Ole & Steen UK — Restaurant in London

I feel I have to write a review on here for my personal experience at Ole & Steen. I visit here often with my toddler nephew and we are always greeted warmly - the amazing assistant manager (I think his name is Bartek) is fantastic - always remembering my nephews name to the point my nephew (who is 3yrs old) asks to go and see ‘Bart’ as we walk passed. It is this kind of customer service that keeps us coming back. I have to add - this isn’t just ‘us’ - I see the assistant manager greeting other regular customers in a similar manner and it’s refreshing to experience this, where I’ve been finding customer service standards dropping across the board. Thank you Bart!

However there are definite areas for improvement. It is unfortunate but I do agree with some of the points other reviewers have raised (the tables do need clearing and cleaned quicker, and it has bugged me to see the barista on her phone) however I also have seen that the whole team work really hard and perhaps this is an issue of understaffing which needs to be addressed by the company management? The issue around Mums & Babies is tricky - this area is known as ‘Nappy Valley’ for a reason and whilst I appreciate both sides of the argument it is hard to know what to do for the best (of course, I’m with a 3yr old so I’m in no position to complain).

It appears there is a new manager (?!) who isn’t friendly and hardly smiles so one does wonder if this filters down to staff morale?! There has appeared to be a change in the morale in the last couple of weeks?!

Overall I think Ole & Steen is a welcome brand on our high street - some work definitely needs to be done as there is great potential - but it is shining stars like Bart who are a credit to the company and make us come back...

I am a person that says nothing rather than bad, but please, I hope certain issues are addressed: no choice of food whatsoever for a bakery to have nothing at 1pm on Sat is poor, or maybe all stored in the back, but then again, if it’s not on display how can customers see it a lot of employees but pure chaos, I could use ‘running like headless chickens’ but there was no running, very sluggish, no smiles, it seems it is a hustle to simply be nice coffee - barista more concerned to read her phone or message someone back than to hit the queue of 15 people for coffee. Also the steam wand is literally brown of all the burnt milk on it - how is this hygienic at all?! last but not least, it appears that there is no big cup lids available, when you order americano it is a bit of a problem as I neither want to burn me or anyone else in the way. I am told by same barista with the phone in the hands that I was meant to be informed by till that there are no lids available. Offers to take coffee in small cups…Again, ordering issue - as surely coffee store uses lids? Can ask another coffee store to lend some? Why I should be interested in a small cup when I paid for large, also when transferring coffee it is not same as made fresh, so why to offer a product that is not the best?

I am speaking from years of experience working and managing in hospitality, and also having myself to deal with difficult customers or situations, as said before I never go to writing complaints, but this is very poor representation on O&S as a brand: both service, safety and...

I like the place for those reasons: Sandwiches are really really good. Cinnamon social is superb. Stay open until later than the usual coffee shops. Coffee is good. Better than average at least. It's a nice vibe to bring your laptop and work from.

There are many things to improve: Service is bad. Consistently bad. They make the coffee with no intention, a lot of the times the coffee/milk is cold. Also when I'm ordering I feel really bad vibes as they type stuff into the monitor, you can see from rage clicks and few comments I got like "we're closing, you sure you want to order" - 40 mins before closing time (I was just ordering a coffee) Coffee is colder than it should be. Tables are never clean, every time I get there I have to get my own napkin, some alcohol and clean the tables. As I type this I can see all the tables in front of me with piles of dirty dishes and mugs. Toilets are super dirty. It always looks like it hasn't been cleaned for days.

Prime location, but it has a...