Bloom café crystalpalace — Restaurant in London

I visited today with my three young kids. I have been here twice before (over a year ago) and the food and service was decent.

Today we ordered two x corn fritters and one beef lasagne with salad, fries, coffee and tap water for the kids.

Re the Service;

The food was barely OK. The fritters look charred and unappetising but were edible. There was barely any smashed avocado, there was nothing jammy about the chilli jam, it was just very hot sauce and the egg yolks were a pale yellow which makes me question the quality of ingredients for an £11 main dish. The lasagane also looked equally unappealing. The beef in the lasagne looked and tasted very low quality, the 'salad' accompanying the lasagne was composed of shredded iceberg lettuce only, if you looked closely you could spot the odd speck red onion. No cucumber, tomato etc. Almost £10 for this dish, Well overpriced for something so cheap. The only items that were OK was my coffee and the fries!

The staff seemed preoccupied with anything but the setvice. It wasn't particularly busy for a Sunday afternoon, (we arrived before 4pm) and there seemed to be plenty of staff around not doing much.

I had to ask twice for water, my coffee, and an extra plate. There wasn't enough cutlery on the table, we had to ask for this. You would think they would try to help a parent with three young kids instead of making it more difficult. When we asked vinegar (for the fries) two of the staff shook their heads saying ' no we don't have vinegar'. I was a little perplexed. After we finished our meal I popped over to the kitchen staff to ask if they had vinegar. They confirmed they did. Having seen me speaking with kitchen staff, a waitress proceeded to ask me if everything was OK. I told her I was just checking if the kitchen had vinegar because we given an emphatic no when we asked for it. Then to the side next to sauces I see bottles of balsamic vinegar. The waitress just gave a nonchalant shrug stating 'it's not chip vinegar'. I don't recall any of us asking for chip vinegar.

When I asked for the bill I asked for the service charge to be removed as I found the service apathetic and unacceptable. I explained my reasons for not paying service and the waitress just seemed indifferent to anything I said. I would have been happy to pay the service charge if staff gave the odd smile and were more attentive.

Unfortunately, they staff cannot even feign concern or deliver service with half a smile. Quite frankly most of them seem asleep. Perhaps better management is needed to enthuse the staff a bit more.

Overall, not great value given the prices. However, my kids ate well because they were starving, I don't plan on visiting again anytime soon, plenty of other places where our...

Really bad experience here today which i found surprising. Have eaten here before and it has been nice.

Got seated quickly and greeted well. Took our order quickly. Thats when the good stuff finished. They only got half our order correct, was a full english (which they got wrong) and a avacado and egg muffin thing. They brought out two of the muffins. Told them it was incorrect and then they said they would prepare my full english. I was expecting them to come back sort of ten mins later after they cooked it. But they came back within a few minutes with the full english. Only it wasnt. It seemed to have turkey bacon, which is not bacon, or some vege alternative. Either way it was reconstituted meat with a thick dark rim around it. Was gross and the 'uncanny valley' effect really started to putme off the food. I ate the sausages but that was really just curiousity, each bite trying to figure out what the mystery spongey meat was. No flavour, weird texture. Again suspect vege sausage. Last thing really put me off was the thick lashings of a very poor margerine spread on the toast. The flavour was strong and coated my mouth and really ruined the eggs as i wss dipping the bread. Grey watery mushrooms that had been cooked some time ago and a tomatoe slice that had atleast been cooked a little but nothing more than that. Tomatoes should really have some browning to them so you know those sugars have started to develop and not so acidic.

The food was bad. Nobody came to check back with us if everything was ok. I think we got served some sort of halal or vege breakfast because they messed up the order. Either that or quality has gone down hill. Looking at photos of peoples food they still do sell normaly bacon. But thats not what i got today. Theyve lost my future custom. Will not return and i was thinking of a pastry and coffee to go but just didnt both after that experience would of most likely been...

Disappointingly, I have to rate this down because of the food. It looks nice and cosy from the outside, but the food is what I was visiting for and it was underwhelming, of poor quality, and some parts were inedible in my opinion. My brother and partner ordered the full English, which had pre-buttered (or marged) toast (why do that? Provide people with butter to do it themselves), flavourless beans, flavourless tomatoes, fatty bacon, and cheap quality sausages (you can tell by the skin on them). I had the signature avocado and eggs, which was underwhelming. I think it was the hollandaise sauce that was so cold it made the whole dish feel cold (and no one wants cold eggs). I think the hollandaise should have been warm. The eggs weren't a vibrant yolk and they lacked flavour, they weren't runny, and the avocado was not as fresh as the restaurant implies it should be (it was lacking in flavour and vibrancy, and I believe it was beginning to brown a bitterness was creeping in). My brother's partner got the eggs royal (with smoked salmon) and when I tasted the salmon it was disgusting - it did not taste like any smoked salmon I had ever had (not fishy, not smoky, just tasted like dirt?! I can't even describe it to you but I would steer clear). The hash browns had a nice flavour but they weren't crisp enough. Sadly, we won't be back. It's a shame because a decent brunch isn't hard to make, and with Crystal Palace having at least two markets, where fresh and good quality produce can be purchased, it is astounding that anything would be subpar in this way.

To end on a positive, all the staff that attended our table were outstandingly polite, warm, and friendly. The smoothies and (hopefully) fresh...