GAIL's Bakery Cobham — Restaurant in Elmbridge

It really hurts me to give a 3 star rating, when I loved Gail's food with friendly service and quality. I first came across Gail's in Bellsize, enjoying the coffee and food as a treat while doing workshops up the road. The staff were vibrant and happy that created an overall good vibe. I then used their old Clapham outlet pre a during the covid nonsense, and was never disappointed. Since brexit and having new partners something has broken down. Although the afore mentioned outlets are still spot on, I am no longer in these areas and use Wimbledon Balham Chobham and many others but alas they no longer employ competent pastry chefs. Muffins and scones raw in the middle, cheese straws so under cooked you can untwist and stretch them, cinnamon buns that hardly break the top of the tin, croissants, pan aux chocolates and spinach and feta rolls where the egg glaze is crisp but the pastry is still raw. I still enjoy the coffee and bread and it has become a losing battle trying to find an outlet that has any form of quality control. Instead of looking at expanding into drive throughs look at schooling your chefs before...

My partner and i visited Gail's on Sunday, it was the only place in the high street that we could get a smaller plate as it was 11:40 and everyone else had ended breakfast and were only serving lunch. We ordered avocado on toast and baked eggs with a coffee and hot chocolate. First no avocado, so I had to take baked eggs the same as my partner. We finished our drinks and waited 15-20mins for the baked eggs. It was not worth the wait. They tasted on par as the egg in a McMuffin. I was extremely disappointed. This came to just over £30 for the 2 of us. Watching the staff, one wiped down dirty tables with the same cloth, no spray in hand, crumbs onto the floor. Really not what you would expect....

I'd want to express my deepest thanks to the branch manager and his team. I placed an order for a variety of sharing boxes and other products for pick-up last week. When I arrived, I was informed that I had chosen the incorrect day for pickup. I was mortified at what a mistake I could have made, especially because the products were meant for a party taking place within the following few hours. They did, however, manage to scramble together what they had available for my request (during their busy morning breakfast hour). I can't thank them enough, they truly saved my skin there! And, as always, the food...