The BlueBird Cafe — Restaurant in Arun

This used to be such a nice, dog friendly cafe before lockdown. Now, you can see why there are queues at Sea Lane but not here. Elected to sit inside as hot. Waited to be seated. And waited. A member of staff doing paperwork at a nearby table kept saying, "she'll be with you in a moment." Why she couldn't have seated me, I have no idea. Finally the Seater arrived. Sorry we're fully booked. I just looked at the seven empty tables and then back at her. Once seated, I went up to order and was asked which table I was at. Since the tables have no numbers, I pointed. "Are you outside?" came the rather testy reply. When the food came, there was no cutlery and the server disappeared so fast, I didn't have a chance to ask. Went on the hunt. Cutlery used to be on the counter, now it's behind perspex, which meant attracting the attention of another member of staff. The food is still good, but by the time I left only one other table had been filled. So much for being fully booked. Such a shame, as I used to enjoy going here. Might join the queue at Sea...

Great food, cafe is right by the beach and there is covered outside area if inside is full. Main problem for us ( I took my 97 year old father for a birthday treat ) was the access and toilet facilities. The car park was pebbled and my father found it difficult to use his walker until he could reach the concreted ramp. The space between tables was limited and as a dog friendly cafe, it was difficult to make his way between them! Was disappointed in the toilet facilities because there were just two toilets, neither was suitable for Dad's walker ( wheelchairs would have really struggled ). A ramp was put down for Dad to get into the cafe, but it would make sense for it to be there permanently. Somebody pointed out that there were public toilets on the other side of the car park, but for disabled customers of the cafe they are too far away. If you don't like or are afraid of dogs, then this is not the place for you. A shame because the food ( we both had fish and chips )...

Had a disappointing experience. We booked a table knowing it was dog-friendly and was really looking forward to it.

Staff were all friendly and the food was really good, but our dog barked two or three times because another dog was whining quite loudly (annoying, but nothing I wouldn’t expect in a dog-friendly establishment) and almost immediately we were told to take our dog outside.

Thankfully we had just finished our meal but after making a reservation and paying £30 for our meals, it was disappointing to at least not have been given a friendly warning. The barking wasn’t relentless, it was a few barks in response to another dog (who was worse and wasn’t asked to leave) and given the nature of the environment - very busy, over-crowded queues, kids running around etc. - I thought it was harsh to be asked to leave for a few dog barks.

I think you either have to be dog-friendly or clear that you don’t want dogs inside. Put a downer on...