Alma - Barnes — Restaurant in London

Been to different Alma branches before and absolutely loved them, so we decided to stop by for some cake and coffee today. I was utterly shocked by how terrible the service was.

We were seated and waited for our order to be taken, but the staff were busy chatting with the next table while other customers, including us, were left waiting. After a solid 15 minutes of being ignored, my husband went up to order himself, only to be told that someone would come to take our order. Yet, before we received any service, the newly arrived table next to us was served immediately, despite us waiting far longer. My husband had to complain a second time because it was completely unfair.

When we finally placed our order—banana bread and matcha cheesecake, along with our coffee—there was still no urgency. These weren’t freshly made dishes; they were pre-prepared and just needed plating. Yet, after our drinks arrived, it took another five minutes for the banana bread to appear, while the cheesecake was nowhere to be seen. After waiting even longer, my husband had to go up a third time, practically begging for some basic service, only to be told they had forgotten about it. By the time everything arrived, our coffee had gone cold.

The entire process—from sitting down to actually receiving our full order—took half an hour. In my culture, service is not just an afterthought; it’s half the experience, if not more. I’ve been to much bigger, far busier places and have never encountered such an appalling experience.

Addition to all, the banana bread was dry and matcha cheesecake was very bland, tasted like almost nothing.

This was my first and last visit to this location. Out of curiosity, I checked reviews and found that within the past year, there have been multiple complaints about slow service—some customers even left without receiving their orders. Clearly, this is a recurring issue they keep apologising for but refuse to...

Horrendous experience. From arriving to receiving our food (despite knowing exactly what we wanted to order before going in) took over 40 minutes. That, in and of itself, is forgivable (these things happen from time to time) but what isn't forgivable is how rude the waitress was when I politely enquired (after half an hour) how much longer we would have to wait. She dismissively waved her hand and said "it is coming". This annoyed me a little bit so I responded that, as far as I was aware, it had been coming for 30 minutes and, therefore, it would be good to know roughly how much longer we would be required to wait, particularly as we had a fast approaching appointment to get to. Her response to this question (in a clearly irritated tone) was simply "we are not McDonalds". This annoyed me a lot so I must confess I let my frustration known at this point (which probably did not help the tenor of our subsequent interactions) but when our food did arrive it was deposited grumpily on our table by said waitress without the slightest hint of an apology, either for the wait or the attitude. Needless to say, and despite only living yards away, we will NEVER return to this cafe. For a far more enjoyable experience I would recommend the nearby Olympic Cinema Cafe or Gails Bakery. The pity of it is that the food, when it eventually arrived, wasn't that bad. It's just a shame we were too rushed and angry to enjoy it. AVOID (UNLESS YOU HAVE HOURS TO SPARE AND A MASOCHISTIC FETISH FOR ABUSIVE WAITRESSES, IN WHICH CASE YOU MAY JUST HAVE FOUND YOUR...

I know it was a Sunday but it was rammed - hot and stuffy with sun coming through the skylights which hit us in the face so not very comfortable. Will be hellish on a hot summer day! Hard to have a conversation as so many people talking.

I ordered the chorizo hash which was plentiful and tasty but my friend had the advocado on toast - 1 piece - bread, avocado and raddish garnish is cheap - so come on, give 2 slices.....

The service was appalling - our waitress chucked our food on the table and a whole load of advocado ended up on the table - no aapology, she scooted off not a care in the world. So a small portion ended up smaller. She did not bother to come back to clear it up.

Worse still, when I asked for a take out box, she again threw it on the table, it landed on the floor and again, she scooted off. Seriously!!! did she expect me to take it off the floor and put food in it - hygeine is obviously an issue here.

So...I told the manager who spoke to her but I did not get any apology from anyone... nice!

Then... to add insult to injury, they added a service charge of 12.5% (which I had not seen on the menu - I later checked and it is in very small print) and so I got that removed. If you are charging people a service charge make it noticeable and also don't have a tip jar on the counter - you want people to tip twice?

OOOh ... would I go back? Let me...