Global Cafe — Restaurant in London

Visited twice recently - it is my recollection that the staff are different, and I believe it is under new management, as new things have been introduced to the menu - Indian Chai (teas), curry dishes. The first time, my daughter bought cheesy chips, which came literally as oven chips with slices of cheddar cheese on top then warmed up, so once the cheese cooled down (very quickly) it hardened clumping all the chips together with it, making it quite inedible and messy to eat, however we did not complain, we ate what we could and threw the rest away.. The 2nd time we went there, I asked for some water for my dog, and went back to the window to order something, the staff walked off to the back, even though I called through the window a few times, he ignored me. Shortly after some customers left inside, they changed their window sign to closed, locked the door, and closed the serving window. A European woman and her child approached the cafe, I told them it was closed, but they opened the serving window and served her. Once she left, they closed the window again.. Then a group of 5 European men arrived, again the man opened the window and served them - this time I lined up to be served straight after them. When I got to the window, I spoke to the man, told him I had been here from before and called through but they didn't come and then they closed the window, I went on to try and order a hot drink, the man started shouting at me "Listen madam I work 7 days a week and I close at 5pm I cannot do anything after 5!" I told him that he served the others after 5, and I was there from around 4 the latest, and you know what? He STILL did not serve me. He closed the window in my face. They may be brown/indian/asian- but trust me when I say they do not like or accommodate black people - He is a very RUDE Man.. I was in no way rude to him, nor sarcastic, and I not once raised my voice. Obviously, my money is not good enough for them. I will make sure to bring a flask next time I go to the park, would hate to think of what they might do to my cup of tea, judging by their customer service skills being...

A really really good hot choc (Cadbury's with cream) and ok cappuccino - warming after a long walk with a bit of sleet. We had a huge problem with payment though - guy gave us the card reader but tapping didn't work, he told me to insert card and went off to make drinks. The reader asked for my email, I assumed this was for receipt so gave it and it then told me the reader had emailed me the bill to pay online, which it had, so I paid it and received a second email with a receipt, but the guy at the counter said that was not payment even though I could show the receipt from the reader company confirming payment to his business. He wanted us to pay a second time as he was adamant it hadn't gone through as the print last transaction on the reader brought up a different transaction - we pointed out our transaction had gone through the website in the end not the reader. I don't think he understood what happened. He suggested we pay again and then come back another time to get a refund from the manager if we had paid twice (petrol and parking would have cost us more than the 5.10 for the drinks so not a good deal). After sometime arguing, we were about to leave the drinks and walk away and reclaim through our credit card company as we had seemingly reached an impasse, when he gave us the drinks (he had made them while I was dealing with the reader/website payment at the start) but he clearly thought we were defrauding him. I have definitely paid 5.10 to someone whose business name matches the cafe at the behest of his credit card reader and have the receipt to prove it. I sincerely hope I have not caused him trouble. Fortunately the hot chocolate...

This is a very decent café that's perfect when you're visiting Hainault Forest. The staff are efficient and there's an extensive menu of food on offer at reasonable prices. There are places to eat both inside and outside although the area itself isn't huge.

We came by for lunch and were pretty happy overall. What you've got to remember is that Global offers tasty meals without the fancy accoutrements that you'll get elsewhere. So my masala omelette in a bun was exactly that as were the cheesy chips. My other half went for a baked potato with cheese and beans and again that's exactly what arrived in the takeaway box.

No complaints here as our lunch hit the spot and we left our boxes scraped clean with our wooden cutlery. If you know that's what you'll be getting then you won't be...