Reading Room — Restaurant in Great Britain

[Edit - following the owner's comments. The owner's comments say he's sorry I had this experience and that the staff will be trained to serve people better. However, it was, presumably the owner who treated me like this as he was clearly not just a member of the staff.

It's not the staff who need training. And to blame them for his behaviour simply adds to my view that this very pricey place is badly run.]

It looks nice, but it's not nice.

I've had three spine ops and now have chronic Cordia Aquinas syndrome which means when I need to use the loo, I really need to go almost immediately. That is a serious issue when out and about as, as with Brighton beach along by this cafe, there are no toilets open.

So I nipped, just in time, into this cafe - I thought I heard someone saying something to me but another 10 seconds and I'd literally have shat myself in their cafe. There is no time to stop and chat with this condition - and the staff were clearly very busy.

The loo was nice, I left it spotless. I had a look at the cakes and sandwiches as I left, thinking it'd be a nice place to stop and eat another day . . bit pricey.

As I was leaving, a man, who I assume is the manager (let's call him The Toilet Monitor), spoke up "did you enjoy using our toilets?" Not realising he was being patronising, I said yes, they were very nice.

He then proceeded to patronisingly explain that as there are no other toilets on the beach, he can't have people using theirs. Well, yes, I appreciate more than most people just how bad the lack of toilets is in Brighton - it'd be so much better if all bars, shops, pubs and cafes welcomed people to use their loos instead of putting up nasty signs.

I asked whether that also applied to people with incontinence issues such as bowel disorders. He didn't bat an eye in saying the same rule applies.

I double checked - he confirmed that was the case. To be honest, I thought he might spot that this would mean missing an opportunity to be supportive of people who are disabled, older or pregnant and he might want to think again. But no - it's the same rule.

I said that it is useful to be clear and I'll write it in my Google review what their policy is. He then spotted, I think, that wasn't so cool and said I could have discussed it with him. If he'd been wearing a Toilet Monitor badge, I might have..

Instead I pointed out that I was very desperate and, I didn't point out (but it should be obvious), that I don't want to start a discussion about my bowels with a random member of staff in a busy cafe in front of people who are eating, when I'm just about to shit myself.

I think it's a very, very poor attitude - it's possibly also failing to make a reasonable adjustment for disability as required by the Equality Act.

Shame - he's clearly got a gold mine there and must be raking in the £s.. but, hey, money doesn't buy...

Stumbled upon this place. Had some good points, but is also missing some real basics that would see it vastly improved.

Firstly, the location and the setting in the sun outside is stunning, very well set up and looks great.

The service that greets you isn’t great though. It was obvious who the manager and manageress (possibly owners) are as they were the only ones who seemed to smile or engage with customers how you’d expect. Unfortunately, of the other 3 staff we engaged with, only 1 was able to smile or be friendly. The other two really looked as if they didn’t want to be there. It’s a shame service isn’t given by one person allocated to your table, because most of the time is spent either trying to get someone’s attention or having people walk past you looking at your table and continuing to do the job they’re doing. Service really seems to lack the direction it’s needed which is a shame - certainly on our visit anyway.

Some basics that are missing - why have a lovely menu, but not serve fresh juices in a restaurant that offers a higher end menu and experience?? At least two other tables asked for exactly the same thing whilst we were there, and were told no, it’s carton juice only. We were given a pepper grinder that was empty (and then tried to get someone’s attention whilst food was going cold) and a bottle of ketchup that had the last scraps in the bottom. These aren’t the biggest issues ever, but they are significant when a restaurant is serving a lovely menu and have clearly focussed on the decor quite extensively. You can have lovely decor, but you really do have to get service right and those little things right in order to get people coming back.

On a plus, our food was outstanding. The food absolutely saved the place. Very well presented, very tasty and full of flavour. We would 100% return for the food.

Overall, what a lovely setting and beautiful food, but please, it’s not just aesthetics that are important… train the staff, watch the staff, managers - go talk to customers and see what they are experiencing from the service. The approach of some of the serving staff just isn’t what is needed. Lack of smiles and a lack of care isn’t doing the business any justice. Staff walking around seeming lost and bored isn’t great.

Hopefully when we return it’ll have had time to adjust service (based on our experience), but I was surprised to learn it had been open since Nov last year - I genuinely would have expected it to have just opened a few weeks prior based on...

We visited The Reading Room for lunch, as it had opened since our last visit to Brighton and we thought we’d give it a try. The location is excellent and the building has been tastefully renovated, both inside and out. There are tables inside and lots on terraced levels outside. As it was a nice day, we opted for a table outside. It was extremely busy and lots of customers were milling about, looking for tables, so it was a case of grab one when you could. There was a long queue to enter the building, the purpose of which was initially a mystery. But it became apparent that this was to wait to be admitted, to place your order and pay. As there were no detailed menus displayed outside, it was not possible to decide what you wanted before joining the queue, without going inside and feeling like you’d jumped the queue. It was all quite chaotic and confused customers were milling about everywhere. We opted for a ‘salad plate’ and a frittata of the day, plus a piece of cake and two cold drinks. The frittata was brought out first and then the salad followed sometime after. Then we got our drinks (with no glasses) and the piece of cake. The latter then arrived again, which was obviously down to some mix-up in communication, so we sent the duplicates away. The main dishes were nicely presented and serviceable. I can’t say more than that, as neither meal was particularly tasty. The hummus with the frittata was quite nice, but the salad was a little bland and the frittata pleasant but lacking in flavour. The cake (orange and earl grey) was very nice. Moist and tasty. The outdoor setting is great, overlooking the beach. It was spoilt somewhat by the fact that patrons were allowed to smoke at the tables. I would prefer not to have cigarette smoke wafting around while I’m eating. Overall, I would recommend a visit for the setting and it may be that other items on the menu are a bit more tasty than those we had. They certainly weren’t bad, just a bit bland. The main problem though is the fact that there is only one till and no way for visitors to know what they want without going inside to check what’s on. There are lots of staff, but they didn’t seem very well organised. I would recommend taking a look at the Sea Lane Cafe in Goring to see how a similarly busy operation can be managed with...