Tea & Times — Restaurant in Canterbury

Used to enjoy coming here until today. We often went with my father however today it was just my sister and me. My sister and I ordered two coffees and sat down at a table upstairs, then we got some work out and started studying. I had not even finished my coffee before a waitress came up and told us if we weren’t going to order any food we should leave or go to one of the side benches and that they’d had to turn away customers. It wasn’t till after the waitress left that my sister looked at her phone and realised we had only been at that table twenty minutes. Moreover, there was an older couple in the table next to us who had been there longer than we had AND from what we saw only had ordered coffee, and another man who had ordered food but was alone and had taken up a whole table. I want to make clear that I am in no way saying these people should have been asked to move either, but that we definitely felt singled out, likely because of our young age.

The whole affair made me and my sister feel very embarrassed and we left after we saw a second waitress loitering near our table, watching us try to finish our coffees in peace.

This makes me angry because I want to be able to support local businesses, but I am not happy to pay for overpriced coffee if I am going to be asked to leave after 20 minutes. If you want to go somewhere nice I would recommend the farmer and harper (they’re very kid-friendly) or the beach cafe (who do a wonderful brunch). But after this ordeal I cannot return to Tea and Times again. Their behaviour was awkward and rude and i hope they...

Cute Vibes but extremely slow service. Whilst the café is artsy and cute the service is honestly something to be desired.

We were seated upstairs first at a large table by the window and given menus. In the time we sat there another 4 tables with people were filled. This is when it started to go a little sideways, despite being seated first our order was taken last we didn’t think to much off it until it took around 45 minutes for 4 sandwiches to arrive at the table. In the time it took to wait for our sandwichs, all the other tables that had been seated after us all had there food and finished.

Now, I completely respect as I myself work in the hospitality industry too, that things can take time or go wrong but there was absolutely no acknowledgement from the staff that we were waiting so long & when we raised this when paying the girl just giggled and said sorry without any meaning or understanding. Particularly when I’m paying £47 for three drinks and four sandwiches there should have been some genuine acknowledgment. It did feel like they had forgotten us.

Some advice for the future, just make sure you don’t forget the larger tables and if there is a delay do let people know.

Despite the moan above the...

Wow, that was quite possibly the worst experience I've had at a cafe. Terrible customer service and unbelievably rude staff.

From arriving at the cafe, we didn't feel welcome. The waitress didn't smile once and seemed completely uninterested. Once seated, we ordered tea and scones. Being in a tea house, we thought that the tea would come in a tea pot or at least with the milk being given separately. Instead, we received a couple of mugs of already made tea in well used chipped mugs. We asked if we could instead have the tea in teapots since we saw other customers with tea pots. They took the mugs away but the teapots never arrived. After 10 minutes, we went downstairs to pay and to ask for the tea to be taken off the bill because we never got it. Our waitress never apologised and was extremely rude and very argumentative. She said in future that we should specify exactly what we wanted. We said we probably won't be back and she said "good, I don't think you should come back".

I've never experienced customer service like it to be honest. Overall this was a very disappointing and unpleasant experience and has really...