Nene Cafe & Bistro — Restaurant in London

Came in on Sunday afternoon, group of 9, kids and adults, something we like to do and always choose Nenes for their friendly service and great food. This time experience was different to all of us.

After seating down we had waited a bit to get our order taken, when waiter approached us, he was clearly flustered and even though we were ready to give our full order he only took drinks order. Only after a while when drinks appeared we waited long again to get someone to take our food order, to the point when our children had drunk all their drinks. One milkshake was ordered small but large size was served and even though the waiter assured us it'll be charged for small, no consideration was made that it was a wrong size and had created tension between children as it was not fair.

When we were acknowledged for food order, it was taken rushed and never repeated back to us. I had personally felt unwelcomed and uncomfortable. Especially when in the middle of the order waiter had left our table to see someone at the door. The behaviour that I find strange to justify.

The food arrived.... All bread was stale, for adults and children. My husband said it is fair to send it back, I refused to make a fuss as we waited so long I knew we would be waiting longer and our complaint might not be considered urgent. There were two dishes missing and we had a lady waitress who actually taken her initiative to ask what was it that we ordered. Needless to say most of us had already eaten before the other dishes arrived. I don't think any of us had enjoyed it and we were for the very first time very keen to leave.

Upon departure my mother-in-law had expressed to manager her disappointment. But she was dismissed by being told "We were busy, what do you want me to do?" Shocking reply... It would me more professional to say: Sorry, That is not our intention, We would love to see you back if you can give us a chance to improve your experience with us. We didn't expect to that busy today, but it has proven challenging and we apologise that your group had suffered from our incompetence. We appreciate your feedback and we will take it on board to improve our service.

Are we coming back? Not sure... Maybe, but not...

So we walked in and got seated by the waitress and no one returned for a good ten minutes was just left sitting there we was gonna leave at one point but we stayed. Eventually when they did decide to ask us if we wanted anything after being ignored for 10 minutes the coffee was really nice but my food was not so good. Scrambled eggs was tasteless absolutely no flavour in it what so ever on soggy bread that was meant to be toast so I sent it back. I then got an overcooked fried egg so for me didn’t go well maybe I need to show the chef how to cook good scrambled eggs and fried as well both very poor. My partner said her fry up was very nice We thought it was expensive 2 breakfasts 2 coffee’s at £30. Iv given it 3 stars only because my partner enjoyed her breakfast if it was based on me I would have give it 2 stars

UPDATE So I went back for breakfast the service was very slow again took them ten minutes again to ask us if we wanted a drink. Also they have young kids in there working as waiters and waitresses with absolutely no experience and it certainly shows they are trying there best and seemed very nice people they seemed both very nervous. I had a full English breakfast and it was probably the nicest breakfast iv...

Really nice vibe, good food, good tea & cake if you go earlier. Good smoothies and good cocktails. The little outside area is really nice on a warm day. I honestly couldn’t fault this place except for one thing. The service is SO SLOW. Never go here in a hurry, you’ll be late, you’ll still be waiting for someone to notice you and take your order by the time you were hoping to leave. This isn’t due to them being busy, or understaffed some days. It’s literally an operational decision. They’ve even changed ownership and this has carried on. You’ll be ignored for your first order, and then again when you want to pay your bill. It won’t matter if the place is busy or if there’s genuinely not another soul in the place. It’s the reason for the star being taken off. I think if you just accept that you’ll be living your best chilled Mediterranean life here, you’re fine. Go when you have a couple of hours to chat, don’t go when your poor toddler is starving/bored/tired.

*also the policy on dogs is odd, sometimes they’re allowed and sometimes...