Smorgasbord Coffee Bar — Restaurant in Bradford

I’ve been coming to this place for years and the place has always had great food and service but I am writing this review following an experience today with the owner (not the staff- who are great) which means I am sad to say that I won’t be returning here again.

In short, due to a mistaken order, we ended up having a slightly different meal arrive. We asked the waiter to check whether this was indeed our order and if everything here had been allocated on our bill. He came back and confirmed it was. So we thought that rather than kick up a fuss and waste food, we would go ahead and eat. Half way into our meal, the owner comes over to us (it’s me, my wife and our two toddlers at the table) aggressively telling us that we shouldn’t have eaten it and we have now messed up other peoples orders. We explained that we checked the order with the waiter, but he kept on interrupting and had an aggressive stance throughout. He also resorted to blaming his young waiter for the fault, who looked distraught. Then he left and wasn’t seen again. I couldn’t quite believe his behaviour. In fact, I’m still in disbelief as I write this.

ADDITION made in response to message from the owner below as it wont let me reply directly:

This is a disingenuous reply. You (I assume this is a response from the owner) did not come up to apologise about the mistake. You motive for coming up to us was to effectively accuse us of stealing food (which we paid for by the way- speak to your staff members)- a claim that you have now repeated with your insinuation of dishonesty on our part. Mistakes happen, but accusing your customers of being dishonest (the accusation that really motivated me to write the original review) isn't particularly conducive to delivering good customer service.

And on the aggression part, coming up to someone in the middle of the meal effectively accusing us of stealing food, detailing how it has negatively impacted on somebody else's order, pointing at us and then interrupting when we tried to explain what had happened, is rude in my book and I imagine most people. You say you owned up to the mistake, but then immediately went to blame us and your waiter in front of him, which shows your character.

This could easily have been resolved amicably at the time by you listening. It is clear from your message below that we aren't going to agree on this, so I wish you all the best with your business for the sake of your staff...

I ordered a veggie breakfast with fresh orange juice which I was REALLY looking forward to as I didn’t have breakfast yet. I took some sips of my orange juice and then noticed some ‘pips’ floating around which were shaped different to the rest. So I took a good look and saw a fly 🪰 like pip so I used my straw to stir it up to get a better look and it ended up being a tiny fly 🪰 in my fresh orange juice! I got up and handed it in at the desk as there were no available staff around me. They made me a new drink, also a fresh orange juice as I thought I would give the drink a second try and I decided to wait at the desk for it this time so I could check the drink myself. Again I saw pips and fly-ish 🪰 like things floating and I pointed out that it was possibly a fly 🪰 but the senior waitress said that’s just the pip from the orange so I took it with me and sat down at my table. While at the desk the senior waitress also mentioned that their orange juice machine attracts flies. I found YET ANOTHER fly 🪰 and handed it in to the desk. I chose apple juice which came from a carton this time. Absolutely disgusting place and more care needs to be put in place and staff trained better as they have been serving flies to innocent customers and quite possibly even children! This place needs to purchase a new orange Juice machine because I they haven’t stopped using this machine so have been serving fresh flies 🪰 with their fresh orange juice. I haven’t been in here for years and was hoping for a better experience and after this I will NOT BE BACK until I know they have gotten a new orange juice machine or have stopped serving this drink altogether on their menu. Maybe carton orange juice might be the better option? People please check your fresh orange juice before drinking it as the machine attracts flies 🪰 and they can’t do anything about it but THEY WILL continue serving it to you. Wish I had taken pics now but I was feeling so unwell and down; just wanted to eat something to increase my glucose level and get the hell out of there! They did apologise and at the time I forgave them but I realise now it isn’t fair on any naive customers that hope to eat a great meal with a fresh orange juice in the side. STAY AWAY FROM THE FRESH...

First time coming here.

Entering in, we could pick anywhere to sit down but one of the lovely waitresses offered us more private seating downstairs as the ground floor - outside public can look in easily as its all windows. If you’re coming with family, downstairs is perfect.

Ordered the famous full english breakfast with extra rashers which were 95p each but definitely worth it. Amazing flavour. Includes a slice of toast with butter, 2 hash browns, sausages, mushrooms (absolutely delicious especially if you like mushrooms), fried egg, baked beans and a small pot of tomato sauce/salsa. Overall was a brilliant meal, wouldve been better if there was 2 slices of bread but fine. Also got the ambros belly buster sandwich which was filling. Unfortunately, it just seemed to lack a little flavour, salt, spices in general. The caramelised onions inside were perfectly cooked and sweet but wouldve been a great combo if some spices were added. Nevertheless, it was filling. Caramel macchiato was very nice. Theyve got their menu online with all pricing. Everything is Halal. No alcohol sold on the premises.

Will be coming again to add more to this review and try out their pastas, jacket potatoes,...