Baker & Graze — Restaurant in Cheltenham

Very rarely do I post a bad review, but on this occasion I feel compelled to do so. Indifferent staff, no smiles or engagement with us, quite abrupt. No greeting when we entered the premises from the guys on the counter. The descriptions on the menu were impressive and seemed worth paying over the odds for. Sadly the food was lacklustre and definitely not worth the money. On going the counter to pay I may as well have been invisible. One of the guys was making some coffee (fair enough) but he ignored me. A quick "I'll be with you in a moment" would have been welcome. Finally, having waited 2-3 minutes to pay, with one person in front of me, a couple of young women came in, who were obviously regulars. The guy at the counter, who I assume is the owner or manager, then completely ignored the two of us in the queue, and greeted these two ladies asking what they were after (a takeaway), and processed their payment. When it was finally my turn he was quite abrupt, and there were no pleasantries such as "how was your meal?" or "everything ok for you?".

The levels of service in most eateries in Cheltenham are usually really good, so this experience was quite astonishing. We will never...

Lovely little place to go have brunch at, after reading the reviews I was excited and it's safe to say I wasn't disappointed. The homemade smoothie is better than what you would make at home! My hot chocolate was nice but I feel I have had better. I ordered the shakshuka eggs it was really nice and filling, really hot the bread was just perfect crunch to accommodate it. I couldn't choose between this and the sweet potato rosti I do feel like maybe I would have enjoyed that more as I feel like the tomato base was just a bit overpowering for me that day. We also ordered the lamb and now that was just amazing I highly recommend it just was made to perfection. After finishing our meal we had to get some goodies from the Bakery section, I was too excited I forgot to take a picture. We bought a chocolate filled doughnut, almond and pain au chocolate (amazing never had anything like it!), cinnamon roll( also divine), and a pistachio and rose I believe swirl it was worth the money. Its not cheap but I think when you ordering high quality artisan goods it is to be expected! It sells out fast there, I hope I can go back one day to try there portuguese...

On Wednesday (12/4), we came across your Cheltenham store and ordered a pastry (£4) to go. A member of staff directed my daughter to pay at the card machine on the counter, pointing at what she only realised soon after to be an almost identical electronic “tip jar”.

There was no indication of the cost of the default tip, nor did the employee first suggest/confirm the tip, only nodding when my daughter raised this as an issue (expressing that she’d mistakenly tipped) as if this was a regular expected occurrence. She would have been more than happy to pay a little extra if she knew that she was paying a little extra.

As we understand that the tip was only £2.05 (our purchase was definitely worth it) and there’s never a need to fuss over something that could be so easily resolved, we only ask that the tip jar be clearly labelled so it would not be overlooked by a quickly passing customer, and for the employee at the counter to inquire about a tip prior to payment. I am certain that even sans confusion, any customer would afford the due cost of an excellent pastry and good...