Beach Cafe — Restaurant in Chichester

I rarely go out of my way to do a review unless something strikes me at either end and this was one of them. So our party wanted 1 chips, 1 chips with mushy peas & one chips with mushy peas, gravy and fish. Sound simple? Well here's my conversation with the already annoyed young lady who served us in the outside part yesterday.

"What can I get you?" "Please can we have a chips.....a chips and mushy peas.....and a chips and" "[Frustrated sigh] can you just tell me how many separate portions of chips first because they are separate and then you're meant to add the extra after so I just need to know how many chips." "Oh sorry, 3 portions of chips in total" "OK, what extras?" "2 mushy peas, 1 gravy and a fish" (She paused and seemed very angry at us now) "[Insert your own onslaught of sighs, teeth grits and general attitude and banging in the erase order button] you have to order fish and chips together, they come together" (We all stood there temped to use our fair share of sarcasm that we brought all the way from home but we stayed polite and catergorised the order to her pleasing, slowly and clearly, and so excited to get to the table and enjoy going over this already) "Is that all" "yes"...."[and in her final word she somehow managed to express all of our optional collective sarcastic tone] brilliant."

We spend our 20 minute wait guessing what could have caused her to act so badly in a public facing role. Anyway the food, was good, the sides and fish were lovely and fresh, the chips 6/10, which seems OK for round here, not managed to find that chippy chips on the beach feeling yet. If the young lady ever moves to Manchester I think she would absolutely thrive at Karen's Diner, with her combination of waitressing experience and attitude, she...

Came here for the second time yesterday. Our first visit was disappointing—the kiosk wasn’t open, and the food kiosk wasn’t selling coffee. We had also noted how extremely slow and unbothered the staff seemed, so it was unfortunate to return and be spoken to so rudely by a member of staff behind the counter.

We went to get two teas from the kiosk, as it was finally open. The young man who took our order asked us to wait at the next window, so we did. We stood there for around 10 minutes, watching a girl faff around with the Mr. Whippy machine. I noticed no one was making drinks, yet the boy continued to take more orders, and a very long queue was forming.

After the girl finally finished making one ice cream, she handed it to us. I corrected her and said, “Sorry, no—we’re waiting for two teas.” She abruptly replied, “Well, I’ve just been topping up the machine for ice cream and your tea is being made.” (It wasn’t.) I was taken aback by her tone and confused as to why she took such offense. I had simply and politely said we were waiting for tea. Or did she expect us to take someone else’s ice cream?

She then shoved two tea bags into cups of scalding water and passive-aggressively handed them to us, sarcastically saying, “Here’s your teas!” Clearly, she has had no training in customer service, and it seems the staff overall need training in how to work in a fast-paced environment. Summer is coming, and I dread to think what it will be like if the staff are still faffing about making one ice cream while the person on the till...

Beautiful beach, good facilities, plenty to do for a full day out.

West Wittering Beach has been a family favourite for decades. There is a large grass and sand parking area, life guard station, cafe, toilets and beach shop.

The difference between low and hide tides here is immense! As the tide goes out the beach opens up allowing for ball games, rock pools around the wooden groins and more. At low tide there are sand banks in the sea and warm "rivers" for youngsters to paddle in.

There is also a surf school, a nature area with a nice walk through the dunes to Chichester harbour, or take your BBQ and cook dinner on the grassed area near the carpark.

Car parking costs under £10 for the whole day and they now accept contactless payments.

Cautions:

It is a vast area and can get very busy. If you have children, take something unique so they can identify your blanket/windbreak etc. I've seen people use kites, flags etc. Then point out landmarks to your children.

Take your phone, the café has luminous wrist bands to put on your children with your phone number on.

The currents can be very strong, teach your children about these and they will stay safe.

Finally: arrive early to avoid...