sight for myself as my appetite, much like my spirits, was up. This larger-than-average scoop however, drew the ire of the owner (as I later came to find out). She started to lecture the young café worker (I do not know for certain how old but she seemed like a teenager) on the economics of ice cream scoop size, this lecture however soon turned to a berating, with the owner borderline bullying her own staff within full view of the customers. This made the child quite visibly upset, as I would have been had I been spoken to in such a way, by an employer at such a young age.

The staff at the establishment outside of this older woman were in the general pleasant. The only problem is the owner. That is not to say the rest of the café is not without fault, on the contrary, the faults are myriad: • Sticky tables • Upset Staff • Delayed food • Seagulls preying on the outside tables • Confusion over orders • Shouting from the kitchen (not very professional or conducive to a pleasant atmosphere) • Dirty cup • Confusing layout • Stale ice cream cone

My food was of middling quality, however did not justify the price, on a purely quality and value for money basis, I would certainly seek alternatives in Douglas were I to visit again. The indefensible nature of the management however, has put the café on my own personal blacklist (unless café villa is taken under new administration, then I would consider a second chance).

Having witnessed first-hand the treatment of the staff, my curiosity was peaked, and I questioned further the server how working at the place. She told me that the work was “intense due to high staff turnover” and “uncomfortable” overwhelmingly the message was of stress and poor human resource management as the working environment led to many staff leaving. I was not surprised. And even began to regret my patronage of such an establishment. In order to serve my penitence for the perceived crime I decided to tip the serving staff the cost of my meal + ice cream. And have compiled below a list of friendly local alternatives. So that you too, can enjoy your day in Douglas.

Noas Bakehouse: if you want lunch I cannot recommend this place enough, I had a delightful lunch and was served by kind and attentive staff. The Bohemian Coffee House: If you want coffee in Douglas, this is the place to go. Sadly, if you want a beachside ice cream, options in Douglas are limited, but when I visited Port Erin, I went to ‘scoops’ which in contrast to café villa, serves Davidson’s Ice Cream, which I was informed by a local is the choice of the island’s local populace.

In all, I would describe the visit in café villa as eye-opening to the mistreatment of young workers in the services industry. The tyrannical owner takes the roman emperor Caligula’s management strategy and applies it to the modern idea of a café, governing her staff with the motto “let them hate, so long...

This USED to be Davisons Ice Cream Parlour, which was absolutely incredible. Hadn't visited the Isle of Man for a few years but went over with my husband and son to visit friends and watch some of the TT races and we had looked forward to coming here.

We visited thinking it was still Davisons but very quickly realised it was now a complete shambles, whether it was busy because it was TT week and many people were heading there thinking the same or not - the mess was disgusting and inexcusable.

Plates piled high on counters, left on tables, staff at a complete loss of what to do and what needed doing. No one was taking responsibility to sort out the mess and they continued to serve customers despite there being barely any clean tables for people to use. There was lots of food leftover on most of the plates, which was both unhygienic being left out also looked like many people hadn't wanted to finish eating... Management needed to plan for busy periods and assign staff properly to keep the place clean. They also had a sign up stating the couldn't serve Davisons ice cream anymore as they had decided to sell some random, off-island brand and Davisons, understandably in my eyes, did not want to supply them any more. The note itself was a bit unprofessional in its tone but it at least clarified that it was no longer the place it once was. We left and instead got an ice cream from a Davisons ice cream van up the Grandstand and later on during our stay visited their...

We used to live on the island but left 5 years ago. This 1 star review doesn’t relate to the lovely ice cream but to the rude, older couple who are obviously the managers. We witnessed them speaking to the young staff in an intimidating way, not using manners or speaking with any respect when asking them to complete tasks. They closed just after we had paid and joined the long queue. They started cleaning up around us and spoke rudely to customers who were already in the queue as well as prospective customers trying to come in who didn’t realise it was closed. The older lady with dyed blond bobbed hair seems very unhappy in her job telling anyone who’d listen how she was supposed to finish at 4pm and ordering the young ones around as was the older, grumpy man in glasses. There were signs up by the till saying they pride themselves in offering excellent customer service and expect the customers to behave and treat them the same way. Maybe they should practice what they preach! I feel sorry for the 4 young staff members who were working there, whose customer service was exemplary (especially Dan and Erin) their bosses should learn a thing or two from them about how to treat and value customers. To the parents of these young staff.. well done, you’ve raised wonderful and kind children. To the bosses, learn some manners and to respect your staff and customers if you’d like them to return, which we won’t be thanks to...