The Hart of Hartford — Restaurant in Great Britain

As a business owner myself I hate to post for any business 1 star review and especially this place is lovely looking with nice staff but management should realize it's unacceptable not to take a cash especially when we sat at the table they politly explained table is reserved and there were no more tables so only option was take away. With my girlfriend we ordered 2 coffees and 2 cakes and at the till when I went to pay they just told me they don't accept cash payment. 1) I haven't noticed any sign about card payment only, secondly see picture there's full jar of money at the till possibly cash and it's just unacceptable as a cash is legal tender it's a currency we can't live and support this madness if you go nearest shop post office or anywhere they take cash everywhere why wouldn't take it here i hate it and I'm really sorry for 1 star review you need to start accept cash payments and next time I'll pay you 5 stars as except of this matter everything else was fine.

I appreciate your quick response and I'm adding 2 stars so the bad review won't be so harmful. I'd also appreciate if you'd reconsider accepting cash payments as you mentioned not only banks but there's more to it who are pushing on cashless society and people especially business needs to realize the harm it can bring to our society in the future. I'm trying to boycott cashless society and we need to keep cash as alternative payment option. At the moment cash is legal tender and In my opinion it should be illegal to refuse take such a payment. In wondering what would happen if I had no card on me as the cake was already served and coffee done.

Anyway thank you for taking time to read...

Nice place but let down by staff. I live 2 minutes walk from here so you could say it’s my local cafe. I’ve been there probably 5 times now. Every time I’ve been the food has been good and coffees enjoyable. The reason I’m giving this 3 stars is down to two factors. The food being 4/5 stars and the service being 1/2 stars.

From my experience, the staff (predominantly managerial) have always had an air of superiority and it really shows in their attitude when you walk in. It’s never a warm welcome/greeting, rather an inconvenience. Every single time we’ve been they’ve rolled their eyes saying “we don’t really have any tables they’re all booked up.” Due to this we’re usually seated outside in the cold. I could maybe understand if they’re over capacity with limited staff but when we’re seated outside there are tables inside that are empty. Booked up? No. They’re empty when we leave too. They can’t blame covid either as the empty tables are usually in the back corner away from the main section of punters. Because it’s my local I wanted to hold off on writing this review as I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt however the last time I went in was the worst experience to date. The way she spoke to me in front of my guest was absolutely shocking. I’m sure this doesn’t apply to all the staff working there but unfortunately a handful of them have left a really bitter taste in my mouth and I will not be returning.

Revising this to a 4 star as management seems to have changed...

We have recently moved to Hartford and couldn't wait for Thursday to arrive to go to the Hart for a coffee, as we heard very good things about it. Sadly, our experience was very disappointing. As soon as we stepped in, we received a cold welcome and were asked "what we wanted". Once our coffees were delivered, we realised there wasn't a station for sugars, napkins, stirrers....so we asked the barista, who didn't seem happy about our request. She didn't even ask which sugar we wanted, and simply put some on the table with a couple of stirrers. She seemed in a rush to finish eating her lunch more than being friendly and professional with us. Also, our coffees were lukewarm, almost cold. Probably not a good day for the barista at the Hart, but certainly the last for us...