The Paddle — Restaurant in England

Such a disappointment. Have heard good things about The Paddle from other people, so thought we'd give it a try. When we arrived we were seated and the only two people in the entire restaurant, yet it took us having to wait nearly 15 minutes for our order to be taken, at this time we asked for drinks including water for the table. As previous reviews have mentioned, additional charges... £1.80 for a couple of spoons of beans, £1.80 for a single hash brown and additional charge for eggs to be scrambled... I rather enjoy my breakfasts and have had much nicer which come with much more, for a lot less money. Once we finally ordered, we waited a good 10+ minutes for our coffees to be brought to us (again, we're the only people here at this point). 25 minutes later our food came out. At this point our Coffees were finished but not cleared from the tiny table we were seated on, having already been here for nearly 45 minutes our water still wasn't brought out and we asked again and also asked for sauces.

We got half way through eating before we finally managed to get someone's attention to ask for water and sauces... again. A further 10 minutes later we still didn't have them and had to ask, again. Finally they arrived when we'd basically finished breakfast.

After finishing we waited for nearly 10 minutes for anyone to approach our table, throughout the whole time here nobody asked if "everything was okay" as you'd expect from even a cheap diner, let alone a bespoke venue charging rather high prices. At this point we asked for the bill, surprise we waited over 10 minutes for it to not arrive. The girl who we asked for the bill was behind the counter putting pastries in the cabinet, we'd finally had enough of waiting so got up and went to the counter at which point we heard the girl say "oh, they want the bill" then walked off and the chap at the counter then took our payment.

To summarise, this is a place to come of you want poor customer service, have time to literally waste waiting around and want to be charged unreasonable amounts to add basic ingredients to your half...

We have been going to The Paddle when we holiday in the area or if we just go for the day for about 5 years now. We have seen them grow from a small coffee shop to what they are today and our passion for the food, drink, staff and surrounding area have not changed.

We have been in Highcliffe for the weekend and we decided before we got there that we would have lunch on Saturday and breakfast on Sunday. Lunch was extremely busy (as I know another reviewer has stated...) but after a short wait, a table was available. Now I am not sure if this is just us, but as we know the food is cooked to order and not just microwaved, we expect to wait our turn and some time before we received our food. Maybe that was easier for us as our children are slightly older and we were in no rush, as well as being able to do that old fashion thing - talk to each other! If we have to get a quick meal out on the run, McDonalds / KFC are the ticket, but strangely enough, the food, drink and amazing staff are worth a short wait.

For both meals, the 5 of us (and we include our dog here as they are as welcome as we are!) chose different things off of the menu, from pizzas to the fish cakes off of the specials board and a full English to scrambled egg on toast. All of the food was tasty, hot and enough to cater for most appetites. We cannot recommend The Paddle enough, so much so, when some of my family were on holiday here last week they came in and enjoyed a meal as they know we like it so much!

We would recomend The Paddler to anyone and everyone (unless you want your food cooked, on the table and eaten within 5 minutes) We cannot wait until Christmas when we are in...

Went into The Paddle this morning to pick up an extra bag of Bad Hand coffee beans, having just picked up the last bag that the Gourmet Grocer had just down the street for £7.99. Spotted the bag I wanted on the display shelf priced at £8.50 and took it to the till to pay.

The cashier asked me if I would mind waiting for her to bag up an extra bag, rather than having one from the shelf and I happily agreed. The cashier came back to the till with the coffee and said “that will be £9.00 please”.

Somewhat aghast at now being asked to pay £1.01more, for the same coffee that I had purchased five minutes earlier at the gourmet grocer, I politely pointed out that the sign on the shelf said the coffee was £8.50. I thought this would give the cashier the opportunity to charge me the price shown on the shelf, but sadly the cashier just informed me that the price must have gone up and called the manager over. The manager arrived, looked at the shelf and said, whilst quickly removing the pricetag of £8.50, “Yes, Bad Hand have just put their prices up” !!!

Aside from this probably being contrary to trading standards regulations and only £0.50, it’s pretty poor from a customer relations perspective. Needless to say I won’t be going back anytime soon, either for coffee beens or for a cup of their otherwise...