Coppa Club Cobham — Restaurant in Elmbridge

I am very disappointed to have to write such a negative review, having been a regular at this restaurant since it opened. I reached out to Coppa directly through their website, requesting a response, but none has been received. This leaves me with little other choice than to make my concerns public, to ensure that these serious concerns are addressed.

Firstly and most importantly, we had two members of the party with severe allergies in the group. The manner in which the allergies were handled by the waitress was appalling. We were made to feel like we had hysterical concerns, and our requests for allergen free food was an inconvenience to her. My sister in law wanted to order an adult menu pasta and asked for egg free pasta with it (she is breastfeeding an infant with a severe egg allergy and as a result needs to eat an egg free diet). The waitress informed her that all the pasta in the restaurant contained egg. This was in direct conflict to the children’s menu on our table, which quite clearly stated that there was a plant based alternative available - the tomato and basil pasta was marked as “PB” (plant based). I have a photograph of the children’s menu with the incorrect allergy listing, which I can provide if required. When we challenged our waitress to advise that the children’s menu indicated an egg free pasta was available, she returned to advise that the children’s menu had a mistake on it in terms of allergen warnings. She then advised my sister in law that she could order the allergen containing food if she wanted to but “it depends on how much you value the health and wellbeing of your baby”. My family were appalled. It is a basic requirement of all food venues to provide clear and accurate allergen information. The fact that the children’s menu was incorrect left us extremely concerned that mistakes may occur when your customers assume that information to be correct. This needs correcting immediately to ensure that a serious and preventable accident does not occur. In addition, having informed the waitress that my son was allergic to fish, when our food did arrive, he was presented with the wrong meal - a fillet of fish. Thankfully he is sensible enough to recognise it is something he cannot eat.

The waiter we had was surly, unpleasant and rude; everything we asked of our waiter seemed like an unreasonable request. She was impatient, irritable, and at one stage bordered on aggressive in her behaviour towards us. I became so upset by her behaviour that I asked the manager to assign a different waiter to us. My request was evidently ignored as the same waiter continued to return to our table after that request was made. As we ordered dessert the waiter challenged our choices (we asked for coffee and dessert to arrive at the same time) and when I said this had never been an issue before at Coppa, she actually began to argue with me before walking away. Our starters were ordered incorrectly and only half the order arrived, leaving the children with no starter to eat. The manner in which she handled allergen requirements is outlined above - it was dismissive and inconsiderate given the importance that these matters require. I left the table to take my daughter to the bathroom at one stage. A lady held the door for my daughter, and the same waitress barged through, pushing past another customer and hurriedly went into a cubical. It was just another example of the poor level of courtesy and respect she paid us and other patrons.

Our bill amounted to over £300, and at that level of expense I would expect a far better experience overall. I find it unlikely we will visit again given the reflections above.

I continue to await a...

We went for a birthday celebration. It went wrong right at the beginning with the drinks order. I asked for a gin and tonic. What type of gin? Gordon's please. Blank look. The waitress consulted a list and read out 3 gins, none of which I understood as I have poor hearing and wear hearing aids. My family are used to this and came to my rescue suggesting one of the gins. Double? No thank you. What then?? ! I should have given up at this point and just gone with the warm tap water she later served. Single, I replied. On its own or with tonic? With tonic please, that's why I asked for a gin and tonic. She looked daggers at me which I reciprocated. I'm told the fish was excellent, but the price does not include any vegetables. It does if you opt for the steak though (skinny chips). My steak was poor though the others were fine. It's often pot luck with steak. We then sat for 30 minutes with a table of dirty pots though we did get a bottle of warm water. My wife asked for a glass of ice but that never came. My daughter fished ice out of her lemonade and shared that with us. Meanwhile I went to the toilet. Sorry out of order (it wasn't earlier), please use the Accessible Toilet. Sadly it was locked and therefore inaccessible. I went into the gents and paddled through the water to the toilet. Eventually our table had been cleared and then a nice touch. The waitress brought a single scoop of ice cream with a candle in it to celebrate the birthday. We ordered the puddings ( little choice) and two of us opted for decaffeinated coffees. If my Americano was decaffeinated then it's the best that I've ever tasted. As I was still awake at 2am I seriously have my doubts. Coffee was never offered to those who had the puddings. We then tried to pay. The waitress avoided us. The manager, assuming there was one, was not evident either. We tried using the QR code to pay but they had charged for the ' birthday ice cream' !! and included a service charge at 12.5%. This can only be removed by a human. My daughter went to the desk by the entrance to explain the problem. Our waitress re-appeared and we asked to pay on 3 cards and asked for it to be £90, £45 and £90. We had earlier split the bill 5 ways and rounded up so still leaving a tip, albeit a lesser amount. This wasn't possible in our waitresses head. The last person had to pay the balance of £102 ( I think). We were past caring and just wanted to leave....

We visited yesterday yesterday with my wife, son and his partner for his 30th birthday.

We booked an igloo as it was a special occasion.

Firstly we had to wait for 30 minutes for drinks to arrive and our order to be taken.

We ordered our food with some specific requirements, I had a flash steak with no fries but extra salad.

Our starters arrived and the 2 buttermilk chicken starters were burnt, they were dark brown in appearance and extremely hard. They weren't very tasty but I didn't want to cause a scene as I didn't want to ruin my son's birthday.

When our main course arrived my order was wrong. I received fries and a side salad which I was charged for, almost as if my request was ignored.

My wife had the 10 Oz dry aged steak and it was inedible. I tried to get the attention of the waitress but we were in the pod at the end and we couldn't get her attention.

Eventually she came over at the end of the meal and asked if all was ok, my wife showed the steak which was a mass of chewy sinewy fat and barely any meat.

The waitress apologised and asked if she would like a new one, we had all finished with the exception of my wife so she said no.

The waitress said she would speak to the manager.

We ordered deserts and coffee and then asked for the bill.

When the bill came they had removed £20 from the bill for the steak... This cost £37.

I had been charged for the salad and Service charge was still included.

This was my first time at coppa club but my son and his partner go to the hazelmere branch often.

I didn't want to cause a scene as we don't spend much time with my son as we live 65 miles from each other and I didn't want to ruin his birthday.

We spent almost £150 and I don't think the meal was worth half of that.

We received 2 burned buttermilk chicken starters 1 inedible dry aged steak 1 salad I was charged for Service charge for non existent service.

I was charged £18.83 for service that was non existent.

Avoid

Update.

I sent an email the same day through the website giving my feedback and have yet to receive a reply...