Haystack Cafe — Restaurant in Great Britain

There was a wait for a table so we decided to see if we could try to find any seats available as there were 3 of us, but all there was were these -albeit cool to look at- but insanely impractical and uncomfortable - vintage phone chairs. After someone got up from the sofa seating that was beside us to go and get seated for food, we decided to move to be more comfortable whilst we waited. As I’ve sat on the sofa it skidded across the floor into the walkway where staff were carrying food to the upstairs floor. Luckily, no one was behind me when it happened otherwise I could’ve ended up covered in food or a staff member on the floor! Not safe at all. Any way, we get seated up stairs and are once again impressed with the overall vintage aesthetic of the cafe. But as we sat we found we all had to try and wrangle different chairs to sit on as ours were un-comfortable or felt they weren’t secure to sit on. Every thing in this cafe is vintage/second hand and although that may be cool, it’s very much not always practical. Majority of the tables were big dining tables which took up so much space (again this is a big unit) and made so there wasn’t a lot of seating/tables upstairs. The chair I sat on I felt as if I was going to fall through it so I had to swap it for another. (If you’re going to buy vintage furniture 1. Make sure it’s safe to sit on and 2. Make sure they need reupholstering or don’t bother with it). We ordered our food mine came within 10 minutes, my friends came within 15 or so minutes and my partners took nearly 40 minutes to arrive. (He only ordered a breakfast roll and a side of children’s Nutella and strawberry pancakes). I ordered the breakfast burger and was quite bland, it had chilli jam in the burger and if I didn’t go looking for it I’d have guessed it wasn’t in there. My friend ordered the same as me but with a double patty (which was an extra charge) and for it to be made spicy. When it arrived it arrived without the extra patty she sent it back and then it came back with the extra patty she’d asked for but as she was eating it she realised it hasn’t been made spicy at all. This for me is a major RED flag, if a chef isn’t reading the tickets properly TWICE how to we no he’s not reading the allergen of that ticket? Along side this my partner is still waiting for his food and there was a lady adjacent to us who was very visibly Muslim with a hijab on and had ordered a “veggie farmers breakfast” for obvious reasons, but when they came to give her what she’s ordered they had given her a normal farmers breakfast with pork meat. If a chef cannot read a ticket properly then they shouldn’t be doing the job that they are doing. After enquiring about my partners food it arrived not 10 minutes later after the rest of us had finished our food. And the pancakes were dry and it was like cutting into cardboard, almost as if they were sat under a heat lamp for ages. It breakfast roll, as fool-proof as you’d think was just falling apart every time he tried to pick it up to eat, everything just kept falling out of it. And for the price you’re paying you expect to be able to eat it in once piece.Coffee was good though but that was it really :/ After we’d ate and were ready to leave we headed down to the toilets which were just past the kitchen and as we past the open window kitchen we could not believe our eyes. The kitchen was STINKING there was grease marks and splats everywhere, the lamp section (which is what the customer is seeing first) was covered in all sorts of food. There were dirty pans lying around everywhere. There were 2 chefs in and and as I was waiting to use the toilet one chef was fingering the food and then touching the iPad with the tickets on there that was perched ON the stack of plates that they were using for the food and then going back to touching the food! Absolutely appalling cross contamination! If environmental health has seen what we had that place would be shut down instantly. This place is solely for pictures for instagram and it shows and just like instagram it’s never...

There is obviously something in this place that is going terribly wrong, every table around us sent something back to the kitchen. I can excuse the wait for a table being such a stunning place inside, but the average food is about the only reason I can give above a 1 star. Serving obviously mouldy food to us is a complete outrage with waitresses clearly not trained in dealing with such issues as they just gave us a sorry and came back with our reheated food and a new slice of bread. I did laugh at the fact they served dairy butter with the vegan breakfast and had to ask the new slice of bread to come back with some vegan butter. Good luck if you’ve got allergens going here I wouldn't trust the kitchen if they can handle food like that and still put it out. Was really hoping to prove the other reviews on here wrong but all of them are totally valid, only reason the trip advisor score is so high is because they offer a free coffee to do one. Don’t think they’d give it to you if you gave them a 1 star review. If you end up going here check your food is warm and not mouldy or skip it and go to other better cafes...

Arrived around 11.30am and joined the virtual Que via qr that you scan upon arrival, was told it would be a 10-15 minute wait but ended up being a 35 minute wait for a table, you can wait in the downstairs area but it’s limited seating. Finally we got seated but I must say no wonder the waiting time was so long they have very limited small tables most of them seated 5/6+ people easily it would be beneficial to have more small tables and the odd big table as there was alot of big tables with just 2 people sat on, you get 90 minutes on your table during busy periods, prices were average what you would expect anywhere, we went down to order 2 coffees and 1 lot of pancakes and were told it was a 30 minute wait for food, this turned out to actually be a 55 minute wait … for pancakes … they were beautifully presented but nothing special to eat the actual pancakes were quite hard, tasted overcooked. The staff were pleasant, helpful and apologetic but I must say I won’t be returning until they can figure out a system that works and doesn’t take 2 hours + for a service id only advise to visit if your...