Qoozies — Restaurant in Chesterfield

Feels as if Qoozies has really gone downhill, used to absolutely love it a few years ago, but it appears the quality of food has really dipped but prices have risen astronomically. Completely understand in the current economic climate businesses need to charge more to get by, but the food and drink we received was all really poor. I ordered the salad and a Morning Franco (which always used to be a favourite), and my friend ordered a mushroom and poached egg bagel and a hot chocolate. The salads used to be my favourite and were always really fresh, but the issue I had with this one is that the ingredients by themselves were incredibly bland and didn’t taste fresh. I got it with caesar dressing, but the dressing was just a really light drizzle over the top and not mixed into the salad at all. Each item in the salad was just layered on top of another on a small plate, leaving no room to even mix the ingredients together myself. This meant the top ingredients were okay with the dressing, but everything at the bottom (mostly cheap mixed leaves and tinned sweetcorn) had zero flavour. No salt, pepper, or other seasonings on the salad. For £11, this was really disappointing. I got it with halloumi as I’m vegetarian, and it was okay but unseasoned and overcooked. I’ve had salads from supermarket salad bars which were fresher and more flavourful for less than a third of the price.

The Morning Franco was also nowhere near as good as it used to be; one of the staff came to our table after we ordered to let us know they were out of oats (one of the ingredients), and could either make it without the oats or I could pick something else. Any other similar options on the menu contained peanut butter which I’m not a fan of, so I opted for the drink without the oats. The flavour was okay, but really icey and barely any coffee flavour. It also didn’t come with any of the garnishes or fresh banana it used to come with, and was £7 which is just incredibly expensive for what it was.

My friend’s poached egg and mushroom bagel both looked and tasted really unappetising. The bagel was clearly dry, with no butter or spread of any kind, and the mushrooms were squeaky and greasy. The egg was completely solid; for a poached egg, you’d expect the yolk to be at least a little bit runny, but it was completely cooked through and the white was rubbery. The hot chocolate was also really thin and watery; for the price you’d definitely expect something of higher quality with properly steamed and textured milk.

It wasn’t very busy when we visited, but there was a weird frantic energy in the cafe. Felt like a lot of the staff were maybe not quite sure what they were doing. It was a very young team, and everyone we spoke to was perfectly pleasant, but there wasn’t a sense of order or atmosphere at all.

As the team was so young - and neither of us are the type to complain anywhere as we have both worked in hospitality and know how draining it can be - we didn’t complain in store or mention anything. If a member of the team had checked in to ask if everything was okay, as happens at most other cafes, we’d maybe have said something, but didn’t want to go out of our way to complain when the team were clearly doing what they could.

Qoozies used to be great a few years ago, and it feels as if maybe staff need to be better trained on the quality of food and drink going out, especially since Qoozies appear to heavily focus on the ‘quality’ of their food in their online posts. It’s a real shame as it’s great to see a small business in Chesterfield that’s been able to stay open for so long and through Covid, but the standards of food and drink are clearly not what they used to be.

We wouldn’t come again after our experience today, which is a real shame. I rarely write negative reviews, but there wasn’t even one ‘saving grace’ or dish we enjoyed here, and I think the company need to keep an eye on maintaining quality if they want to justify their...

Update: Returned today with my family and had a really nice meal after kindly being invited back. All food and drinks were very nice and overall we had a lovely time. The pancakes were delicious and the staff were really welcoming and attentive. Every where has off days but Qoozies went above and beyond to rectify theres. Thank you once again for the gesture we will definitely be back soon. :)

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Visited sunday with my family for Father's Day. Booked a table for 10am and we were all really looking forward to it as we have been before and have always enjoyed it. Arrived at 10, it had just opened so it wasn't very busy. We placed our order at the counter for the full English breakfast, pistachio pancake tacos and 2 variations of the build your own pancakes... for drinks we ordered 2 Americanos, a caramel latte and iced pistachio latte. The total came to just under £60 which we paid and went back to our table to wait. We waited an hour at the table and no drinks or food arrived. Only one other table (of the 5 or 6 tables seated) received any food whilst we were sitting there (one tables food arrived staggered one by one over the course of half an hour). After an hour passed a member of staff came to us and asked if we had ordered on the app or at the counter yet. We told him yes we ordered at the counter an hour ago and he reassured us that we wouldn't be waiting much longer. He then went around the other tables asking the same. 10 minutes later the drinks arrived... well some of them! We were missing an Americano which we went to the counter to tell them. They apologised and said they would bring it soon. Meanwhile mv sister tried her caramel latte and realised there was no caramel in it which we had paid extra for, so we had to go back to the counter to ask for another. My pistachio iced latte was missing any crushed pistachios that were supposed to be included but at this point I didn't want to go back up to the counter again to explain as it was getting ridiculous. We sat for a further 10 minutes. The missing drinks never arrived and still no sign of any food! We had been there for almost an hour and 30 mins at this point. Staff were just standing around doing nothing and no other tables received food or drinks. All tables were looking at each other perplexed. We decided to leave and requested a refund as with it being Father's Day we had other plans and didn't want to waste anymore of our day. We never usually complain and were all quite embarrassed whilst waiting for our refund which took a further 15 minutes whilst the member of staff had to phone his manager because they didn't know how to issue a refund. They ended up having to give us cash even though we paid by card which took even longer as they had to go and get this from a safe he told us. Overall whilst they were apologetic after we had requested our refund the whole experience was a disaster. It just seemed like no one knew what they were doing or cared. I dont mind waiting for food when it is busy but it wasn't and to not even receive any drinks after an hour of sitting there is a joke. Ruined my dad's father's day brunch after i had recommended it to...

I really do not like being negative as I try and see the positive in everything. I also understand the impact that negative feedback has. However, I visited today, and despite the town being busy, I was surprised how quiet it was in Qoozies, especially at lunchtime, I should have taken this as an Omen! The staff were what I would describe as numb, not rude, but no pleasantries, welcome, or smiles. Felt like I was inconveniencing them. I sat at one table, realised it hadn't been cleaned, moved to another, this wobbled, third table, yep, good to go 👍🏻 The place has literally no atmosphere! So, onto the food. Absolutely awful. The chicken was tough and dry, and the bit of salad was wilted, and for god knows what reason, gritty! There was no dressing or seasoning, so it wasn't that. Let's get onto the Cronut. Well, that was mouldy inside 🤢 I handed this back, showed them the mould, was asked if I wanted anything else 🙄 I said no and when the young lady handed me my refund for the Cronut, she said 'they normally throw them out after 3 days' and apologised. The coffee was nice 🤷🏼‍♀️ The chap who looked in charge didn't come to speak with me or acknowledge me as I left. Please bear in mind this was all done very quietly, with no drama, I don't do scenes 🙈 Qoozies looks the part and certainly isn't cheap, I came away wishing that I hadn't bothered. I won't return and definitely wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.

EDIT Thank you for your reply Quoozies. As I mentioned, I was offered a replacement, which I declined, I also declined the drink. Understandably, I was rather 'put off' Good luck with...