Cafe Tamra St Ann's Hill — Restaurant in London

My Girlfriend has lived in the area for a few years and raved about this place. We moved in together this year and I tried La Fleur for the first time, was looking forward to it.

We knew it would be busy on a Saturday but were lucky to be pointed to (not shown to) a table.

Poured some water, tasted odd/chemically and the carafe had obviously been left there for no idea how long (a lid might help)

Other guests were shown to tables outside by the same waitress and orders were taken before ours, disappointing, but it was busy at the time. Not the end of the world.

The 2 ladies serving didn't seem keen on making eye contact with anyone and seemed to spend their time inefficiently clearing tables cup by cup (give them a tray!). so once we finally did get one of their attention we were able to make our orders.

I ordered the Chicken Shawarma and my Girlfriend the Halloumi Wrap. As well as a Latte and Elderflower Soft Drink.

The Latte was really good. Really enjoyed that.

The food however (both dishes), came out cold, not even slightly warm. We were starving by this point, didn't want to A) Go through the rigmarole of trying to get some attention paid to us or B) go through a long wait for a new dish.

At this point, it was an unfortunate. We would've come again. But it just got worse...

We sat with empty plates on our table for a good 15 minutes before the guy behind the counter recognised we should be approached (he was leaning against the counter chatting at the time). Was asked "are you done?" we said "yes", "oh, you haven't finished your chips. I thought you were still working on them" (clearly we had finished). I mentioned I couldn't finish the chips because they were undercooked. This was the opportunity to apologise. But I got a "Really? are you sure?" as if I was mistaken. Then I said, "Yes, and both dishes came out cold too". Again... no apology but a "Well you should've told us and the halloumi has vegetables/salad"... Explained that no one had been around to see us and the wrap had clearly been grilled at some point!? It took long enough to make the order in the first place too. "Well it's a Saturday and we're busy"... Half the tables were empty at this point.

At that point, I said... "I'm tired of the defensiveness, please clean our plates and bring the bill".

Bill came back with drinks removed, fine, wasn't after a discount. Still more justification/defence with... "You really should have told us".

Very annoyed that we were made to feel at fault, doesn't matter when or how an issue is raised, you NEVER snap back at the customer and blame them for YOUR bad...

DO NOT GO HERE IF YOU ARE VEGAN AND/OR HAVE A BABY!

There is no option to give 0 stars so I’ve been forced to give one and I literally never leave reviews.

On arrival, there are stairs so if you have a buggy just know that the staff will stare at you to sort yourself out. The server who was cleaning my table saw me sit my little boy on the table in an attempt to take off his jumper whilst holding other bags. She abruptly asked me not to sit my child on the table and made a face stating ‘people have to eat there’. I explained that my baby is clean and it was for one second but immediately knew this was not a baby friendly space.

I decided to order and give it a chance as I saw reviews mentioning vegan food, I asked for the servers recommendation and she said Lebanese breakfast so I went for that. As we waited my 10 month old was playing with toys and generally chatting away quite happily. I was getting a lot of impatient stares from the staff everytime he dropped something. Just bad vibes. And I had to keep requesting straws and bits for him but there was a general irritation.

My food arrived with halloumi and eggs aka not vegan so it was sent back THEN my food came and honestly the vegan eggs were inedible. It was like cold saltless mush with half a pack of turmeric poured in. I delicately explained that I couldn’t eat them, the taste was off, is there anything that could be done. I was met with a sarcastic…that’s tofu egg with turmeric. I explained I’m a vegan and I know what that is but this tastes off. The conclusion was she didn’t know what to do for me because that’s how they make it. I asked her to taste it and explained that the other parts of the breakfast were fine but this is the most filling and it doesn’t taste good at all. She seemed annoyed that I’d even flagged this and shrugged at me. This wasn’t a case of preference, it was bad food but she was unwilling to find a resolution. When the bill was brought with the full amount, I was surprised and asked if there was anything that could be done, she just smirked and said no. I had a tired child with me so it was not the time to argue. I paid and left.

On my exit, their front door wedge was loose so kept hitting my buggy so I couldn’t exit. There were 3 staff members on duty and not one helped me to exit. I just had to use one leg and navigate out myself. It seemed like they never wanted me there from the start so TO ALL THE MAMAS, DO NOT GO HERE!

It wasn’t even worth taking photos. I left feeling regretful I’d chosen this cafe and still freaking hungryyy PLUS out of pocket. DO NOT WASTE YOUR HARD...

A lovely place to have a read through of Sparkleshark. Sparkleshark is a contemporary play which takes a long hard look at the secret underbelly of school bullying. It addresses many relevant and hard hitting themes, including disability and child’s insecurity and fancying each other. At several points all you hear or see of the disabled character is an off stage non-verbal noise represented on the page onomatopoeically. This is problematic. It calls to mind the Greek concept of obscenity (meaning literally off stage) reserved for the only the most horrific sights deemed too unworthy for the audience. The Greeks invented democracy. In a similar way to Finn, the disabled character in Sparkleshark, we have seen a deep-seated marginalisation of important centre-left voices since the dawn of the modern era (point and case Gordon in the toilet and Keir Starmer’s leadership bid). Cafe Flyer was I assume founded at the height of austerity Britain, as was Sparkleshark, and I am comforted because it is an important community organisation to counter the swingeing Osborne, however I feel it is a betrayal of everything Tony Blair stood for that he has subsequently endorsed the decimation of public services and that the arts council has decided to promote an outdated image of the living with disabilities through Glittershark. Have we know shame? In the perhaps too prescient words of the playwright, “there’s nothing wrong with making the most of yourself”. And, to that, I think we, by which I mean, in faith, me, the reviewer, and you, the reader, as well as cafe Flannel, we, communally,...