eat 17 — Restaurant in East Hertfordshire

I was really excited to go to Eat17 in Stortford. As a Londoner, recently moved to the area, I miss these kind of places, and having been to the original Eat17 in the past, I knew how good it was. The #supermarket bit is great, although shelf edge tickets are not entirely accurate. I was overcharged for 2 items as an offer didn’t go through, and then one was cheaper than the shelf price. The selection of locally produced food is great, and without a doubt I go there a lot more, if it were a bit easier to park! Always the problem with a town centre location I guess. All the Eat17 staff we interacted with were friendly and polite, although the toilets were dirty to say the least. However, the experience in the food area was not the best to say the least. Online it says “check with individual traders for hours” which is great… except that none of the traders seem to advertise their hours. We went at 6.30pm, on a Saturday night, and were planning to share a range of bits. All of the tables were busy, or dirty, and there were a lot of beer flies around them After waiting a while we just cleared our own table. 2 of the traders we wanted to try were closed. We started with some gyoza from Katsu Charlie, which were sadly massively overpriced (£5 for 5 small limp looking gyoza) bland, lacking in filling, and stuck to the bottom of the container. Definitely not one I would try again. At the same time, we tried to order a bulgogi scotch egg and some bao buns from Guerilla kitchen. Sadly, the bulgogi scotch egg is no longer on the menu but it hasn’t been updated. The bao buns were delicious, but a little burnt- I had to scrape some very hard charcoal bits off one of them. At the start of the “meal” we had ordered some wings from Buffalo Joe’s and were told a 30 min wait. They ended up being 40. However, the service from Buffalo Joe’s overall was terrible. We went back 10 mins after our original order to ask to add a chicken burger, beef burger and fries, only to be told abruptly that they had run out of chicken. We said that it wasn’t an issue, and we would just have the burger and fries, to which we received the response of “we are too busy, so we are closing… and all the fryers are busy” This was way before 8pm. When the chicken wings did arrive they were tasty, but needed to be served with a wet wipe rather than the completely insufficient paper napkins supplied on the tables. We also had a pizza which was small, but tasty.

We were planning on making Eat17 a regular haunt, but sadly, unless things drastically improve I am not sure I will return to eat. It is a shame, as it has great potential, but just didn’t live up to...

This place is absolutely awful, ordered an online delivery today from these people at 2pm, they didn't have the machine on to receive their online deliveries "apparently", i waited until 5pm as no no delivery had arrived, slot was for 3.05pm - 3.20pm.

Phoned Eat17 spoke to a lady called Patricia (this woman should be fired), she was rude and said phone back in 10 mins which I did. She then proceeded to hang up on me whilst telling me the machine was not on, and no connection was working (whatever this means)??. I said what's happening with my order, she said we'll have to refund you.

So not only do I not receive an order, i'm money down and no food or drink that I ordered is arriving. So 3 hours of my time wasted today.

Honestly, if you are considering doing an online order from this inconvenience store as I now call it, DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME. They have zero customer service skills, no empathy and you'll end up having to go out anyway and go to a respectable place to get what you need.

Absolutely shocking, this place should be banned from doing online deliveries. Never again will i step foot in Eat17.....this has given the whole place a terrible...

Really like this shop! Good selection of food, wine and refill stations for cupboard staples and toiletries (liquid hand soap, washing up liquid etc). I also really like all the different food stands and fishmongers.

Most of the time the place is very well run and organised.

This, however, was not the case on the evening of 25 March. We came to grab some food for takeout and was slightly shocked with what was going on. The tables near the food stands were covered with stuff (staff belongings, Rizla, , tobacco, empty plastic, cardboard boxes etc). There were lots of people who did not seem to be working there and just hanging out with their mates, dancing around, and definitely not adhering to social distancing rules. There was also a big dog and even a small kitten - all very close to where the food was being cooked.

I wish i have not seen all of this to be honest, as it makes me wonder about how the place...