Huffkins — Restaurant in Cotswold District

Arrived at the cafe at 3.20 ish on recommendations from our in-laws Who have visited before.

Today we were disappointed- we asked if we could sit in the window. Most tables we could see were dirty with cups and plates. So we asked if we could sit there so that table could be cleaned so we could sit.

We waited it didn’t happen.

I ordered our cakes and hot drinks, I asked for cold water. She said it’s help your self from the dispenser which was empty she said she would refill- it never got refilled.

Once ordered we sat down on the dirty table in the window and still waited for it to be cleaned. It wasn’t - she then came out with a tray of our cakes and drinks and started placing them On the dirty table. Once she placed our cakes and drinks she then took the dirty stuff away.

Th table was dirty too luckily with having children I had baby wipes to hand and cleaned my own table.

The food was ok- my eldest is gluten free and he had a scone, my partner had a pasty and he said it was ok. But nothing special For the price.

A shame the customer service wasn’t the best either- not particularly friendly.

While we sat there 3 groups of more than 4 people in there parties of customers came in and they were turned away at 3.45 saying they were shutting at 4.30. That’s a 45 minute window. Maybe a loss of £100+ People were turned away quiet rudely - maybe your staff need to learn some customer service.

It also states on your website you shut at 5 so maybe that...

Such a disappointing experience all round. I had lunch here with a group of friends and our children. As a treat for one of my kids I ordered the kids gingerbread afternoon tea which comes on a teired cake stand. This is all part of the charm of the order. First of all they brought out both my kids deserts before the mains. With a 2 and 6 year old we had to allow them to eat the deserts otherwise a melt down would have been imminent. After this the rest of the food came over about 10 minutes later, and was not served on a cake stand as ordered. It was also missing the salad and garnish as stated on the menu. When we asked the waitresses the reason why the food had not come as described we were meet with dismissive comments and she had no interest in rectifying the issue. When we asked to speak to the manager, again the manager was rude and jumped to the conclusion that we were rude to their staff. She said ' don't you ever speak to my staff like that again' before even asking us what had happened and how she could have helped. I have never been spoken to in a resturant like this before. It was completely unacceptable. We were made to feel that we were in the wrong as the customer for complaining. This level of service is unacceptable and as a regular customer of Hufkins in Stow, I will not be returning. To anyone in the Cotswolds, I recomend you use a local tea room who i am sure will appreciate your...

Overall a bland cafe experience, with overpriced food. We had a number of issues with our visit too.

The order was taken incorrectly, and received a wrong item. To be fair, this was quickly replaced with the correct item. They stated to have refunded the difference back to my card, but no evidence of that on my statement yet.

Next issue, the kids toastie was made with a crusty bread roll (and not much cheese) and was very dry and too hard to chew for a young child. The menu stated it was supposed to be made with granary bread. When asked, they seemed confused by their own menu stating they always made it with a roll. Anyway, to be fair again, they did make another one on granary bread which was much more suitable for a young child, and ours did enjoy it.

The food generally was nothing special, and especially for the price! Of particullar note was a jacket potato for £12 that was barely done, with only a smidgen of beans and cheese.

Finally, by the end of a salad, we found something blue (looked a bit like blue cleaning cloth) stuck to a piece of onion. (goodness knows how much of the cloth we'd already eaten!) but by this point we couldn't be bothered to raise yet another issue with the staff... So just left and vowed not to return to Huffkins. There are much better...