Olivia's Coffee & Bakery — Restaurant in Charnwood

I hadn't been here until about 3 months ago when I came into Loughborough on a reconnaissance of my new home town. I stopped for lunch and bought some bagels. These were excellent with a good texture inside and full of flavour - nothing like those rubber rings that suit in supermarket 'bakeries'. Yesterday I came back and had soup (delicious tomato) with sourdough and a decaf coffee. The decaf coffee was really good, and this is to their credit as not many places serve good decaf. The bread I thought was a little airy but had a lot of flavour and good gluten strength. My son had a milk bread bacon cob. As I'm a vegetarian he assured me the bacon was good but I thought the milk cob was a bit too dry. I make milk bread at home and it's quite like a dense brioche. The flavours were great but perhaps a little less time in the oven. Overall I have no hesitation in recommending this place and will certainly be a...

If you haven't tried their new gluten free bread yet, you need too! It actually tastes like sourdough (or what I remember sourdough tasted like), it's soft and springy with texture and taste! It's suspiciously good but I am a coeliac and have bren coming here for years without getting ill so I can verify that it is in fact gluten free. A note for fellow coeliacs, it is a small bakery so everything is 'non gluten ingredients' not gluten free because it's prepared on site but staff are well trained, gf bread is prepared separately, wrapped in clingfilm and kept separately and gf cakes etc are on the top shelf with separate tongs.

What else do we love? My husband loves the sausage rolls, I love the gluten free muffins and my children love the pastries. We normally pop in on our way elsewhere but I have enjoyed...

The shop itself is nicely decorated but there was a lack of focus on cleanliness of tables so you couldn't find a clean table probably due to being short staffed on the day I visited (might not be a regular thing.) Really didn't like having to eat at a table with others' coffee cups and crumbs.

The lady behind the till impatiently tapped her fingers on the counter whilst I was ordering and did not make an attempt at good customer service. When I go out I want to have a good time, not to be made to feel like I'm a nuisance, especially when I choose to spend my money and time there. What happened to manners anyway?

The coffee was good but the baked goods did not taste fresh - we ate at lunch time.

It wasn't terrible overall but I would...