Minstrels Gallery — Restaurant in England

Looked at cafes on google, to make a pitstop from our travelling and whilst enroute we really looked forward to the menu. Upon entering we saw 3 staff behind the counter, the owner, his wife and a younger girl (the latter was welcoming and polite - thank you by the way, may God bless you).

The wife, however, looked at us and decided from the onset she was not going to like us and was being abrupt and abrasive, completely disregarding customer service - here was my mistake because i should not have made any excuses for her rudeness nor tolerated it and just walked out.

However, i still made our order whilst recieving a stare from the wife, i was finalising the order i.e for the toppings of the scones and asked which teas they had available and again with an abrasive manner and abrupt tone the wife ushered us to the menus away from the counter, and whilst my wife and I stupidly ignored the negatives cues, simply because we did not want anyone to spoil our day or our afternoon tea, and just hoping she would snap out of it.

Anyway, when we decided on our teas and turned back to the counter to complete our order, the wife looked at us with hate and realised she had not updated the owner that we were still deciding our teas and with a dont care attitude said, "well a standard tea has already been made," (i.e by the owner and placed on the counter) and expected us to accept it without apologising or offering to rectify the shortfall, which was disappointing but i politely explained to the wife that if the order was completed then why had she ushered us to the menu when we asked which teas were available but no answer.

The owner over heard an issue was brewing and with a huff and a puff took back the tea, however the wife's hate and whatever underlying issue she had of us, tried to turn it into a blame game and whilst I was still maintaining a calm demeanour and overlooked the issue, although my gut was saying to leave the cafe, but did not want to be rude and wanted to give them our custom especially since their tea was wasted, at the same time i wanted to explain to the owner that his wasted effort of the tea was not our fault and the wife again tried to cut me off mid sentence so she would not have to bare the brumpt of the wrong order.

The owner was hasty in his judgement and without listening had made up his mind that we were wrong, because he could not be impartial of his wife's attitude towards us, which was purely because of some hate issue she was harbouring and not because we were rude or incorrect.

Although we are both professionals and polite. The customer service was non existant and furthermore the owner cancelled our order and raised his voice and asked us to leave, by this time had he not taken this step, I would have done so myself, because the look of hate was not able to be hidden on their faces and the error of a mere tea could not be overlooked, so i could not trust our food preperation to be completed by them.

Before leaving, i made sure to explain the rude attitude and non existant customer service by the owners wife from the onset and further adding insult to injury even the owner had a short fuse towards us and could not difuse the issue - this was poor and not acceptable - and that we were completely disgusted of their attitude!

However, determined to keep a postive attitude, we found a better place 2 mins away and had tea at Ginny's cafe which was the complete opposite - pleasant, welcoming and the afternoon tea and was absoloutely scrumptous! Would...

I live in Surrey and my family and I (of 4) had just arrived in Hawkshead and were very hungry for lunch after a 6 hour drive so we went in when we spotted a nice looking tea room. I had the cheese and ham toastie with coleslaw and crips - as did one other - and my word for the price what an absolute joke! The bread was so bad it looked like the cheapest dirt you could find and tasted like grit! The sandwich itself had barely any ham in it and was so hot it was like it had just come out of a volcano! The coleslaw was good but there was literally two mouthfuls of it which was disappointing because it tasted like the only thing worth the ridiculous amount it was. And lastly, the crisps. There must've been a third of a bloody packet on my plate!!!! I felt so insulted by the amount I received I was gobsmacked. I reiterate, what an absolute joke!

Moving on to what my father had. He ordered a jacket potato with tuna and salad. The potato and the tuna was fine but the salad was... well, not even really allowed to be called a salad in my humble opinion. There was literally ONE LEAF OF LETTUCE, a few tomatoes and a few slices of cucumber. That's more of a garnish than a salad. It was laughable really but shocking mostly. I don't know how they have the nerve to rip people off like that but it's disgusting how they do it. My father's a bit of a health nut too so he wasn't pleased about it either - and rightly so.

And lastly, in terms of food, my mum had a cheese and onion quiche with salad which sounded lovely. Alas, it looked as if it had been taken out of the freezer and put in the microwave. It was an unnatural yellow as well so I'm not sure what was it it or where it came from. And the 'salad'. Well, I've already explained that. Same old story with the quiche.

To cap it off it all added up to about £45 which was ridiculous considering the portion sizes (we also had tea which was over 3 quid each). It wasn't all bad though. The staff were really friendly and kind but I don't know if that was just a facade to try and make up for the horrible overpriced food. It was also really dead in there considering it was only about half one.

OVERALL: DO NOT RECOMMEND!!!...

This is a reply to the response given to Wilfs review…. How did 9 people try and get around a table for 2 people when you were rude to us on the doorstep, not even inside the property. No one even attempted to sit down anywhere, you certainly didn’t advise us of any other tea rooms or places to go. There are multiple reviews that’s say the same thing regarding being rude and abrupt! Ultimately, if you are going to be rude and abrupt to potential customers, then at least own it and be honest (unless you upset 9 separate people to us). Ultimately you lost out on the money we spent elsewhere, we won’t be coming back and yes we live locally if that’s what your problem was, we won’t be recommending any of our friends or family locally or those that visit us to use your establishment which is also your livelihood! There was absolutely no need on Friday for how you approached us, your tone, your body language and then the lies in your response. Take ownership and accountability for how you treat people, I was embarrassed for you and it isn’t...