Halls Victorian Sweetshop and Tea Room — Restaurant in England

I have awarded two stars as I have no qualms with the food I received or the room decor, without these areas the lack of customer service would have scored this place 0. I visited the tearooms the beginning of last week and I wanted to take the time to write this review, as I was appalled with the service and treatment me and my friends received. I am a 26 year old female who has worked in the customer service industry for 10+ years, I have never spoken or treated a customer the way me and my friends were treated this day. I had organised for me and my friend to see an old work colleague who we both had not seen for a while. The person we were meeting had retired due to some unfortunate circumstances, this made our meet up a little more special. I had previously visited the tearooms before where I wasn't 'wowed' by the service, but I thought the room was nice enough, and my overall experience wasn't bad. The tearooms wasn't overly busy the day of our visit, I can envisage 3 or 4 tables with the maximum of 7/8 guests dining. The beginning of our experience was fine, we were welcomed and allowed time to decide what to eat. When we were ready our order was taken by the waitress whom wasn't overly pleasant but I wouldn't class rude. The food came and was placed infront of us, to which I noticed we were without cutlery but the waitress had already left our table. I noticed there was a container on the counter containing cutlery- this could have been pointed out to us as she lay down our plates or I would have courtiesly brought over the adequate amount to our table. The plates remained on our table for quite some time, to which we mentioned to the same waitress we were ready for cake. As my friend was elderly she politely asked the waitress what they had, to which the waitress just turned and pointed to the cabinet behind her, I thought that was incredibly rude so I made a point of getting up and walking to the cabinet to inform my friend what there was. When we were ready to leave (our second lot of plates hadn't been moved and we had finished our cake for quite some time) we went over to the counter to pay the same waitress. We asked for the bill to which she gave me the full total, I then asked if we could pay separately (we all had very different totals) to which she huffed... yes huffed and said it's going to make it harder and there might not be enough change in the till. I have never known anything like it. It made us all feel incredibly uncomfortable, what would be the case if all three of us dined separately? She then, very reluctantly, worked out the individual cost and was very abrupt and yet again rude taking the payment. After I waved my old work colleague off, I sat in the car for a little moment and wondered as to whether I should return into the tea room to inform the waitress of how she had ruined and damaged what was set to be a lovely catch up, but I can't imagine someone as rude as that would accept my opinion lightly. My friends and I will not be returning to the tea rooms and I hope to prevent further upset to any other person contemplating this as a lovely catch up...

Where do I start! We arrived on time for our 2pm reservation to be told our table was not ready!! They said could we go to bents and come back as no where for us to sit and wait or could we sit at tables outside ...... no not with my 80 years old mother, so we sat in our car parked outside why we waited for our table. When we sat down we were presented with average sandwiches, Costco scones, some inedable cake and buiscuit ..... certainly not £19.99 each worth of afternoon tea but I was with my mum and daughters so we had a laugh about it and made the most of it. We likened it to a bush tucker trial. My mum was thirsty so we asked for an extra pot of tea and was not told this would be an extra charge, so was shocked when I got the bill to be charged an extra £10 yes £10 for a pot of tea, not extra milk !!!!! I questioned this to be told I want to try going to bents!! They seem to have a thing about bents!!!! Mmmm well you need to do your market research, bents charge £24.99 for 2 people for a far superior experience and quality food, also check out sweet little things .... enough said. Well I don’t expect a response but I do hope the owners of this place do some reflection on their rip off Mother’s Day afternoon tea, because you truly know in your heart you have ripped us off. I would have persued my complaint in your shop further but for the fact I did not want to upset my elderly mum ..... you ought to be very ashamed of...

After visiting the overly expensive Bents we decided to find a cafe nearby, and found the Victorian Tearooms in Glazebury, very quaint inside, lovely welcome from staff member, but I have to say the food really did let it down, which is a shame as it has great potential being so close to the very famous garden centre it really could take the overspill from there. We had a cheese and ham toastie which was dry toast with ham and a small amount of cheese inside...definitely not a toastie no toastie machine made that (with salad and cut up large chunks of well done toast (acting as croutons?) Very bizarre on top of the salad with was very uninviting. We also had an omelette. With added cheese and onion that we paid extra for again very little cheese and the size of a child's portion, same salad on the side with chunks of toast and 4 crisps. The drink was diet coke and cappuccino which were lovely. This really could be a 5 * establishment if they gave the hot food more attention, we can't comment on the cakes or other items on the menu. Unfortunately we were not impressed with the food, interior decor quaint and the lady who served us very lovely. Very sad to leave a poor review, it definitely could be amazing if they change how the food is prepared, cooked...