The Fizzy Tarté — Restaurant in Great Britain

Really let down with everything about the Fizzy Tarte from the service every step of the way to the food.

We were given a gift voucher for Afternoon Tea for an anniversary trip to the lakes. When we tried to book in we were told the venue was undergoing some refurbishments so the afternoon tea wasn't available during the week. As we had to leave on the Saturday morning I asked if we could just use the voucher for breakfast instead (less than half the price of the afternoon tea) The staff member on the phone had to then speak to the restaurant owners and call me back later to confirm that we could do this.

It's at this point I should say children really aren't welcome here. I'm not quite sure of the logic but I wish they would just make this a little more clear on their website etc. As it was we were told we would have to sit outside on the terrace as we had our kids with us.

We arrived at 9.45 in the rain and asked, as we would be seated outside anyway, if we could sit down early to hide from the rain for 15 minutes until the venue opened. We were told quite definitely 'No'.

We were shown to our seats a couple of minutes after 10 (I foolishly assumed they would at least let us in a minute or two early!) and ordered a full English, waffles with bacon and a waffles with bacon for the kids.

At £13.50 the waffles aren't cheap so we were hoping to be really impressed. We couldn't have been more wrong. They were store bought, reheated waffles that snapped apart when you stuck a fork in them. I asked the general manager to feel the waffles when we went to pay and even he had to agree they were completely inedible.

The full English was also very poor although perhaps a little better than the waffles. The toast and beans were pretty good. The bacon however was vastly overcooked, the hash browns verging on burnt, the sausages (boiled,halved and reheated on the grill to order) were the driest I have ever tasted and the eggs came with whole peppercorns in. I again queried this with the general manager who explained how the sausages were cooked (I'd assumed they were recooked but didn't quite realise they would have been so abused!) and again seemed to fully accept that the meal was all but inedible.

As we had the gift voucher anyway and obviously no plans on returning we left the voucher anyway but had we been paying customers I would have been furious. I'm just staggered that a restaurant can have such poor customer service, appaling food and still be...

Before I start on this review,I must stress we came here as it was recommended to us and we had read the reviews so we thought we cannot go wrong,as we where only going for drinks,cocktails.On arrival we where met by a lovely gentleman who took us to our table,on ordering drinks,a Raspberry Bellini,Pina Colada,and a Rum and Coke for myself,we were told it was Happy Hour so great start.The gentleman challenged my daughters age which I understand as she is a young looking 23year old,as my daughter had left it back at the lodge I had to run back to get her I.d as the lady insisted which is fair enough,this is where the mood changed,on arrival back to the bar I noticed they hadn't even at least served my wife her drink,so I showed my daughters I.d,then still had to wait for the drinks order, when we finally got our drinks I wouldn't say it was worth the wait in fact only that we got the offer on the cocktails I would say the cocktails where very average & before we could try a different selection of cocktails the lady I'm presuming was the floor manager rushed around the tables and snatched the 2 for 1 menu's off the table,at this point we thought it was best to leave I went to pay the bill at the bar,but my daughter had beat me to it.She had paid,when I asked how much the bill was we had been charged full price for the cocktails,my wife went back in to challenge the overpayment which they did rectify,but this just ended what was an awful experience here.Maybe we just came on a bad day,but i think the lady should learn some people skills as I thought she was very rude.Dont think we will...

Absolutely 100% recommend The Fizzy Tarte for an Afternoon Tea. The Service was friendly and attentive and very welcoming. We hadn’t booked in advance, as we were visiting on a short break and didn’t realise how popular it was, but now understanding why. However, we were happily accommodated, despite the many table reservations. I never liked scones, until I visited The Fizzy Tarte! The scones were served warm and were light and fluffy in the middle with a nice crisp outer. The sandwich selection was also very good, we had egg mayonnaise, tuna mayonnaise, cream-cheese and cucumber and roast ham. The vegetable crisps were delicious, as well as the individual mini quiches. The miniature desserts were all delicious too. We could have chosen Prosecco, but as I was with the children we all had a hot chocolate with it being a little chilly and overcast. We were offered a refill, but opted for soft drinks. Outside seating area had canary heaters and blankets were provided if you needed them. We stayed indoors, but we’re in the private little booth they have, which made the whole experience afternoon with my children all more memorable 😊 Thank you to everyone at The Fizzy Tarte, I’m sure we will visit again next time we are in a Bowness-on-Windermere....