Oaklands Farm Café Ltd — Restaurant in East Devon

My family and I have been using this café as a stop off point when travelling to Devon/Cornwall for 10+ years, having stopped here around 6 times during that timespan. In short, the owner here is quite rude and there are better places to consider stopping off at. For a more detailed explanation, read on.

The old woman that runs this place has always had a very cold manner - as per other reviews. She's never made me feel welcome, but more like an unwanted guest. If you ask her any questions, she'll always give a sarcastic, rude and unhelpful response. When she brings you your food, she'll just plonk it down and walk off, never saying anything or asking if you'd like anything else etc.

She makes you feel like she's doing you a favour for carrying out the job that you're paying her to do, and has been this way for over ten years (and probably longer). I can't fathom why she's been running this café since 2005, since she clearly doesn't like it. The only reason we continue to stop off here at this point is because it's tradition to see how grumpy she'll be!

I do understand that her husband passed away in early 2020, and that she then had to shut temporarily in the pandemic, leaving her to later manage the café on her own. This can't have made things easy for her. I would want to give her poor behaviour the benefit of the doubt because of this. However, the fact that she has been so consistently rude for over ten years suggests that it has nothing to do with any recent struggles in life, but that she's unfortunately just a miserable and irritable person. Regardless though, her bad mood should not rub off on customers in the way it does!

There has also always been a wasp problem here for as long as I can remember. We usually sit inside so it's not really an issue, but if you sit outside, be prepared to spend your entire time swatting away wasps!

Now, there are a few good things about this place. Firstly, the food. It is actually quite good. I often get the cream tea, which is £7 for two warm scones, a tea pot and generous servings of clotted cream and jam. The prices are a bit expensive, but if the service was not so hostile they could easily be justified.

The café is also a good location for stopping off at on long car journeys. It always has clean toilets, and the café itself has nice decor. There also used to be a shop which had some quite good produce, but it's closed now.

I'm giving two stars, which I think is fair. I'm afraid that I can't recommend stopping here, unless you find the owner's grumpiness as amusing as I do! You're probably best off looking elsewhere otherwise.

Also, on the off chance that the owner is reading this, I'd like to ask her to please find it within herself to do the bare minimum and be polite to customers! If nothing else for her own sake, since it will improve the sunken reputation of her business and help with the attraction/retention of customers. The poor customer service completely ruined everything about...

Passed this Farm Cafe few times whilst driving from Cornwall to Hampshire. It's located in Monkton just past the Hotel on the right. Stopped by to check it out whilst traveling back to Cornwall for a drink and toilet break recently on a Monday. Plenty of parking on unmarked parking area. Cafe found further up on left. Looks like old farm outbuildings have been used. Plenty of seating inside and also out. Toilets are available. Had a quick look at the menu. First impressions were everything quite expensive in my opinion. Cheese and ham toasties were I believe £7.95 but don't quote me on that. Just had a takeout coffee and chrisps and small pack of biscuits cost something like £8 ? Again don't quote me as I'm not 100% sure. Had cakes , teacakes, sandwiches etc. Just felt a little old fashioned and somewhere ideal for a coffee and toilet stop perhaps when passing by. Seemed busy though not sure if this was mainly the local customers But yes again I'd recommend for a coffee and break. But it could be quite expensive for...

Looking at the other reviews this place continues to fail to deliver, I just wish I had read them before we stopped or knew about the Starbucks 2 minutes up the road! I would love to be able to comment on the food or the coffee but unfortunately I was largely ignored from the moment I arrived at the till to the 15 minutes it took for me to leave. The two young waitresses preferred to clear tables and wash dishes and wipe the side than take my order. They didn't even give eye contact. My hopes were raised when one of them said someone will be with you soon but after another 5 minutes I left. They weren't actually serving anyone else either it was very odd. I thought I'd give the farm shop a whirl instead but it's a VERY sparsely stocked few shelves of crackers and beer.... Nothing you might usually want, fresh bread, veg, jams etc.... We'd recommend going off the beaten track a bit and finding somewhere where they can actually...