Cafe Columbia — Restaurant in London

Against my better judgement, i gave this cafe a chance. I did heed the reviews about hygiene though and only took a drink with me to the garden while avoiding the food. I witnessed grubby fingers manhandling other customers cakes and I was surprised to see that none of the feedback had introduced better practice. When my cup was taken away the man announced to the half empty garden “we have a book reader!” which I thought was strange but continued to sit and read. At approximately 15:17 the toothless man starts banging on my table to tell me they’re closing and comments “sorry you didn’t get to finish your book” followed by “I hate book readers”.

I now understand why other reviews have not been acted upon to better this place - these guys simply do not read and have a very strong aversion to it.

They are on a mission to garner as many 1 star reviews as possible and I for one am very...

The food was fine although I wasn’t a fan of the man serving us touching the bagels with his hands (and not washing them before/after handling money). The reason for my low rating is that I was refused tap water when I needed to take medicine while there. I know they’re legally not obliged to give me anything because they don’t serve alcohol, but I literally just wanted a tiny bit to help me swallow some pills. I was told I had to buy water if I wanted any. They literally watched me try (and fail) to swallow pills without water. I was already feeling unwell, so this whole incident really upset me. Not only did that treatment not make me buy water there, but it meant that I will never come back and spend money at this place again. Luckily the pub across the street had kinder staff who didn’t mind me drinking some of their...

Contrary to most other comments the staff was overall kind and helpful but it was very off-putting to see food being handled with bare hands. The sheer number of people buying food without complaint put our guard down and we sort of accepted and went along. But the image of our food being handled with long nails got stuck in my head and started to feel nauseous (which I hope is just psychosomatic), so decided to read the reviews. I’ve been doing so in horror for the last 10 minutes. Out of sense of responsibility I have to write it here that after years of one star reviews, hygiene issue persists. This is an unnecessarily unpleasant experience, I think the fact that internet doesn’t work around the flower market is a blessing for them. If people could check reviews while waiting in the queue, I don’t think there would...