Serendipity Cafe — Restaurant in Great Britain

We visited Serendipity yesterday 23.3.2023 as have been promising ourselves to go there, it was a warm welcome. Sadly we were not happy we waited to be seated which was fine, it was not packed at that moment but did end up very busy. We ordered our food around 2pm to be told they had been very busy and there was no mash, we ordered pie chips and steamed vegetables. The pie was displayed up side down on both plates why?, when we went to eat them you honestly needed a chisel to cut the pastry and it was so dry, if it had not been for the little bit of mincemeat it would have been dreadful, the steamed vegetables were less than steamed they were so hard, not to mention one or 6 lumps in the gravy, so after eating the middle of a pie and a few chips we left the rest. Yes it is dog friendly but a little over the top as there were dogs at almost every table although on leads we did not want a dog coming towards us whilst eating, we are not dog haters but a place for everything. To top it all the lovely friendly staff all stop to stroke each dog and fuss it, we said oh my god this is where food is, we did watch and not one of the staff went and washed their hands after touching 6 dogs to our knowledge, and what happened to keeping dogs around the edges? as this was not the case. We have done our visit but will never return and when asked by friends we will say why, as a place for everything but not while we eat with a dog staring at us, it looks like owners in a pet shop, we could not believe what we see. Sorry to the nice staff in a lovely location but this has all turned us off. Not sure what health and safety would think if they came in to see so many dogs, and staff not hand or gel washing. It seems the dogs rule awful. This is true as the lady who served our food had just stroked a dog then brought our food, which made us look carefully...

Although I like this cafe and most of the staff amazing especially towards the dogs for a dog friendly cafe that makes a point of separating tables between dog people and just people seatings it's not totally dog friendly there are apparently rules that we were not made aware of in previous visits, we have been 3 times with my sisters tiny assistance dog and our other disabled dog with no issues. Our disabled dog sits on one of our coats on a chair so they are not directly on the chair my sisters assistance dog sits on my sisters lap unless she has her disability scooter with her. Today however somebody yelled from behind the counter dogs aren't allowed on chairs (even with the dog sitting on something) they didnt bother to come over and speak to us personally so ok he went on the floor and we decided to have a quick coffee and no food because of this if we had known we would have brought his buggy. Then the same person sent a member of staff over to tell us (this young person was spoke very politely and quietly unlike the person that sent them) that we were not allowed to have my sisters dog on her lap. The rest of the staff did look uncomfortable at this point, it wasn't busy and everyone in the cafe was aware of the situation. We have as I have said visited before and not been told this. Maybe the person that shouted from the counter has her own rules for the day. I cannot fault the food or the service or staff apart from the one female today so we drove to the roslin who were happy to seat us outside. We won't be returning and await the new cafes opening on east beach. By the way we bumped into a gentleman outside who takes their small disabled dog in and they said they always have it on their lap so please put your rules on show where they can be seen so this doesn't happen again it was very embarrassing and not...

Unfortunately it seems the owners of this cafe have no regard for customers, just profit!

I'll explain.... I visited today for the first time. After having a lovely lunch with my female friends, food was quick, delicious and the servers were friendly and nothing was too trouble, we even stayed for an extra coffee. As women do, we spent a while talking in the car park and I noticed a very elderly lady struggling to get her three wheeled walker out the car, she was displaying a disabled badge in her windscreen but wasn't in a disabled bay. I looked over to the disabled bays and there was a Range Rover with a personal plate and a blue BMW in two of the spaces without blue badges despite there being many normal available spaces. Two young and very able bodied males got out the BMW and went towards the cafe, they saw the elderly lady struggling as she walked passed them while they stood outside on their phones, I was disgusted but as an older person myself I did not feel comfortable approaching them. I then overhead some other people commenting on the Range Rover and it appears it belongs to the owners, I believe it was Allston as that's what the registration spelled out. As a place that's trying to promote a 'community' atmosphere, they've proved how selfish and thoughtless they actually are, profit before customers safety obviously.

Despite a lovely lunch, we will never return and will make sure our friends know not to put money in the pockets of such...