The Booking Hall Café — Restaurant in Braintree

We made this cafe a destination point of our long walk from Braintree. It was not the first time we tried. All the previous attempts were unsuccessful due to business hours which is completely on us for not checking the time. Anyway, this time we appeared there at 2.40. and were greeted with a phase that it’s almost the end of their shift. Well, has it ended already? No. So, what’s the point of saying this to clients?

The girl at the counter gave us a menu but it looked like she was mad at us appearing “at the end of the shift”. Even though we said we wanted something easy like a coffee and a sandwich.

We ordered two cups of coffee, two sandwiches and a piece of cake.

The same girl asked where we would like to sit to later just shout out the name for us to come to her and take the tray. Again, I expected the food delivered to the table like waitresses usually do… I guess, not in Rayne.

My coffee which did not have any syrup tasted sour. It was either terrible choice of coffee beans or bad milk. More chances, that it was the latter as I did not feel great afterwards.

Sandwiches were great. I loved mine more, it was the one with pickled cucumbers and mustard. My husband had the second one on the menu. Both were great, served with crisps.

The cake was very nice. A vegan raspberry cake. But the icing is extremely sweet. I just left it on a plate.

In the ladies room there is no light… had to use a torch on my phone to use it.

The atmosphere is really lovely there. 5 out of 5 but the service from the way a client is greeted to such details as toilet is poor. I am not sure we...

Absolutely love this place, and such a little gem. More tables have been added since last year, so there is much more space to sit down and soak up the unique space and enjoy the delicious food. We came for lunch this weekend, and the food was so good. I had the special - bbq pulled pork and double mozzarella toastie, on doorstop bread with burnt ends. It knocked my socks off! The meat was tender and delicious, full of flavour, and the bread was toasted to perfection. This was followed up with a fresh, homemade peach iced tea, and a selection of cakes - we went for a rainbow cake, chocolate orange loaf, passionfruit and mango cake and a caramel shortbread. All of which went down an absolute treat with the family. This might be a small venue, but the food options and quality are spot on, and the owners really squeeze the best out of this opportunity. The staff are lovely too, and they even asked if we wanted standard bread for my little ones cheese on toast. Always going over and above. Thank you for a beautiful meal and...

Lovely cafe, along the flitch, at the old railway station. They have outside seating along the platform, with some slightly sheltered area and you can sometimes eat inside in the train carriage, which I believe is also a library. They have additional outside seating along the old railway track below the station. Please not there is no inside seating. I had the blueberry and lemon cake and it was amazing, as was my bacon bag and hot chocolate. My friend had the sausage roll, which she said was lovely but the GF chocolate cake, wasn't all that, I tried some and could understand what she was saying, it wasn't awful, but not what she was expecting \wanting, this is the only reason not to score 5 star for food. Hot chocolate was also very tasty. Staff are lovely, polite and welcoming. Nice atmosphere, it was a chilly Sunday but enough people about, they coped with demand. I know it gets incredibly busy come Spring \ Summer time, so you might have to be prepared to queue and wait but...