The Cupola cafe - bar - pizza - grill — Restaurant in Derbyshire Dales

Not suitable for young children or wheelchair users.

After regularly travelling past Cupola myself and my family have been looking forward to paying it a visit. Upon arrival the first thing to note is the car park is all gravelled, this mean’t that I couldn’t push my pram and therefore we had to lift it across the car park. We didn’t mind this however but this would mean that wheelchairs would have difficulties accessing the restaurant.

My family and I waited to be seated by the young lady at the front of the restaurant who obviously had little experience with customer service. The premise itself is rather large with around 30-40 tables, on the day only 2 other customers were there so we didn’t think being seated would be an issue. How wrong we were.

The staff made it abundantly clear that we were a burden because of the pram and sat us next to the only other customer in there. Our table and the other customer was extremely close (basically a shared table) therefore naturally we felt uncomfortable. We very politely asked if we could be seated elsewhere in the almost empty restaurant however it was made clear that again, the pram would be an issue. We took it upon ourselves to relocate to a more suitable table for the pram where we would be out of the way. However, a lady came over who I assume was the manager and explained rather abruptly we ‘must sit where instructed as the pram will be in the way’. The pram was absolutely not in the way in fact it was less in the way to the original table we were ordered to sit at. The whole demeanour of the staff was absolutely appalling and needless to say we left and took our custom elsewhere. Never in my life have I experienced such poor, unprofessional and down right rude wait staff. Myself and my family are extremely let down and will not be attending this establishment again, nor will we be recommending to friends who are local.

• adding after restaurant reply.

First there is absolutely no apology in any of your response, what you fail to realise is that is not about how YOU feel, but how you have made a family feel. I can assure you that I have never complained in my life, and was quite happy to have said nothing and just walked out. I would also like to address your response where you say that there are a number of untruths in my review. There are no untruthful statements in any of the original review. You say that we were offered an alternative table next to another couple where it was actually a chap sitting on his own. That table we were offered was most definitely not suitable as there were 5 of us and the pram (a normal sized pram, not large as stated in your reply) and the pram would have been in front of the door which was open and totally unsuitable. There is no way that 5 of us would have been comfortable on that table and suggest you review your much fabled cctv. My brother in law did move the tables to facilitate the 5 of us and the pram, at no point did we attempt to put the pram at the end near the coffee station. There are actually 3 tables along that run, not 2 as you state and if that end table causes a problem to your operation then why not remove it totally. You kept saying at the time that we were attempting to put the pram at that end. We most definitely were not. In terms of the parking on gravel we must have missed the hard standing but the part of the car park where the ramp was situated is most definitely gravel , and I know that because I was the one that lifted it. I have attached a picture of the car park from your recent instagram post there is no hard flooring. Anyway, enough of all this. You seek feedback but only when it is praising you, not when there is a need for you to understand that there may be something that you can improve. Judging by your response to any sort of constructive criticism on previous issues and this one, then I fear this will be judged as the same. You will improve your business if you listen to...

