Lakeside Cafe — Restaurant in London

The noise is atrocious, with kids screaming in the waiting area or out by the water trying to punch and kick the ducks while their parents ignoring their brats and continue chatting with their friends and shouting just as loud about how their Porsche needs a service, or how they haven’t been able to go skiing for a year!

The server took our order for the usual 2x Soya Mochas and we also chanced at a Mozzarella Panini and were asked if we wanted Vegan, a number of the items it seemed had a vegan option. This seemed really out of place in the faux KFC interior. But we ordered and were instructed in great detail as to where to stand for each item and how not to touch anything other than our own coffee when it was delivered.

The coffee arrived pretty quickly, being as there were 7 member of staff behind the counter you’d hope they could make 2 drinks quick enough, the food however came from the other end of the building by what looked like the staff toilets and the waiting area was the shouting room in the middle.

That being said, we took our order and sat to the side of the lake and watched the annoying children play with the ducks and tried to enjoy the coffee and sandwich which were...

My friend ordered a gluten free sandwich as shown on the receipt. Was then given a normal sandwich, but told by brain dead server after eating half of it that they made an error and it isn't actually gluten free. They didn't offer to refund or replace until we mentioned it. Then the server said, is it okay if you eat the gluten sandwich..to which we said absolutely no, why on earth would we order gluten free if did not have gluten allergy. Demanded refund and replacement. Then the server gave us a gluten free sandwich, and said "hope this tastes better now". We said "It's nothing to do with taste but to do with severe gluten allergy". He just laughed and smirked. We didn't eat the food as didn't trust the staff as the cafe DOES NOT take allergies seriously nor are they educated in basic allergy requirements which nearly had severe consequences. My friend now suffering with insufferable bowel and stomach pain due to eating half of this sandwich.

Before this he also handed both of us one sandwich with meat and one without and didn't know which was which and said, just open them. AVOID...

We are having our food after buying from the counter at the white table and chairs in the conservatory of the cafe. While we are having our food a man/waiter/manager comes to us and says “we are closed” which basically meant for us is “get out” and his body language also conveyed this to us. Usually cafes/restaurants would give you a few mins notice politely either telling you at the counter or at your table that cafe is closing in 10 mins so customers know they have to finish and leave by that time. None of this was told and just abruptly being told “we are closed” was odd for us and so rude. If you were closer why did your serve us food? 🤷‍♂️ I was on a day trip with my daughter and giving her a treat. This experience has spoilt our trip. Hope the cafe takes note of this and takes this as constructive feedback and improves their customer service so this doesn’t happen to other customers. Be clear while you are serving at the counter that food is now only for take away as cafe seating is closed. We would have happily taken our food and had it...