Bob's Café Queen's Park — Restaurant in London

I only give a star so that I can write this complain.

I was with my friend and puppies here, this is the first time I felt all the staff are so rude and making me so uncomfortable. We were asking politely if there is a bigger table for us cause we don’t want the puppies walk around underneath the table or disturb other customers, the waitress at the door (with black lace top) rolled her eyes and kept pointing at her schedule saying we are full this is all you can get.

Ok, fine!

Then we took two cards they put at the door for customers to scrub for free thing, but we didn’t know it was meant for next time only (cause I always give it to my friends, and the staff there never explain how to use this, tho I did have a few cards in my house I never used) When we ask the waitress (another waitress, wearing backless with some tassel around) her first sentence is : you can’t use them. We ask why, then she reply in a very rude tone saying I just saw you took them on your way in, you can’t use them. Then I told her I was here the day before, I don’t have mine with me. She also rolled her eyes and say it’s only for next time, I saw you took them, so you can’t used them.

I already felt uncomfortable at this moment, but not much shop open today so we decided to stay. But!!! The waitress with backless top is gossiping with another colleague with a voice loud enough for me and my friend to hear saying that “I caught them took the card when they walk in and they wan to use it today” and look directly to me. I am not sure she was meant to have us hear what she say or she just didn’t know she got a loud voice.

We decided to leave right a way, and when we tell the waitress at the door that we are cancelling our order because we don’t feel comfortable eating here, the waitress didn’t even ask what happened like she just want the table back and she don’t even care what kind of customer service...

Broadly reliable but occasionally workaday food, offered with an espresso selection of annoying inconsistency and very friendly table service.

For brunch, the kitchen gives an impression of banging out the standards using quality ingredients that have too often been prepped to within an inch of their lives. That is, reheated on demand.

They poach better than they scramble; the latter eggs are more like a lump of murdered protein than a carefully set, textured, eggy goodness leavened with butter and/or cream. Think chain hotel buffet rather than trendy brunch cafe. You would not throw these eggs out of (breakfast in) bed, if they turned up at your own home, but, like many items on the brunch menu, they smack of minimum effort and maximum return on raw materials.

Similarly, the coffee is perfectly agreeable, if inconsistent. The flat white has been known to appear at my table both underextracted and tepid. I send it back and it's always better on a second take.

Some of this may be down to an expensive lease and other input costs; a business needs to be sustainable and this is deep into expensive-three-wheeled-pram territory. More is the pity if it is down to greedy business tactics, though. Margins on coffee mean I'm not sympathetic about being charged nearly £3 for a sub-par flat white. Ditto those eggs.

Bob's is worth your while, regardless, but don't be shy about complaining (be nice!) if the food or drinks are not up to scratch. The front of house staff are lovely and well versed in sending things back...

The girl front of house was excellent – polite with a sunny disposition she kept us informed. We got a table for 4 within 10 minutes. Great food - 3 of us had the sunshine brunch and would happily recommend it. Coffee good too. What was not good at all – in fact we found it overbearing and rather rude to say the least - was that we were asked 4 times by 4 different members of staff, within 10 minutes, if we were ready to order, having politely explained firstly to the girl on arrival, then the waitress that seated us, that our friends were joining us and (at the time of seating) would be about 10 minutes. We were also asked twice if we wanted to order a drink which we didn’t really – but felt pressured. By now we felt their only interest was rushing us along to get us out and free up the table. From a customer perspective – this was made worse by the fact that when we were seated they had other tables vacated and free – and no one queuing. We think one of the staff who asked us was the Duty Manager. Then when eating – a waitress removed an empty plate before the other 3 had finished theirs! Appalling manners. Frankly this was chaotic and not what we are entitled to expect as regular paying customers until now. Why is it that one member of staff is not allocated per table to avoid some of this – like everywhere else. Pretty basic restaurant etiquette was just not observed. Our friends who had not been before said it reflects rather badly on Bobs – one...