Franze & Evans - Shoreditch — Restaurant in London

The Cafe is cute and the vibe was excellent and the menu looked great so I gave it a try. The man at the counter who looked like the owner was welcoming so I sat down. But once the two servers started serving me, it was one of the worst experience of my life. Did not say hello, did not greet me. I ordered eggs on toast and her energy was not at all friendly and she asked me whether I was going to order more. I said maybe later. She kept pressuring me to order more. I said leave the menu. Then she left and forgot about me. I noticed that when new people came to tables next to me she greeted them nicely. Even played with their kids. Complimented them. I noticed her behavior during my time there and it became clear that she treated people who were Italian or white differently. I am not white. I saw another guy come in who wasn't white and he got similar horrible treatment. This happened multiple times. To the table next to me she came and checked in as to how the food was, whether they wanted anything more. Nothing like that with me. When my food was ready she didn't even bring it to me. She sent it from someone else who was equally bad. The person didn't even look at me while delivering the order and didn't even ask if I wanted anything else and just took away the menu. I asked whether I can get coffee and they said yes and left. I hated the whole experience. It felt like I was not the right race or nationality for this place. The second waitress also did the same thing to the new customer next to me. Greeted them welcomed them took their order and then later checked in on them. I was there for an hour and none of this happened with me. I was forgotten about. Finally I gave up and didn't order more. Finished my food and coffee. Went up to the counter and paid and left. Others got their bills at their table and were asked repeatedly whether they wanted to order more or not. I wasn't. The food and coffee was excellent but the treatment and attitude of the servers was discriminatory and horrible. Why treat one customer so differently...

Coffee is great but service not so good. The lady at the counter was busy chatting with a customer friend when I arrived and I had to wait for ages before politely interrupting in order to be served. This seemed to irritate her and she called out my order to a barista and took my payment while continuing her conversation without any eye contact at all with me, let alone a "thank you".

After waiting 5 mins and seeing the barista was now out waiting tables, i realised she probably hadn't heard the woman at the counter and my order had been missed. I decided to check the status but, without even turning her head to look at me or notice the missing barista, the counter lady just said "It is coming, we're just busy".

I stood for another 5 mins before a polite man ( i assume the manager) noticed I'd been waiting there like a lemon for over 10 mins for takeaway coffee and came to see what the delay was.

Instead of taking responsibility, the counter lady initially blamed and berated a completely unrelated member of staff for the mix-up before realising her mistake and blaming the original barista.

Still no apology to me or even the slightest acknowledgement of the now lengthy delay. The original barista was equally charmless; when told what had happened she replied "Oh. Oh well".

In total it was a full 18 mins of waiting before I eventually got my takeaway coffee. Yes the place was fairly busy (only a couple of empty tables) but there were more than enough staff working and nobody else seemed to be ordering coffee.

To rub salt in the wound, when I momentarily put my drink down on a table outside, it took less than 10 seconds for a waiter to come over and tell me I wouldn't be able to sit down with a takeaway coffee. I had no intention of doing so, i was just momentarily replying to a message on my phone.

All in all a weird experience - but the coffee...

Arrival and two items unavailable, understandable, that happens. Sitting comfortably in our seat, we were asked to move to make way for a larger party. A cake was ordered, that took 15 minutes (after asking 3 different staff members) to deliver the damn cake, the cake that tasted like reconstituted kitchen sponges with a side of nutella. Coffee had a familiar burnt taste that occurs when somewhere does not know how to correctly pour shots or steam milk. When the members of staff had finished flirting they addressed us and came to remove the cake. Member of staff asked why half was left, friend replied quite politely that it was rather unpleasant (understatement) (definitely some kind of used sponge). Then we were charged £20 for the spritzers, beer and gateaux we never consumed. As a result of being shoved around the cafe and 3 people serving one table, somehow, nobody noticed people left without paying for their overpriced beverages . Unsure as to why we agreed to pay. Only good thing was the cacti collection, hence the 1*. They probably would have tasted nicer...