Chiswick House Café — Restaurant in London

Chiswick House and Café is on my doorstep, and I’ve been a frequent visitor over the years. Unfortunately, I’ve had one too many poor experiences now, and feel it’s time to share.

The coffee has consistently made me feel unwell, so I’ve stopped ordering it entirely — I now stick to bottled water or San Pellegrino. On three separate occasions, I’ve ordered pizza and each time it arrived burnt on one side and was described as “how it’s meant to be.” While I appreciate a bit of char, these were genuinely inedible.

The most concerning incident happened recently. I was buying a soft drink for my daughter and decided to treat myself to a slice of carrot cake. When I picked it up, I noticed visible mould down the side of the slice. I pointed this out to a staff member who took a long moment trying to identify the issue — I actually had to count the slices with her to find it. She thanked me repeatedly, which I appreciated, and I even mentioned I understand cake can spoil quickly in hot weather (I bake myself), but this should have been caught well before reaching the display.

What truly alarmed me was when an elderly gentleman came up to order a slice of the same carrot cake. He was having trouble communicating his request, so I helped translate for him. The same staff member began checking his slice for mould, with several whole carrot cakes still behind the counter. I didn’t stay long enough to see if he was served a fresh piece, as I had my young child with me.

All in all, this place could be so much better — the location is beautiful, and it has potential — but the lack of quality control and food safety standards is too...

An absolute rubbish guest experience. My partner and I stepped to the counter at 11.31 on Saturday morning to order our breakfast. We were immediately told that breakfast is served until 11.30 and we are ONE MINUTE late so they can't take our order. The young lady at the cashier said that she is going to ask the chef, perhaps he is willing to make us a breakfast regardless that we are 60 SECONDS late. The chef came forward had a chat with a cashier and shook his head. I guess 60 SECONDS are 60 SECONDS and he denied to cook us a breakfast. I refused to order anything after this absolutely ridiculous experience. Luckily just in front of Chiswick house, which is less than 60 SECONDS away on foot from the cafe, was a local market where I was able to have a lovely breakfast.

How can any business afford to turn away any guest because they are 60 SECONDS late, especially during the pandemic when the hospitality sector is struggling, is beyond me. I've never seen anything like that before and not too keen to go back there again. A company who has this kind of approach to guests doesn't deserve to be...

I came to the cafe this morning and I asked if I could have the full English breakfast without tomatoes, baked beans and with gluten free bread due to intolerances. The staff said they could change the bread but had to inform the manager about removing the tomato containing products. I was told that this might not be possible. I can only imagine the difficulty in following up such a request!!. When the manager came they agreed to remove the gluten and tomato containing products. I then asked if I could have extra mushrooms in place of the beans and tomato. The manager then went on to say that it wasn’t her fault that I have intolerance, so she shouldn’t have to replace the items. I find this comment discriminating, upsetting and very rude. It’s so simple to ask a chef to change one thing for another. Do they think I am trying to con them out of mushrooms under the guise of a fake intolerance?!. I won’t come back to this place due to the inability to manage a simple customer service dialogue. It’s a bad start to a nice day. The prices here should mean you get good food and good...