Wittles Castle Acre — Restaurant in King's Lynn and West Norfolk

My wife and I are currently visiting my parents. We decided to visit Castle Acre Priory and Castle. When we arrived we decided to get a spot of lunch and saw Wittles which looked like a lovely spot ... it turns out looks can be deceiving.

We initially decided to sit outside as we had our 5 month old puppy with us, unfortunately sitting on the table directly outside for some reason isn't classed as being in the cafe. Instead we were told we would have to order takeaway. We therefore asked to come inside which they were happy to do.

Whilst being seated we asked for their gluten free menu (which they only have one of) as my wife is gluten intolerant. No big issue, but I myself asked for a normal menu and was initially told to share the GF one. After making it clear I was asking for a normal menu I was given one.

The menu looked good and I chose the tuna mayo sandwich. My wife spotted the daal on the GF menu so when the waiter came to take our order she asked for that, but was told the daal could only be ordered for takeaway. I made the point that the menu is unclear and suggested they have a separate indoor and takeaway menu. My wife then asked for the poached salmon and potatoes, making quite clear she was ordering from the Gluten Free menu.

When the food arrived it looked very tasty, but the bread my wifes salmon was sitting on didn't look gluten free. We enquired and as expected were told it was sourdough, but this was what we ordered. My wife was very specific when ordering stating she ordered from the "gluten free menu". In response the person I assume is the owner told us we didn't order gluten free and then had the audacity to ask if we'd used a menu before. We couldn't believe it, I then said the waiter who initially served us had obviously lied and got the order wrong. With that we were asked to leave and our food was swiftly taken away from us. I don't think we were even going to be offered a refund if I hadn't ask. We've been told a refund has been given excluding my coffee which they would charge us for (very petty if you ask me).

This visit actually ruined our trip to Castle Acre.

A couple of suggestions I have for the cafe:

1. There should be a separate takeaway and seated menu
2. If someone orders from a GF menu it generally means they have a gluten intolerance
3. The customer is always right (especially if they want repeat business)
4. Being condescending to a client is not acceptable
5. Making the customer pay after ordering is a bit off. It's not Weatherspoons!

24/07/2021 Update following your comment:

I think the attitude of you and your staff yesterday was utterly unacceptable, unprofessional and disrespectful.

There was a single gluten free menu which my wife ordered off (she explicitly said she was ordering off the gluten free menu), and we as the customer expect to be served food to that description. This has been the case in every restaurant and cafe we have ever eaten in other than your establishment.

The fact you never even attempted to amicably resolve the situation shows a complete lack of understanding in how to run a business.

In this day and age of food intolerances and allergies this could be very dangerous indeed.

I would urge you you to keep this in mind the next time you have customers that require specific dietary requirements.

In response to your accusation that I ignored your request to move out of the way when the lady wanted to join her husband I did so as soon as I heard what you asked (I accept I misheard your first request).

You are correct, I have posted on two review platforms. Not because I want to trash your business (I don't think one review can do that), but you are right, it does show my character... if I'm anything it's thorough.

One last thing, you did not offer a refund. I asked for one and you made it clear that you would refund the food only. You said you would charge me for coffee. Please get your facts correct before casting allegations at my...

We visited this café as a group of 7 to celebrate my daughter’s 11th birthday. My younger daughter, who is 8 and has Autism, was with us and was particularly tired that day. Unfortunately, what should have been a relaxed and happy lunch turned into an upsetting and stressful experience.

The children’s menu was extremely limited — just ham or cheese sandwiches or a soup (that day it was carrot and caraway with feta and seeds, which sounds lovely but not something my daughter would eat). I politely asked if they could do a plain bacon sandwich from the adult menu, since they had a BLT listed. I was told no, that would be a brunch item. So I asked for a BLT without lettuce or tomato — again, I was told no, they "wouldn’t be doing that."

At this point, I had to explain that my daughter is autistic and struggles with unfamiliar food. I do my best to avoid drawing attention to this in front of her, but I was left with no choice. After some reluctance, the waiter/manager eventually agreed — but only if I paid full price (£13) and the unwanted ingredients were served on the side.

I was so upset by the lack of compassion or flexibility that I ended up in tears, which in turn upset my daughter and caused us both to leave the café briefly to calm down. The staff saw this, but no apology or acknowledgement was ever made.

If it hadn’t been my daughter’s birthday, we would have left altogether. I rarely leave negative reviews, but this experience left me feeling humiliated and deeply disappointed. A little empathy would have...

Our group of 3 had afternoon tea; beautifully fresh and full Norfolk cheese sandwiches with ale chutney, fresh and tasty ham sandwiches, followed by absolutely delicious scones, cream and jam. Service was pleasant and the decor relaxing. Tea was served rather early (always better to serve the drink tea with the edible tea!) but was well made in pottery teapots but oh dear dear me……..the beakers 😭😭😭 Claimed to be ‘eco friendly’ they are actually a blend of coffee husks and polypropylene with the experience being akin to drinking tea from a child’s plastic beaker. They may just pass muster for coffee but they ruined the tea for all of us. It has been stated that these ‘environmentally friendly’ beakers are anything but. (The mixture of polypropylene and coffee husks is not recyclable although the individual components are) In any case, since the rest of the crockery is china/pottery it isn’t consistent and tea is almost undrinkable from them. We did ask for cups but told there weren’t any. Summary: great food, good service, terrible cups! We will definitely go again but please don’t be offended when we turn up with...