Cheam Park Caffè — Restaurant in London

Could be amazing, looks super cute but completely fails in customer service. We've been several times. The cafe obviously has an excellent location and stream of customers through the fancy, big playground next to it. There is no competition for them, which I believe is what allows them to behave the way they do. It's summer holidays and they officially close at 5pm, but to be fair to customers they should simply say they close at 4.30pm as you can only get the basics from then onwards. We were there at 4.30pm on the dot and the coffee machine has already been cleaned so there are no mo coffees or hot chocolates etc. At 4.30pm. My kids got some ice-cream, this was then also closed at 4.35pm. A grandmother who came in with their two kids was told it was shut then. How much effort is it to get another couple of scoops of ice-cream out of their tubs? Anyway, I asked for a hot chocolate and was told it's no longer possible. The lady then walked away and I had to call her back to pay for my kids' ice-creams. Clearly I was already inconveniencing her and preventing her from cleaning... We took the ice-creams and sat down (it was raining outside and my 3 kids are 5 years and under, one being a baby). By 4.45 pm almost all chairs around us had been put upside down on the tables around us, 4 or 5 members of staff were busy cleaning, emptying bins, sweeping the floor (one lady even swept underneath my daughter's seat as she stood up for a moment!). I mean, talk about making us feel unwelcome! If you want to be out of the building, cleaned, by 5pm, then don't tell the public you're open to 5pm! And if you are open to 5pm then don't make them feel so unwelcome. We left at 4.45pm as I could just feel all eyes on us and all chairs up on the tables, fridges restocked, floor swept, machines off etc etc. Not one of the 5 employees/owners offered a 'thank you' or a 'goodbye'. My 5 year old asked me why the chairs were on the table and why they are not being nice. A 5 year old picked up on it...

It's so massively disappointing as so much thought has been put into making this place look lovely. It really does look very sweet. And yet, time and time again I feel that staff do not care about their customers whatsoever. This is not the first time and the grandparents have had similar experiences, and not just at the end of the day either.

I am sure that if there was an alternative cafe nearby this place would lose a lot of customers. Personally, I'll make sure to take sandwiches and treats with us next time and remind my kids how we were treated today and I know they won't mind going back.

Having read other reviews it looks like we are not the only ones. May I politely suggest you take comments on board.

Personally I won't spend another penny in there until I feel that I am being appreciated as a paying customer.

I also appreciate you saying you pride yourself in being clean... but wy can't this happen once the cafe is closed to the public? If isn't very healthy for you/your staff to be waving the dirty bins and broom around our faces, including a baby's, whilst we eat our ice-cream, is it?

• Edit as I cannot comment on owner's resp.:

I never said we didn't get scoops of ice-cream, just the grandmother after us didn't. There were no lids/anything tidied away just yet, and it simply seemed unnecessary to send her away without offering her a scoop. Of course there are ice-creams as you can find in shop, but surely there's something exciting about a nice scoop of something more unusual (like the Bubblegum ice-cream for kids).

Interesting you didn't check your CCTV about your employee sweeping under my daughter's chair.

I obviously don't mean bins were being waved in our face, literally.

We were not able to enjoy it, despite being able to stay till 5pm due to cleaning. Happy to meet and discuss.

For a parent with kids on the playground you have no competition.

I often leave 5* feedback. If I had provided the service I received when I was a waitress there would...

I didn’t even want to leave one star! I’ve been to this cafe many times and spent quite abit of money in there due to the prices of food and ice cream being rather expensive. I’ve never normally had a problem with it there, but I went to visit the cafe with two children and 3 adults. Again spent a fair few in the cafe, the staff where rather rude with their attitude. No smile no customer services. Ordered the kids their ice creams and was fine. Till I decided to get myself one and asked before hand how much that would be, the lady behind the check out checked the list for the ice pop I wanted and told me £2. I gave her the £2 and sat down to eat it. For a reply from her saying “you owe me another 10p” with a very bad attitude, not “oh sorry I seemed to of got the price wrong, it was £2.10 sorry”. I don’t like confrontation but I said the lady was quite rude with how she spoke to me and how she had been since being in the shop buying from her a few times, the lady then told me that I was lying and she told me it was £2.10. I wouldn’t have any issue paying the 10p as it’s obly a 10p and I would never underpay for my food and then walk of to eat it. She actually paid the £2 in to the till and rechecked the list then realised. but to be called a liar! Which then the manager then shouted at me the kids and family saying “don’t you dare talk to my staff like that” baring in mind the manager wasn’t even involved in the conversation and hadn’t had a clue to what was happening. And instead of addressing the situation better and coming over to actually ask what happened and to resolve the situation. She thought it would be ok to shout across the room, call me a lair over a 10p which I had just left on the table for them. Customer services was absolutely terrible! Manager staff is a joke I’ve never been addressed like that from a manager in my life! And I’ve worked in customer service before and would never dare to speak to my staff like that. It resulted in people leaving, we actually had customers come up to us after we left in shock how terrible the manager dealt with the situation! Very unprofessional and will never spend another penny in there again. They’ve lost a good customer that was in...

We visit Cheam Park often and inevitable the kids want drinks and ice cream and so we head to the cafe there but from now on I will be taking my own as often the service received is less than desirable. For instance today I really needed to refill my daughters water bottle as it was so hot in the park and was told abruptly that they did not do this. I was shocked at the lack of customer care given but not surprised as I have seen it before in there. Ok so you don’t provide tap water (shocking in itself) but there’s a way of explaining that to a customer without the need to be so rude. We spend a lot of money in there generally but just by this oversight they will no longer have our custom. To be honest the way in which they opened during the pandemic (when parks were off limits) has always left a bad taste in my mouth but today has just confirmed why I won’t go there again.

In response to the reply I received I would like to clarify a few things.

You were rude, saying the word sorry does not mean you weren’t rude. If I did not believe you to be rude I would not have written this reply in the first instance. I even showed my shock at the time. This comment will not be a surprise to anyone who takes the time to read many of your previous customers reviews as this theme crops up time and time again and seems to be prevalent from the management down. I have not noticed other members of staff acting out of line as others have but managers really should lead by example.

You were not closed, I was in a queue and there were several others being served. The time was 4.50pm and I believe you close at 5pm.

As I said in my post, it’s fair enough that you don’t provide tap water (despite other establishments doing so) but it’s your tone. Rather than be so defensive (which I noted in your replies to other reviews), maybe you should take onboard some of these comments.

I did not once visit any parks during the initial lockdown and especially not when play parks were off limits so your retaliation was unnecessary and only comes across as a way to invalidate...