CHATEAU COFFEE BISHOP STORTFORD — Restaurant in East Hertfordshire

Went in for a late lunch during weekdays, it was pretty quiet, it was my first time to this cafe, I noticed there is a children soft play room in a corner, it is a separate room with the door shut and a sign was indicating it’s a soft play area. I really appreciate that the door was shut and it was a separate room, so customers without kids can have peace and quiet whilst having their meals. I had lunch with a friend and I’m not sure why the waitress only gave us one food menu and one drink menu, it’s a bit odd. The menu has limited choice of food, half of the food in the menu is breakfast, & others are sourdough toasties, wraps and salads. I had chicken and bacon wraps, to be honest that wasn’t something I really wanted to eat but I couldn’t choose any other better option that I liked. However the chicken & bacon wraps was very delicious, presentation looked nice too. The wraps were served with vegetables crisps as side, I personally like it very much, but to some people might not prefer vegetables crisps to potatoes crisps or salad. There is no service charge added in the bill and that’s something I take into account for my rating, overall it’s a 4...

Sadly, despite the lovely food on previous visits, the service we received today was nothing short of disgraceful. The cafe has a soft play at the rear, which our 2 year old loves. As anyone who has spent more than 20 minutes with a toddler can confirm, they have tantrums. Ours decided to have a pretty big one shortly after arrival. To our utter shock, it was suggested that perhaps we leave as our son was presumably disturbing the ambience. We’d understand if this was a theatre or cinema but this is, by its very existence, a ‘child friendly’ establishment. For context (not the cafe’s issue but important for us), we had just returned from visiting one of our parents who is receiving end of life care in hospital. We thought having an hour or so for our son to let off some steam whilst we had a coffee might brighten up a pretty miserable day. Instead we were judged, patronised and embarrassed. Just what we needed, so thanks for that 👍

Irredeemable service. Cannot return in...

Warning about the soft play -management/staff allowed 4 kids, one a baby being held by a child, to play unsupervised in the soft play area. They were clearly unsupervised, I was the only non staff adult in the room. Gave my 2 year old son a couple of seconds on the soft play (charged £5.50) then left as too uncomfortable being complicit in neglectful parenting/café policies. Soft play isn't a place you (let people) abandon their children and literally babies while the "responsible adults" hang out in another room (or were they even in the café at all, who knows!?). If this is what they think of child safety and safeguarding then I hate to think how safe their equipment is. I used to quite like this place, now it's just worrying. Children deserve...