Myself, my son and grandson visited for the first time as we were staying next door in a holiday apartment. We phoned Friday couldn’t get in fully booked so I just went for a drink outside while son and grandson went walking. I was advised best to book a table for Saturday night. We visited Chatsworth Country Fair, on our return about 18:00 weeks ago dropped in to book table for three we were offered a table for 19:15 as last orders was 20:00. We arrived on time the place was very busy waited about 5 minutes until they sorted our table out. We ordered two pizzas, round of onion rings and two portions of chips. We waited a while for our drinks after about 10 minutes the waitress apologised saying the kitchen had run out of pizza dough! We reluctantly had to order burgers and grandson ordered meat balls we were not happy the waitress even confirmed it happens a lot when the kitchen is busy! Anyway having ordered starters, burgers etc the main meals were served minus the onion rings we asked where they were - at first we were asked did they not serve the onion rings as a starter! Then the waiter admitted a bit of mis-communication with ordering was to blame - we just cancelled the onion rings. After the meal we were offered a free drink each for the mistakes I refused but my son and grandson duly asked for a drink each my son asked for lager was served cider well at least it was free. While eating our burgers a group of about 8 diners arrived a good 15 minutes after we arrived and was told there was no pizza dough to our surprise they were served with pizzas and other food! Having paid just over £78 for three meals we did not come in for I thought what a waste of money. On paying the card machine was automatically set to ask did we wish to add a tip for the service I duly declined. On leaving the manager / owner came over gave his apologies stating they had been very busy and ran out of dough, he went on to explain he was struggling to employ more staff and one person had phoned that night to say they were not coming in. (think most restaurants are in the same position for hiring the correct trained staff) I explained to him that while walking around the country fair my grandson wanted a pizza for lunch we kept saying to him no get something else you’ll get one tonight … but he didn’t because of no pizza dough! He chose meatballs that honestly he didn’t like too much - the owner / manager offered to refund the money for the meatballs but I declined as already paid in full for three meals we didn’t actually want having ate burgers at the county fair. I asked why others arriving after our arrival were served with pizzas he said if groups they do ask to pre-order. I suggested when any booking takes place why don’t they enquire will you be wanting pizzas from the menu? We were not asked when we booked our table for three if we had we would have said yes we will order two pizzas as we had already made our m8 d up before we entered to book a table. I ended our conversation by shaking the manager / owners hand stating this was the first first time I in 69 year life I’ve been to an Italian themed restaurant to be informed the restaurant’s speciality was not available as they had no more pizza dough. I would recommend if wanting pizzas to state this when phoning or calling in to book a table so pizzas are pre-ordered. I do hope they increase the amount of pizza dough in stock to cater for major events happening at Chatsworth as the restaurant was a very nice place to visit I do hope they learn by their mistakes so this does not happen to...

Called in for breakfast after visiting Eyam. The place was very busy but managed to get seated and got served within good time considering how packed the place was. Staff were friendly and welcoming, and the service was great. It’s dog friendly, and our pooch was brought some water by one of the staff members. The cafe was really nicely decorated and very clean throughout. Breakfast was excellent, good quality ingredients, nicely cooked and presented. The bacon that had been done on the griddle was particularly nice. Great experience overall, and looking forward to coming back for a pizza and a pint one night.

Edit* 1 Week after leaving the above 5 star review, unfortunately I have to reduce the rating to a 2. I called into the cafe today after such a great experience last week. Today was fairly quiet, got seated and someone came to take an order within a reasonable time. 3 club sandwiches and a piece of cake and 4 drinks. Drinks came then waited…and waited…and waited for the food. A couple of tables got served but there didn’t seem to be a lot of action in the cooking area, so wondered if our order had gone through. No food after an hour so decided it was time to go. I asked the waitress for the bill for the drinks and explained that our food hadn’t arrived. I got a lukewarm apology of “Sorry, not sure what happened “. Waited another 5 minutes for her to discuss with colleagues then got the drinks bill. I mentioned how good things had been last week, but was disappointed that nobody had realised we hadn’t been served when there were only a few customers in. I would have been happy with an apology with some conviction, asked if we still wanted food, maybe not charge for the drinks due to the error. I don’t leave many negative reviews, and would always give an establishment chance to put things right, but I feel everything was a bit casual and didn’t leave the place feeling there had been a genuine error, but staff had done everything to make me feel I still wanted to return again.

Chapter 3! …. Came in today for a breakfast. Very busy but got seated. Service was great, breakfast was great. Just wanted to say a special Thanks to Vicky. She was really welcoming and attentive. I noticed her running around, checking on customers, she came back to us twice about our breakfast and our bill at the end, just to check in on us. She must have covered 2 miles in the time we were there, and all with a smile on her face.This is what customer service should be like. Vicky deserves a medal (or a pay rise).I have revised my rating back to 5 stars, based on todays meal and service, just disappointed with last weeks reaction to us not getting served, but hopefully all back and track and can enjoy...