Crazy Goat Co x Mad Squirrel - Leverstock — Restaurant in Dacorum

We arrived having never been to a crazy goat before, we thought the decor was good and there was a decent ambiance, we sat down, decided what we wanted from the limited brunch menu, indicated we were ready to order and were told bluntly, “it isn’t table service” which is not a problem at all, but when the server greeted us on arrival he could have let us know at that point we needed to come up to the til to order. The food arrived, 2 x smashed avocado on toast with poached eggs and I x scrambled egg and bacon with toast. The smashed avocado came with a lot of chilli flakes which wasn’t on the item description, and one of the people in our party really doesn’t get on well with chilli flakes so ended up scrapping as much off as possible. the poached eggs, were either under cooked or over cooked, both orders had one of each and the smashed avocado had A LOT of lemon juice in which made it actually quite tart. We helped ourselves to the self service water and the glasses smelt like eggs (presumably from them being in a dishwasher?). We could have of course said something but we were on a tight time frame and because the server hadn't been that friendly previously we decided to just eat and leave as we’d already paid for it. Unfortunately it’s not somewhere we’d try again for...

On arrival we sat at a free table as there were staff. No one approached us to explain that it wasn’t table service, it wasn’t until we asked that we were told we had to order at the counter. I ordered scrambled egg and bacon which is probably the worst I’ve ever had. The scrambled eggs were interesting, scrambled on top but an over done omelette below. The bacon wasn’t good either... think of package holiday hotel bacon but crispy. My Americano was equally bad, I love coffee but only drank half of it. I would have been happy to discuss this with the staff but, as they had put zero effort since our arrival, it’s unsurprising that they never checked we, and the food were ok. On a positive note the staff had lots of time for chit chat behind...

The staff are very friendly and accommodating, and the place has a nice vibe but I think it could be improved with more comfortable seats (hard cold metal is a bit uncomfortable), decent breakfast tea would be nice instead of cheap supermarket brand that has no taste, especially as it's quite expensive. I was going to come back and try the coffee but as a few of the reviews say it's not very hot I've not bothered as I like really hot coffee. It's a shame because if the drinks were worth the money I would be a regular customer as it is a nice place to bring laptop and do some work & it's just around the corner from me. Instead I drive to St Albans & go to Pret. The little things really...