St Martin's Organic Coffee House — Restaurant in Chichester

I’m going to give this five stars rather than one because I’m actually glad we visited for the experience. This is a must do in Chichester.

The red and green traffic lights at the entrance were only a hint if what to expect. Upon entering you’re immediately transported back to a world where everything was analogue. Perhaps somewhere Dickens might’ve been inspired over a Latte.

Along the route to the food and drink counter you pass a bizarre protruding blue piece of leaf or fungus oddly framed. If you scan the dark corners you’ll be lucky to spot a missing section from the Bayeux Tapestry. Everywhere there are large laminated signs with orders, instructions and statements.

The food and drink (we had coffees and a scone) are served in takeaway cups and well below par. The coffee is weak and the scones barely taste of much and far too moist and crumbly. Everything is organic which I commend, but it’s not great product even if it is prepared there (as pointed out by a laminated sign).

Suddenly I felt a cold chill and glimpsed a strange shadow move furtively across the room. It turned out to be the owner forcing a couple of middle aged women to abruptly halt at his home made ‘Stop’ sign before being summoned into the depths. Bordering on rudeness they were much bemused. As were we. It was time for us to leave.

We ignored the arrow on the reverse of the stop sign pointing to the ‘One Way’ exit. As an ex punk we made an anarchic exit through the entrance. I fear we may be...

My mother and I have been coming here for years now. The building, the fires, the food and drink are all fantastic. It's truly unique. It had such a charm and atmosphere to it that you could reason away the prices. But... it's been some months since we've visited and we were so disappointed to find they were using paper cups. Resources, environment, whatever the reason - just no. It absolutely removes all of the charm and atmosphere that you really DO have to pay for there. If I go to the trouble of sitting in somewhere for a cup of tea, I like to have an actual cup. If I want a takeaway, I'm happy with a paper cup. Sitting there in front of the lovely fire, with a paper cup.... no.

And sadly, the prices have gone up even more, which I didn't think was possible. There was hardly any food. We were planning on having lunch as a treat, at the previous prices of roughly £6.95 plus £4 for salad. But finding each tiny dish was £9.95 with no salad just felt a bit ridiculous. You're charged for milk and butter! You'll be charged for using the chairs next! Lowering prices even slightly will attract more customers, bring in some people and create an atmosphere again. It was deathly quiet in there, whereas it used to be packed. I'll be surprised if it's still running next year. I hope this will help in some way, we really do care about the place and hope to see it improve. So many of the reviews say the same thing - must be time to listen before...

A ghost of its former self. Such fabulous memories and now so disappointing - I have been coming to St.Martin's on and off for 30 years although I'm no longer local, so this is my first visit since the pandemic. The charm of the building is exactly the same - that cosy log fire, tilted floors, the piano to play and even the same carpet! BUT - the food is shockingly overpriced. £9.95 for a meagre portion of cheese on toast, no longer served with the fabulous sides of old. The alternative salmon, mash and pea cake was equally underwhelming. Paper cups, juice at £6.95 and silent service at the table from the hostess unfortunately made the whole experience somewhat sad. I appreciate the quality ingredients, embrace the limited menu and really want to still love it - but sadly I can no longer recommend it. We are all financially worse off - but there has to be a middle ground between saving money as a café owner and making your customer feel totally ripped off. Having said all that, being allowed in after 5 p.m. was welcome and we weren't rushed. The bread was excellent (I bought quite an expensive loaf of it to bring home) but with so much competition other places are now so much better and unless reviews improve, I...