M&S Café — Restaurant in England

Oh dear what have they done? Used to love popping in for lunch or a coffee and cake, but never again. Whoever came up with the automated system should be looking for another job, preferably not in a service industry For myself and my partner our visit today was a nightmare. Because of our difficulties we could not manage to order from the machines. We asked for help. We waited 15 minutes, asked again and the lady on duty apologised because she’d forgotten she’d said she would help us. We didn’t think we were ordering anything special, a baked potato with cheese and beans, with a pat of butter. But no, this was too difficult for the system, we could have baked potato with beans or baked potato with cheese, but not both, and there was no way of requesting butter! While waiting for our meal we noticed a major flaw in the location of the machines. Not one was at a lower height making it possible for a wheelchair user or a shorter person to order easily, so if you are in a wheelchair and want afternoon tea, forget it, it’s on the top row, so even if you could read it, you couldn’t have it, cos you wouldn’t be able to reach! And what about the visually impaired, those with sensory processing difficulties or autism, or people that don’t have the ability to pay by card? Clearly M&S do not want any clientele that have a disability....

My mom and I had a shopping trip to M&S Camberly and decided to have lunch afterwards. It was lunch time but the cafe had more used tables than seated customers. We struggled to find a clean table that had not been wiped well and that was not cleared of the previous customers dishes. There was not a great selection of items to choose from in the fridges and or the cakes. The sign for the hot meals suggested over a half an hour wait. We decided of scones and tea/coffee as a substitute for a lunch. Service on the tills was very slow. We had to ask for the biscuit which should have come as standard with the coffee. Cups were not particularly clean and only two choices of flavoured tea. The cutlery in the trofs still had caked on food which didn't look like it had even seen the dishwasher. The scones were dry and did not taste if they had been made that day. Came away with feelings of poor hygiene, bad service and no one really caring or it...

My last two visits have been pretty disappointing and I probably won't visit again now.

The ordering is quite streamlined with their new McDonald's style ordering screens. But the wait is still long especially if you just want a drink to take away. I ordered a latte and clicked on the "extra hot" button as I know coffees tend to be on the like warm side. While I was waiting I overheard a customer complain that her coffee was half foam and cold... I finally get mine and what do you know- it's still lukewarm (not hot) and has loads of foam (which shouldn't be the case for a latte) and although I had ordered a large I finished the half cup of coffee in a few sips. Extremely disappointed. Standards have been dropping for some time now as my previous visit was also disappointing. Shrinkflation has...