Mathilde’s Café — Restaurant in England

This was my first visit to Mathildes in Grasmere. We placed our order for one coffee and tea and two bacon sandwiches. Our drinks arrived very quickly, but I had cause to question why the tea pot was only half full therefore requested a pot of hot water. At this stage I requested an update on our sandwiches and was told they would be with us very soon. Some twenty minutes later and after requesting further updates our sandwiches finally arrived. After raising the level of service and delay with the duty manager I was advised that I should have asked for my drinks and sandwiches to be served together. With regards to the time taken to serve the bacon sandwiches the manager advised that a 20 minute wait is normal. To prevent any misunderstanding I see no reason why the counter staff should not ask the customer at the time of ordering if the drinks and meal are to be served together or separately. To supply a tea pot half full and no additional pot of hot water is unacceptable especially when this simple meal had a high price tag of £25. This establishment clearly puts profit first over customer satisfaction. Perhaps the front of house manager would also benefit from from further hospitality training. There are many good businesses in Grasmere who are happy to go the extra mile to achieve total customer satisfaction and secure repeat business. I hope the owner addresses the issues I have...

While sympathy and undetstanding must be extended to the staff here in view of the operational restrictions imposed by Covid alongside the general business of the day in general, the system of ordering, payment and distribution of consumables seemed designed to cause additional delay and complexity. Instructions to guide customers through the whole procedure were attached to tables, all of which were occupied. When asked, at the head of the queue, "which table" , I was unable to say. A trip outside - delaying completion of the order - was required to garner this crucial datum. Observation of the space behind the counter gave rise to the impression that it had been designed to be operated by the most slender and flexible of individuals without any aversion to risk of scalding and cutting, while the entrance to the washing up/cooking/prep area guaranteed frustration to all parties in its vicinity, both within and without. Coffee was cool by the time (15 minutes) it came to table after ordering. Cheese scone lacked any hint of dairy. Not great....

Had breakfast in here one morning. It's a nice place, however a little bit too modern and sterile for my taste. Being Scandinavian, I love finding places with a Scandinavian twist. However, a few things that put me off this place. Might be small details, and just me, but still.

You have to pay extra if you want ketchup. Really? To me, that feels like the place is just trying to squeeze out anything they can from you. We bought two pots of tea but we only got one to share. People we saw who ordered tea for one got the same pot to themselves. Could potentially have had less water in it when it's for one, but even though ours were full, it didn't last very long. Would have been nice to have one pot each as we did order TWO pots of tea. The "suger free cola" is a cheap brand, and it tasted horrible. I know it was organic, but there are much better ones. And they still charged us £3 for it.

Overall for what we got, it was expensive and we would probably try another place next time, even though they have Scandinavian...