GAIL's Bakery Barons Court — Restaurant in London

I just stopped by for some food before catching a train. After ordering and paying, I sat down to have a pie and the juice whilst waiting for a green tea, as I had 7 minutes. When I'm eating someone shouts 'Green Tea'. I stand up go to the counter and they repeat: 'Green Tea'. When I ask if I needed to go and get it (other side of the counter, by the coffee machine, opposite to the entrance, the answer was a resounding 'yes'). I finished the pie, went to get the tea, asked the person for a name and she answered Vicky. When asked if she couldn't bring me the tea to the counter next time she came to that side the answer was 'we don't do table service'. Her colleague stood by her saying 'it is not how it works'. No apologies, I believe they still think they did nothing wrong. This is how I got treated after paying 13gbp for a pie, a juice and a tea. At the very least, and in my opinion, this is a good example of a total lack of 'professional pride' ("brio", in Portuguese, I am yet to find a better...

I live locally, on the same road so this Gails is a 2 min max walk. On my way home from work, I stopped in to experience the new place. A sullen looking man with longer wavy hair stood there, no greeting, waiting for me to say the first word. As I’d just finished work, I was in my very clean work uniform. I ordered a coffee and bun and paid, all without a word spoken from the staff member. I was handed my bun in a paper bag. I asked the young lady making my coffee, if there were seats free in the upper seating area and was told she didn’t know. Then I was handed my coffee in a takeaway cup. My intention was clearly not to takeaway, but it was blatantly obvious the staff didn’t care and I left. Yes it looks nice, yes the coffee and bun was as good as your other branches. No I won’t be returning, as whatever rude, bizarrely elitist attitude on display from the staff there, have made sure of that! Bad move and bad start to alienate the local residents of a...

I do like a visit to Gail’s and I have been to a few - but this one was the least favourite of all so far.

The service was much slower than expected - with staff pausing to take a telephone call before preparing my order - and the toilet facilities were out of order too.

Around the drinks, their preparation was all rather half hearted. Ordering three teas and a coffee, I could only have two teapots (there weren’t any others) so one was served in a takeaway cup. On reaching my table upstairs, one of the cups had a huge crack right through it. When I took it back downstairs, the staff were apologetic, but there wasn’t a replacement cup available.

I just didn’t get how such a small shop, which was far from busy, didn’t have a spare teapot or teacup. I was offered a cup intended for coffee - and without a handle - which really wasn’t suitable.

Gail’s is not competitive on pricing. They charge premium prices but the service and product today were...