Clocktower Cafe — Restaurant in London

Clocktower Café in Hanwell is open until 17:00, with the last meal orders taken at 16:29. I called ahead at 15:00 to check when the kitchen was open until because I wanted a burger. A male voice on the phone told me they served food until 19:00, but upon arrival, we were told otherwise—quite an unusual mix-up. The staff did promise to investigate the miscommunication, though.

The initial approach from the staff wasn’t the most welcoming. When we sat down, the first thing we heard was that they were closing, even though we arrived at 16:00 and still had 30 minutes to order. A better approach would have been: "Hello there, welcome to Clocktower! Just a heads-up, the kitchen closes at 16:30, but you’re absolutely fine to order." Instead, it felt like we weren’t really encouraged to stay.

That said, the food came out surprisingly fast—within 5 to 10 minutes—so we had plenty of time to eat without feeling rushed. However, there’s definitely room for improvement in customer service.

A heads-up for those looking for a quiet café: mothers with babies are frequent customers, so it can get a bit loud. On top of that, the noise from the kitchen, particularly dishes and glasses clattering, made the atmosphere a bit unpleasant.

On the bright side, the burger was served with chips, making it a great value-for-money meal that was definitely filling. However, the menu doesn’t clearly state that chips are included, and the separate chips section at the bottom is misleading—it made me think I had to order them separately. Please fix that to avoid confusion!

As for the burger itself, the meat didn’t quite match the quality of other places in the area. It tasted fairly cheap, or maybe it was just the lack of a special sauce to bring out the flavors.

Overall, while the café has potential, a better approach from the staff, some menu clarifications, and small improvements to the food could make for a much more...

Could have given 5 stars as the food is amazing (despite the fact they get my order wrong every time), but unfortunately the staff doesn’t deserve more. Grumpy all the time, it looks like your appearance ruined their day, they make you feel very unwelcome. I visit this cafe since 1.5 year now but never saw a smiling waitress there, I’ll suggest you do something about it (specially the polish girl and the girl that is covering her hair)

UPDATE: As you can see the owner (I guess) doesn’t take anything seriously and if far from professional! Very rude respond, sir.. Following by the other reviews I read about this cafe I’m not the only one sharing the opinion about your rude staff, so maybe think about changing your staff? Or your behaviour towards them? Maybe that’s why they so moody all the time? FYI as I work in hospitality myself I would never imagine treat my customers like your staff do, and treat my staff as you do! DISGUSTING!

UPDATE2: I’m not stigmatising the staff like you said-simply giving you example which of your staff is EXACTLY rude. Don’t know their name so that’s the details what I’ve remembered about them. I think you can’t handle the heat when somebody tells you the true about how you running your staff:) Btw. We happy to come back with my POLISH husband and tell you more about it, since you so confident about blaming your REGULAR CUSTOMER for your...

Owner has no manners for anyone speaks with his own staff in front of guests like they are dogs food is beyond a joke for what you get they are priced like they are In central london when they are surrounded by 3-4 other cafes within walking distance you go to a cafe for the relaxing vibe and friendly servers least there is still that to this cafe even though the management/ownership is shambolic to say the least my personal advice is to treat your staff with respect as they are what keeps your business running whilst you are doing other things please do keep that in my mind if you are the owner and reading this 🙂 Edit since leaving this review the owner very professionally(not!) has challenged my opinion and asked for me to do a survey and ask his staff how they feel, I would suggest you do an anonymous survey for your staff about how they feel you treat them rather than spending your time worrying about reviews online also the staff and atmosphere are fine just the price and from when I was in store they way you treated your staff was my issue...