Mulberry Tree Cafe — Restaurant in Broxtowe

I'll start by saying I've come here SO often over the years, sometimes even more than once a week all prior to 2020 and the start of covid! The car park situation is now a nightmare. The disabled spaces that were immediately outside the café entrance have halved in number and moved to be on an angle quite a step away. These spaces have clearly been placed and designed by someone who has NO IDEA what it's like to have mobility issues. So the car park now is ALWAYS completely rammed and is obviously for a lot more people than those visiting the courtyard. From the now disabled bays (and from the rest of the car parking spaces) there's slopes and uneven "pavements" so please take care. The café is in the former stable block, so it is long and thin and split into the stable sections where there's usually three or four tables to each with a further handful when you first walk in. Again, being a stable block the flooring is uneven, plus with it being so open it can get very noisy. The toilets are at the far end of the long block compared to where you come in and where you have to queue to order, again bear this in mind if you have mobility problems. The menu has reduced in choices since covid but does still have a reasonable selection for breakfast, brunch and lunch. They also stock some Bluebells ice cream, which is lovely and also local. I've never seen information about coffee or tea or even the produce that goes into the meals to know whether they use local ingredients or cheaper produce from further away. It would be nice if they stocked more local like the ice cream. So I visited for breakfast on Christmas Eve and very pleased we turned up as it opened because by the time we'd finished the place was overflowing. We had the full cooked breakfast then and commented that all ingredients should have had much longer cooking, the bacon and sausage were anaemic but we put it down to they must have been rushing knowing what a busy day it was going to be. I visited again about three weeks back for brunch, it was a freezing cold, icy day and the only table available was right inside the door, so every time someone came in or out you got a blast of icy air. There were 3 tables that said reserved 12pm that were empty; it was 12.10pm at this point. We ended up getting up and going elsewhere as it was too cold. We wondered what policy was in place for people who didn't show up on time. Then we visited for breakfast again last weekend. We got there for 9.30am as it opened so no problem with getting a table. We ordered the breakfast again, and I asked the guy serving if they had any scones because I couldn't see any and I wanted to take one away for my Aunty. I checked they were fresh that day which he confirned, and I asked if they could box up a scone to take away. When the lady brought our breakfasts out, we both just sat looking at them. The lady asked if there was something wrong to which I asked if there was something missing as it looked really bare, empty, and unappetising on this plain white plate; remember we eat with our eyes. We couldn't identify what, but something didn't look right. She promptly pointed at each item counting them and said, "You've got 6, you've got everything" so that was that! Again, however, the bacon and sausage were anaemic. I took the scone straight to my Aunty and she said she had it for elevenses and there was no way it was fresh that day. Who knows whether my Aunty was mistaken or I was lied to. So all considered, despite being such a loyal and regular customer, my last three encounters here have been far from satisfactory. I've rated this considering my past experiences; it would be much lower if I just did it...

Unfortunately, the only nice thing about this place was the surroundings. The tea and savoury scones were very nice. However, the cakes were quite average in taste, the soup had very little flavour, and the decaf tea had no taste. The service was incredibly poor right from the beginning; we weren't welcomed at all, with our waitress instead telling us "not to eat off the menus" condescendingly when there were no plates on them at all. We were not asked once served our meals if we were getting on alright, which would be expected somewhere like this. They also missed a item off our order for which there was no explicit apology, and our cutlery was essentially thrown on our table.

Though I do not use these terms lightly, we all found that there was an air of bigotry towards our table, as there didn't seem to be any other people of colour at the café at the time. For these reasons, I would not recommend this café to anyone, and would suggest visiting the hall for a walk...

Had lunch here for my mums birthday. Service was ok, although staff not very welcoming. Food was ok but very over priced. Mum had a jacket potato, which you get a side salad and a small amount of coleslaw £5.50, paid extra for cheese £2.05. I had jacket potato with quiche and side salad.(didn't have cheese on mine) Mine was £12.95. So everything we had was basically the same but I had quiche. Quiche actually worked out at £7.45 a portion WOW WOW. (Quiche was not to my taste, caramalised onion and cheddar cheese.( just tasted of onion). My daughter had a panini which was £7.70, fair enough and a milkshake £4 something. Milkshake was in a small glass, certainly not worth the money. Overall- nice place but value for money, poor. Need to review some of...