The Ridge Coffee Shop — Restaurant in Exeter

Frustrating experience. The food was excellent, coffee was standard but the service was really poor and this is the lingering memory of the place.

We walked in to a busy mess, with customers standing everywhere. No idea where the queue was or who was being served. Couldn't see a menu; you had to walk through the queue to see, before walking back and apologising your way back into the queue.

The lady on the till was cold, no care shown. No instructions given, it wasn't clear if we should sit down and wait, stand there and wait or just bugger off for a bit. Nobody knew who's order was who, customers were getting irate and food was going cold in the confusion. We saw one customer miss out on food that they had ordered because the last one that they paid for was given to the wrong couple and they had to receive a refund.

To make matters worse, we saw the staff petting a dog and then return straight back to service without washing their hands.

The food was very good, but after waiting 15 mins to be served two panini's, having to make awkward trips through the crowd to go and get your food, put up with bluntness, move dirty plates and trays from tables as we sit ourselves and a dirty toilet that had obviously not been cleaned all day; it's not worth it.

My advice: be more clear on the ordering system, stop taking orders to catch up when it's busy and bring the food to our table to save all the confusion and shouting orders; that's what we pay more money for for the 'priveledge'...

The cakes are lovely, the coffee is OK, but the service is poor. I've visited twice and the staff don't seem happy to be serving. In the c.20 minutes I was there today, my coffee was forgotten, and the two paninis requested by another customer were forgotten, with the 3 or 4 staff all confused whether any of them had the order under control. For the length of my visit, they were more interested in slagging off another group of people who, for discretion I won't mention the names of; but they made no secret of the fact they were not fans. They were also openly sharing their opinions about certain groups of their customer base which was really disappointing. Sure it's retail and sure you wont like all customers but there's a time and place for these conversations. Behind the counter isn't it. This is not the way to run a professional business and I won't be returning.

Edit in response to owners comment: Maybe they weren't panninis, but some kind of warm ciabatta/sandwich; and I wasn't being attentive to another customers order. The sarcasm in your response speaks volumes... The conversations were loud enough to be easily heard in the seating area and not a great atmosphere for customers. I do understand why you'd say I have the conversation wrong however, but I know what I heard. And I don't have a dog, so I'm not sure...

Been here 2x. First time was about a month ago. Had a sandwich. Food was OK. Staff were OK once they decided to stop talking amongst themselves and you finally got to the front of the queue and they served you. There were 4 staff behind the counter, 3 girls one boy. Only the boy worked the till, one girl was standing stirring unbelievable amounts of butter into something - this went on for the entire time I queued- at least 20 minutes. One girl was cleaning and stacking cups. One was wiping the same surface. For 20 minutes.... I had to wonder - are the women in this place not allowed to handle money or deemed to fragile to serve customers or too incompetent to use the till? Maybe they weren't trained. But why have 3 untrained members of staff on the same shift? I went again today. Again, unbelievablely slow. 4 people behind the counter and 1 person working the till again. And to top it off their famous doughnut was utterly raw inside. It was inedible. I absolutely would not go again, nor recommend. They are trading on their previous reputation. Go to The Boatyard Bakery on the other side of the road,the staff are much less interested in gossiping with each other and the food is better. And you actually get served without growing a beard...