Cafe 21 — Restaurant in Colchester

We booked a baby shower at the start of the year for July. With the understanding that we would have the back room and the patio doors open for guests to be able to go out into the garden also with an afternoon tea spread type buffet. Which sounded lovely and we went ahead with the booking. We had spoke several times throughout the year also regarding adding more guests and how the day might go etc. (not once being told this wasn’t to be exclusively used by us)

However the day before the baby shower I received a phone call asking if I wanted the back room setup or the patio area. I explained as originally planned if we could do the buffet food inside incase of the weather, then guests can come in and eat and go outside etc. I was told I had to pick either the back room or patio. Which was never discussed for months prior. After explaining that’s not what we were told from the beginning we were then informed they would still have to seat guests in the garden. That the back room holds 20 people. To which I said we have 25? (Surely we would’ve been told ages ago that the back room doesn’t even fit our amount of guests?) That they would try to open the side gate to stop strangers walking through etc. We also told them we’d be arriving 30 minutes before guests to set up decorations too. Which they said they’d aim for customers to leave by.

Slightly frustrated by the miscommunication we still went into it with an open mind and hopeful they wouldn’t be too busy as it was towards the end of their closing time. When we arrived to set up decorations the back room was filled with customers still and the garden was pretty full. We ended up setting up with customers still in the room, and luckily got the room ready with minutes to spare.

Thankfully the guests still managed to get some seating in the garden. We did have a lot of customers walking through the baby shower to use the toilet and leave etc. the staff also was walking through with peoples food and drink. Which was tough when you’ve got a large group mingling in a small room and having to move out the way a lot.

Once it quietened down we all ended up having a lovely time and the food was all okay. People got fed and were happy. It was just all a big faff and not so pleasant. Miscommunications from management were to fault here mainly. My Mother in Law asked on arrival regarding the whole situation and was told if we had of wanted the garden booked privately too, we had to pay extra for that. (Which if told in the start or anytime prior we would’ve paid for!) If we were told everything they told us the day before in the beginning we wouldn’t have booked a baby shower here. Because who likes to have strangers wandering around at a personal event you thought would be private.

Sadly most of us got really bad stressful vibes from the team that catered for us. After thanking my guests the next day for coming I received quite a few negatives regarding the teams attitude and people found them to be rude. There was however one girl who was being ultra nice! Almost like she was compensating for the rest of the team. To her I say thank you lol! She was lovely!! It was just a bad vibe and I felt like I put the venue out by having my baby shower here. We didn’t feel welcomed and you could feel animosity radiating off the manager 😔.

Me and my wife came here regularly for breakfast and have never had a bad thing to say. But can’t say we will be coming back after a stressful...

Been eating here for years and today the waiting staff really were the worst. We gave up and left! We sat, in the Sun, for 20mins and never even got a menu even though we signalled repeatedly. We even laughed they were so obviously ignoring us! Never mind. Went to the Mediterranean Cafe 20 secs up the road and got a great welcome! Shame after many years as loyal customers.

Edit to owner response: We spoke to the younger and older member of staff on entry asking them if there was a seat in the garden. They said there was a table for two, but it's in the sun and go and have a look to see if it would suit. I can't "slip" anywhere at 6ft6inches and thanked them. We waved and asked several times for menus. Then gave up. We did actually laugh at one point because it was so bad.

The one thing I do know is, the tone of your answer shows what you're like and how you treat people.

And yes, good did come from it, because the Fig and Goats Cheese salad at the Med Cafe was lovely and less expensive to boot. I wish you well at Cafe 21 and I'm sure they will challenge the next people who dare to "slip" into your cafe after asking...

Unable to leave stars for the food or atmosphere because we didn’t get that far. Queued to wait for a table to become available for 2 people, with one couple ahead of us. They were unable to tell us how long it would be which was fair enough , we were happy to wait. However a group of 3 people came in behind us. They didn’t want to wait but were told they could leave their number and they would be called when a table became available. Whilst still waiting, these 3 people were then called to say a table had become available!! Now I can understand if it had been a table that seats 6 and not wanting to give it to just 2 people but I think it extremely poor customer service, not to have given it to those next in the queue for the sake of one seat! How were they to know that the party of 3 weren’t just going to order drinks. Very short sighted of Cafe 21 not to mention greedy! We have dined here many times before but sadly, won’t...