The Cactus Tea Rooms — Restaurant in England

I cant understand why this place got 5-star reviews. We ordered the fish & chips, for some bazaar reason we had to pay before we received our food. That's the first time, out of the hundreds of restaurants that I have been to (being very conservative) and now I know why. had I not paid first, and after the meal, I would have refused to pay; and obviously, it has happened in the past. there is no proper menu, just a chalk board, obviously cutting costs. when we received our food, the first impressions were positive. but then again you could have brought in fake food and got the same reaction. as usual I first try the chips, which were obviously cooked in an air fryer as they were very dry. then the peas, just some frozen peas warmed in hot water, and couldn't keep them on my fork. Mushy Pease would have been better, but then I guess that takes effort. then the fried Cod! oh, my word! the most tasteless, watery piece of fish that I have ever tasted, and I know my fish.... if there was ever a fish that could be used as a mock Cod, it was over moist to the extent that it was watery, no salt or any other flavouring. possibly the blandest piece of fish that I have ever tasted, I thought that I had got COVID and lost all my taste, but then the rest of us felt exactly the same way. I should have walked an extra 100 yards and got value for my money. the only reason I gave this review 1 star, is that you cannot give a review without a star, pity one cannot give minus stars. I hope this review will warn others, and maybe let them eat...

I asked the waitress for a table for 5.

I saw there was a free table, a man had just left. Despite this, she told us that there were no tables available.

I then asked the waitress if we could wait here and she ignored me and walked off.

I was standing around waiting, all the while I could see that same table was free so I asked another passing waiter if we could sit there and he said yes sure it was free….

We made our way over to the table and noticed that some of the chairs were missing.

The table behind had taken two chairs from our table as they were a large group.

We then asked the same waitress if we could take a free chair over to our table as some of our chairs were missing. She said NO.

There were plenty of free chairs available but she said NO.

From the moment we entered the Cactus Tea Rooms there was absolutely no effort whatsoever to say hello, accommodate us or anything.

After all this nonsense, we decided to leave and did not order anything.

On the way out, the same waitress gave me a sarcastic smile goodbye and then childishly whispered something to another waitress.

The Cactus Tea Rooms is let down by silly, immature and childish staff that don’t know what they are doing.

Please see attached photo of staff.

We went to Rockfish instead and had an amazing lunch and the service there was fantastic, the staff at Rockfish actually say HELLO when you walk in...

I always avoid giving 5 stars to places as I always think that there’s room to improve… but The Cactus Tea Rooms is almost perfection! There is no justifiable reason to not give this place 5 stars.

The food is amazing. Burgers are homemade and delicious, and the portions are massive for their price!

The service is swift and amazing. One waitress was so careful with our dietary requirements, making sure everything was alright. She was kind, caring, and made the experience amazing. Food and drink came out in a reasonable amount of time.

The atmosphere was calm and nice. It was lovely.

One small point of development… the chips weren’t always crispy. But that was very small, and isn’t enough to remove 1 full star from the overall rating.

Highly recommend you come. Attached are some photos of the location of the place, it’s close to the beach - an...