Beach Cafe — Restaurant in Borough of Fylde

I have been a few times and have held off giving this review until I gave it the benefit of the doubt.

The positives: For a café, it has a very varied menu and a great range of ice creams. The food is good value for money and is of a reasonable standard. Food is served very quickly. It has plenty of seating, inside and outside, and it is exceptionally clean. Screens are set up inside to social distance and they are almost floor to ceiling, so it feels very safe. Dedicated parking for customers in the car park next door. (Although it is also near the Covid19 testing centre, which they can't do anything about unfortunately.)

The negatives: Service at the counter is very slow. This is partly due to customers, but on every single occasion that I have been, there has been an issue with taking orders from most customers in the queue, unless they are just ordering drinks. The quality of the coffee is poor. Its not a coffee shop, so that's OK, but the prices suggest a better product. In general, the staff are not friendly, or polite. Other than serving food, they mostly ignore customers. However, there is one young chap who usually serves on the counter, who is very friendly and always says thanks you, hello, and goodbye. This can't be said for the other staff that have been working on the several occasions that I have visited, including the manager/owner. Maybe this is because they deal with a lot of tourists and don't need to focus on service? I couldn't say for sure though.

Summary: As you can see above, I do have more good things to say than bad for the Beach Café, but for me, its not a place that I'll be going to again. I have written this review after several visits, rather than most reviews that are just one visit, so feel that it is as balanced as I can make it.

There are lots of other places within easy reach that are more customer focused and that serve much better food and drinks.

If you just want a very quick bite to eat and don't mind queuing for a bit though, it's fine. There is plenty of room, and it is near one of the car...

We have called in here for drinks and ice cream a few times during the summer months however, it seemed a little quieter inside today so we decided to sit in and eat lunch. There are some complaints here about the queue times however, my take on this is, the staff are very polite and accommodating and don't rush you as you place your order. I was happy to wait my turn. The big breakfast was good value with choice of friend bread or brown/white toast. Hash browns were particularly good. Breakfast items can be requested separately, which suited our younger child who enjoyed a sausage, hash brown and slice of toast. Children's chicken nuggets and chips generously sized, unfortunately the chicken is the nuggets is the cheaper, processed variety rather than chicken pieces. Was excited to try the halloumi flatbread. The flatbread was lovely and fresh but I wasn't overly keen on the filling (aubergine very salty) and wouldn't choose again. Would have been preferable to have a fresh salad, grilled halloumi and a sauce (hummus or tzatziki). Bottled drinks are expensive however, no more so than elsewhere and staff are happy to provide glasses with ice and one bottle can easily be shared between 2 children. Overall we would definitely return and look forward to trying the baked potato which...

Visited 11/07/2022, dedicated parking if eating at venue (free) or adequate parking adjacent for the beach (chargeable).

The Beach cafe is located adjacent to the Fairhaven road car park. From outside you can order from a window i.e. ice cream, slushies/drinks etc. If eating inside, there is a fair few tables and outside too. The venue is accessible with a ramp at side of the building, great for prams etc. and there is baby high chairs inside also.

The system is to pickup a menu on entry then find your table number if eating inside, then order your food & drink items and make sure you take cutlery and napkins are from a dispenser next to the till and next to that is the condiment sachet area (love Tatar sauce with the fish!). The service was good and quick, tables were clean and good atmosphere and with the weather so warm there was plenty of ventilation with sliding doors open around the side of the cafe, which leads to the picnic bench eating area.

I’d highly recommend the ice cream especially the thunder and lightning flavour, which had crunchy caramel pieces in om nom nom. A good place to get a fish n chips to share, the chips are massive, fluffy and tasty. The chip barm comes with the mahoosive chips also...