Pumpkin — Restaurant in England

On a 15 day bike ride from John o Groats to Landsend I came through Wedmore and saw the Pumpkin Cafe. Much was promised. It’s a lovely looking cafe with maybe 30 chairs inside and 15 outside under a big old tree. Inside there is lots of nice food and a good menu.

I arrived in a persistent drizzle and I was looking forward to a little respite.

I ordered a decaf coffee and a slice of quiche from the nice young waitress and then popped to the toilet. When I returned the nice young waitress had been replaced by a fierce woman (the manager I guessed) who told me that since I had ordered takeaway quiche rather than “quiche with salad” I was not allowed to sit in the cafe or the sheltered seats outside. I looked around and at that point there was one person in the cafe nursing a coffee and all the other seats were empty. At this point she helpfully pointed at the bench across the road being gently showered with drizzle and asked whether I would like some old newspaper to sit there.

Really too incredulous to bother to argue I went and ate my now damp quiche in the drizzle !

The coffee and food is good, the owner or manager needs to have a serious think about their customer service. Try...

We've visited many times before and very much liked the experience. Today, not so much. The waitress greeting us was very pleasant and our order (2 coffees, a panini and a soup platter) was taken promptly. The coffees also arrived quickly. So far, so good. Twenty minutes later, though, we'd finished our coffees and our meal hadn't arrived. We were the only seated customers and, although there were a couple of other customers, it really wasn't busy so there wasn't any justification for the delay. Both of us had salad and both salads were not dressed, nor was there an offer of dressing. In addition, I'd been given a soup spoon and knife so had no fork with which to eat my salad; I had to go and fetch one myself. The cheese in the panini was nowhere near as tasty as usual. Although the soup was tasty, it came in a teacup - literally - so the portion size wasn't good. No-one came to check that everything was OK during our meal. When we came to pay, we were asked if everything was OK almost as an afterthought. Unfortunately, Pumpkin has gone from a place we choose to visit to a place where we'd hesitate to return. As we're local, this is repeat...

Just wanted a relaxing cappuccino after a long drive, and had 15 minutes up my sleeve before an appointment.

First annoyance, was being given a table in a tight through-fare that I couldn’t comfortably get my legs under, despite there being much better positioned tables available. I guess I was given this particular table because I’d said I was just having a coffee, and not eating when I walked in.

Second annoyance, knowing I didn’t have a lot of time before my appointment I requested my coffee in a take away cup - which they refused. This caused me to rush my coffee and not really enjoy it.

Thirdly, I was then informed at the checkout that if I wanted to pay by debit card I’d be charged an extra 15p.

I just found the whole experience at this cafe annoying. I did not feel welcome, and to be honest the 3 staff members I had dealings with during my short visit were all rather unpleasant.

Pumpkin may look inviting and friendly from the outside but my experience here was very...