The Deli Warley — Restaurant in Brentwood

I’ve visited here since it opened and always loved the coffee and food.

However, today I parked for 20 minutes to have a quick coffee with elderly family members and was issued a £100 parking ticket accompanied with 7 pictures of my car.

I had registered my parking upon on entering The Deli with the QR code, as I have always done in order to get 2 hours free parking.

However, today all the visitor parking bays were full (there’s not many visitor parking bays for a cafe, gym and work space that largely requires driving in order to access). I parked in another bay adjacent to the visitor parking and assumed this was also visitors parking as the signage was poor. The parking ticket was issued 7 minutes after entering the cafe.

I also note that the visitor parking has options to pay for parking for 4, 6 and 8 hours. Therefore, the visitor parking spaces could easily be filled by people using the workspace for the entire day or using the gym - not allowing any spaces for visitors to the very busy cafe at lunchtime on a Thursday.

I really love the Deli but following the disgusting parking experience I am really put off and will not be returning. There should be more visitor parking spaces to satisfy the demand for the publicly available spaces at Warley HQ. If this resolved, then I would...

I arrived on Saturday at 9:55 a.m. to find four women huddled together, chatting. Soon, one of them came to the till. However, the menu wasn't on the counter where it usually is. I kindly asked to see the menu, but I was told the kitchen was closed — with no further explanation about whether drinks or food on display were available or not. I would have ordered drinks and a sausage roll instead of the bap, but since I was simply given a dismissive answer, I didn't see the point in asking further. Unfortunately, based on past experience here, I suspect this place may close soon, as this is not the first time I have encountered...

My wife and I popped here last weekend for some Saturday lunch. Our sandwiches arrived at quite different times and was fine but nothing special. Some accompanying garnish and crisps would've been nice. The service was adequate but you wouldn't describe the staff as overly warm and friendly. The atmosphere was like a graveyard on a rainy day. Probably won't be rushing back...