Town Mill Bakery — Restaurant in England

Here in Lyme Regis to celebrate birthday for 4 days with my partner. Looked at few different websites for breakfast recommendations and The Mill Bakery was mentioned as a must try. The place is rather beautiful, great first impressions. We ordered Veggie breakfast and smoked salmon with scrambled eggs on toast. I wanted to switch my poached egg for scrambled but was told they don’t do swaps. I asked if I can pay extra for side of scrambled eggs again no, with no explanation. I mean scrambled eggs is part of several dishes, and actually it is part of our order! I didn’t want to be confrontational and ask “why” so I don’t know the reason. I can only assume it’s the chefs being completely rigid in how things are served, and no changes under any circumstances. The food came very quickly, but our toasts were cold and rock hard, we could not cut through with knife. We sat in front of the pass so we saw that chef was batch cooking toasts then resting on the board waiting for orders. What is the purpose of this? It saves next to no time. I get certain things like poached eggs, beans etc are batch cooked and then heated by Bain Marie during service, that’s ok as it doesn’t interfere too much with the freshness. The chef was also handling fish, raw meat, salad, herbs and bread. In an open kitchen like this you have to wash your hands between handling different ingredients. We both have worked in the hospitality industry before, I was a chef and my partner front of house for over 20 years. I hate hiding behind the screen and leaving scathing reviews but I definitely will not return to Town...

It was our third time back here to what had quickly become one of our favourite breakfast places and we have to admit we were a little disappointed this time. The coffee is still delicious. My flat white was silky smooth, strong and punchy but not bitter. The server we had, an older lady, I felt she was a overly abrupt with me when I asked for some extra mushrooms because I wasn’t having beans with my cooked breakfast, getting - we don’t do that because it’s not a like for like but I’ll ask the chef - after my husband had asked for an extra egg (because he wasn’t having beans) and she’d smiled and said no problem. Then the same server came up to the man and his young daughter sat next to us and asked if his wife was going to be much longer/could she hurry up, or words to that effect. We knew he’d already ordered drinks so we felt this was completely unnecessary and put a little bit of a sour note over the table. Surely seated customers are the priority, not the potential ones queuing? When the wife arrived I let her know what had happened as the husband had popped inside with his daughter and she was really surprised saying they aren’t normally like that. Lastly the breakfast was underwhelming. The sausages were very meaty but weirdly grainy and pale so gave the impression they were undercooked but they were hot through. The bread was tough and not very pleasant and there was no butter on the plate or on the table. We’re not sure we’ll be back for a...

We were so excited to try town milk after going 10 years ago and also reading the recent reviews but we were severely disappointed. We arrived 30 minutes after opening and it had a few people dining but it wasn’t busy. We were seated but then ignored for over 20 minutes. We also went to look in the bakery at the side to see the delicious baked goods, and they looked no better than supermarket offerings. If anything, it all seemed like it had been sat out for days, dry, shrunken and lacklustre. The photos used online (promo) are not representative of what’s actually available. Due to the way it works cafe customers go next door ti look for baked goods and I was questioned by the staff for pushing in (queue for takeaway) I don’t mind being questioned but it wasn’t in a polite manner and was accusatory in tone. After heading back in to the cafe, we waited a further 15 minutes and still no service. I wouldn’t mind if it had been busy but it was bordering on quiet. It’s also open kitchen and the chefs were simply standing looking like they’d rather be anywhere else creating quite an uncomfortable environment. I’d like to say the food salvaged this place but in the end we left as no one served us and we were sick of waiting. The one thing this place needs is customer service as it’s severely lacking. I also phoned prior and was hung up on by the staff member as I was clearly an inconvenience. A...