Nourish at No.44 — Restaurant in Amber Valley

I can't believe this place! I used to think it was a great place for decent food and friendly atmosphere. But after not visiting for a year I decided to visit this morning. First up the door was locked at 9.45am and there was no sign outside to say it opens at 10am, a local passer by mentioned it. Then when it did open at 10.03am (i get only three minutes but the woman with blonde hair saw me waiting, and she was clearly in no rush to let me in from the cold), she was very rude, asked me to wait outside whilst she finished 'arranging the doors'. When I finally got into the building I asked if I could take a table and was told I wasn't able to. I didn't understand why as I had planned on having breakfast and lunch there as I wanted to do some work on my laptop. She looked at my laptop and told me I could only sit at the front by the door as the rest was reserved for 'customers'. Now I get why some small companies wouldn't want a laptop table surfer holding up their tables, but I had clearly told her my intentions of buying TWO meals plus coffees whilst there. She then also informed me that due to PAT testing I wasn't able to plug my laptop in either. She was stood blocking the door almost and I got the vibe she had no intentions of letting me dine there. I have dined and worked in so many places around the world and no one has an issue with this, usually I am met with friendly help, but not the case with Nourish! I am glad it happened though as the team at Costa down the road (which is packed with friendly locals, much more the crowd I expect in Belper - so friendly!) the team there were so welcoming and not only did they help me find a table, they also made sure I had enough space to connect my laptop and brought my first coffee to the table. When I mentioned this many locals were saying how staff turnover is so high there and the team at Nourish no longer represents the friendly, local community that is known to Belper. And I have to say I won't be trying to go there again! I wish the team the best as they clearly aren't having a great day, month or year/s by the...

First of all, we weren't asked about allergies. My Mum can't have Fresh herbs and everything on the breakfast had herbs all over it even when it didn't need to.

The place itself is nice and the staff were also really nice. We sat upstairs.

We ordered 2 vegetarian breakfasts and one meat version.

The meat version says on the menu that includes a tea or coffee, whereas the vegetarian version doesn't state this even though it is for the same price. We asked our server and he said it was included which was fantastic.

We also ordered a latte which was also very nice. All the drinks came with a little biscuit which was a really nice touch and also very tasty!

(The menu does state you can not amend your food, there is a review on here saying they were shocked but it is stated on each page of the menu).

The eggs are poached, unfortunately the eggs were really hard. The hash browns were lovely and the halloumi was also really nice. My Dad also really liked the meat sausages even though they were smaller than you would normally get, you can tell everything is locally sourced.

The sourdough toast was rock hard and really difficult to eat.

Our table looked clean but all of the glasses on the table were faced down, all stuck to the table when lifting them and two of them had lipstick on!! Gross!!

The toilets were clean.

I would visit again however some improvements do need to be made so maybe in a year or so I will come back. Overall I think the food was a good price (£10.50) especially as it came...

It's a real shame to have to leave a bad review as it's lovely to have these places back open however.....

After queueing for 20 odd minutes for a table (totally fair under current regulations) we were seated. Staff were nice and polite. We ordered meals for 4 and drinks. Drinks arrived, I had tea and had to flag someone down to get milk and spoons which had been forgotten (again just a small thing but hard to catch someone's attention).

Food arrived but only three out of the four meals. I didn't say anything as very often staff bring them out separately as maybe there wasn't enough room on the tray. Then I sat and waited. Finally I managed to get someone's attention, they apologised and said they would go in and sort it. Again another wait. Everyone else had finished their food so I decided to cancel my order.

I explained how disappointing the experience was and it was explained from the server that they were really busy and running on limited staff due to others being furloughed. Whilst I can in part understand this I also feel if they can not offer the basic service of food and drink they should look again at their set up. Food and drink is surely a basic service for a cafe. 🤷🏻‍♀️

So now I'm hungry and grumpy...