Woodlands Cafe Woodhall Spa — Restaurant in East Lindsey

This place has the potential to be an absolutely wonderful café - food is lovely and the coffee is very good. However, I have now been in there twice to eat and was spoken to very rudely by the staff on both occasions. In addition to this, it is poorly organised - when you enter you are left not knowing where to stand; after passing a sign that says 'please wait to be seated' with no indication as to where you should wait, you are then stuck in a queue that you suddenly realise is actually just people queuing for ice-creams. You finally make it to the ordering till (glad I didn't wait by the sign!) where you are made to feel you are an inconvenience by your very presence. To make matters worse, we were put on the table by the door where a very cold breeze kept passing us by because the door has to be kept open for the large ambiguous queue! When my daughter's sandwich arrived (menu stated pom bears or salad - we asked for pom bears) it had two pieces of cucumber, two tomatoes and 3 broken pom bears! When we mentioned that we hadn't asked for salad and that the pom bears were a bit limited we were told, with quite an angry tone, that that's what you'd expect because it was on the side. She did then bring out a condiments pot with a couple more crisps, but still not much and the attitude was totally unnecessary. I would love to use this café again but the way customers are spoken to could do...

I have always found the food and drink to be lovely here and that is one of the main reasons why friend and I return! The other reason being that there aren’t many cafe options in the heart of Woodhall Spa. That being said we always leave wondering why we have bothered to return because the staff are always unwelcoming and rude! We always feel rushed to vacate the table. The same waitress each time we have attended has approached our table as soon as we have taken our last sip of drink and makes a point of firmly asking if we are having anything else. On one occasion it was made clear people were waiting for our table! We couldn’t move fast enough! Today my friend and I only had coffees. Yet again as soon as we’d finished our last sip, there she was interrupting our conversation to ask us if we were having anything else and pointing out we needed to order at the till! I said “yes we’re having another drink when I’ve finished my sentence”! Nothing polite about that woman. She’s the same everytime we go! Even the woman on the till today was rude! I got the impression they didn’t want my friend and I just having coffees! Today it felt cramped! We won’t be rushing back. We want to be somewhere that we can relax and be spoken to in a polite manner. Valued customers return. I think the only saving grace for this business is that there isn’t much in the way of...

Unfortunately, I can’t give a higher rating for Woodlands Caffè based on our visit — not because of the place itself, but because the atmosphere was a bit off from the start.

We popped in on Friday, 6th June at exactly 3:26pm for a quick coffee, cake, and maybe some ice cream. A few guests were still chatting inside, but sadly, we were pretty much ignored at first. I had to ask if they were still open, and after some hesitation, we finally managed to place an order.

We sat down and started to enjoy our drinks… when suddenly chairs started flying onto tables around us, and then someone began sweeping the floor. It all made the whole vibe feel a bit rushed and less welcoming than we’d hoped.

Considering how busy the place usually looks, we expected top-notch service, but unfortunately, that wasn’t quite the case this time.

(Edit after the manager’s reply:) Thanks for your reply and for explaining the situation. I should have written this earlier! Just to clarify: our visit was on Friday, 6th June, not last Sunday. I appreciate the polite and professional response.

My review wasn’t written out of frustration — just an honest snapshot of how the experience felt from a guest’s point of view. Maybe it was just bad timing. I wish you and your team all the best...