Jackson's California Lake — Restaurant in England

Jacksons cafe is situated within California country park in Wokingham. It is the only eatery within the park and as such, enjoys the captive audience.

The menu is overpriced, not by much, but easily explained by the fact it has no direct competition.

The tables are not cleaned regularly. They have remnants of previous diners food and drink and don't appear to be wiped down at all.

Now for the shocking part.... If you have a food allergy DO NOT EAT HERE.

I am lactose intolerant. Butter, cheese etc causes flare ups of IBS and that for me means symptoms similar to diarrhoea & vomiting, dehydration and generally feeling ill up to a week if I am unlucky.

I ordered the prawn sandwich. My wife stipulated not to use butter or margarine which the person taking the order noted down. My wife had coronation chicken on her sandwich and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Mine, however came with butter... I'm so used to checking, which I did here, and the first half sandwich did not appear to have butter or spread. Only when I noticed a buttery taste did I open the sandwich and scrape some of the filling off did I notice that one slice was buttered and the other slice was not.

Appart from being negligent, this sort of imbecilic behaviour could lead to a person having an anaphylaxis with poor outcome.

Do yourself a favour. At tye end of your walk, get in your car and head off to Wokingham to one of the many eateries or pubs. Take your business there. It has been a very long time since anything like this has happened to me and I'm now suffering the consequences

My wife did complain, we didn't want a refund but wanted awareness. The person who took the order started she had informed the chef. If that's the case then this place is best avoided and the person is as little a chef as I am.

Wokingham council have been made aware of this which is a first for me...

Very expensive for what it is and came with poor service. At £16 for full English breakfast I would expect a whole not half a tomato and for bacon,eggs and sausages to be free range (not specified as such in the menu so I assume they’re not) Non-branded brown and red sauces at these prices should not be served as they just ruin the taste. I was never given my receipt when I paid £39.50 for 2 breakfast and 2 lattes, and having seen the small glass cup intended for the drinks I asked for large ones but was told they only do one size. Food took about 15 minutes to arrive and then the waitress turned up with a single small plate. When I suggested this was incorrect as we ordered 2 full breakfasts she was looking at the plate questioning if I ordered a vegetarian, despite there being a piece of bacon on show then said she would go and check. She returned with 2 large plates but one was missing the bacon and the other mushrooms and again was questioning it as if she had no idea what the breakfast should consist of - I had to show her the menu to prove items were missing. She again said she would go check and took the plate away with her to complete the food. Our drinks arrived in a very small latte glass and tasted great but were lukewarm. It’s a grab your own cutlery and condiments and order at the till sort of place, quite noisy and rather basic with indoor tables quite close to each other. With parking costs £2.40 per hour as well, will not be...

Excellent menu options, especially for breakfast and brunch. We tried the American style pancake stack, a small English, and a breakfast ciabatta. Portions were very generous and offered good value for money. The food was nicely cooked, and good coffee with milk alternatives available. There is plenty of outdoor seating that's dog and child friendly with high chairs available. Service was pretty good, although I had to have my order replaced after receiving coffee with dairy instead of the oat milk that I ordered. Double check your order if you're lactose intolerant. There's bird food available for feeding the wildfowl at the lake edge, lovely for kids and adults. Located adjacent to the kids' park. A wall poster details the interesting history of the California park. Toilets are clean and included a disabled and baby change cubicle. My only suggestion ls that staff should be wiping up as they work. The counter was wet with milk, coffee, and chocolate powder, and every tray was dirty and transferred to sticky dirty tables outside. Many brown sugar sachets were burst, adding to the already sticky mess. I get that they're very busy at times but overheard the waitresses talking about quieter periods where they'd been cleaning out the bins, clearly they're trying to keep things...