Petersham Nurseries Teahouse | Richmond — Restaurant in London

The settings were so pretty and unique, and the presentation of the afternoon tea was gorgeous. It was good quality food, and we were lucky enough to be sat in the outdoor garden space. But unfortunately that's as far as the good review gets. The service was dire, apart from one young man who was polite. I felt my experience was ruined by an extremely rude waitress with a terrible attitude. I wonder how you are so miserable working in such beautiful settings? If you hate your job so much that you make other people feel bad, then please go find another job instead. It's not fair for paying customers to have their day ruined by your attitude, especially considering the price of the afternoon tea is only £10 less than the Ritz. I expected decent service. Imagine spending over £150 for afternoon tea and just have to deal with the most unbothered and unpleasant rude staff. I wrote a complaint email to Petersham a few months ago, detailing the experience and the treatment by this lady, but they didn't even bother to respond!!!! After looking through the reviews I can see I'm not the only one who has experienced this. The waitress was extremely rude and aggressive, and kept making faces or rolling her eyes simply to take our tea orders. When we had first arrived (at the outdoor back garden) she didn't greet us, no hello and no smile. Instead she spoke to us in a nasty tone with an angry expression as if we were trespassing, asking if we had a booking or not "because we shouldn't be there if we didn't". Wherever possible I tried to deal with the male waiter who was much more pleasant. She didn't bring us any water for the entire time, I had to ask him for it right at the end because we were dehydrated from the cakes. She didn't explain anything when the plates arrived, just plonked it down and walked off. Served the cakes but didn't take our first plates or cutlery away which had savoury remnants such as mustard and mayonnaise; which of course would be unpleasant to eat the cakes with and she was expecting us to use them. I had asked for them to be changed after a good long while of waiting, despite there being very few people, perhaps only 6 other tables at that time. Every interaction with her just felt horrible, and I tried to ignore it and just enjoy the settings to put less focus on it so that it could still be enjoyable for me and my friend. I didn't get her name, but she was a fairly young Caucasian girl with tattoos, kept her phone on show half sticking out of the chest pocket, and wore a dirty pair of white Nike airforce. Overall her vibe was just so negative and off putting. I also overheard an American group complaining about the service because they were ignored for 20 minutes before being seated and also didn't have anything on the plates explained, to which another lady had to apologise profusely and took over the service and whom was clearly far more polite and competent at the job.

I'm a lover of afternoon tea, and living in London I have had many different experiences; I was really looking forward to this one, but it left an awful feeling and I have to say it really wasn't worth it on account of poorly chosen staff ruining the experience and Petersham couldn't even be bothered to respond...

A deeply disappointing experience from start to finish.

My mother bought a voucher for afternoon tea for my partner’s 40th. Unfortunately, my partner fell ill 24 hours before the booking and had to cancel. Despite explaining the situation, she was charged a £60 cancellation fee due to the 48-hour notice policy. The staff member was unsympathetic and simply repeated the rules. Fair enough—those are the rules—but given we were tied to using the voucher, it felt particularly unfair. If we hadn't had the voucher, we probably would’ve just cut our losses.

She asked for an extension on the voucher, unsure whether she'd recover in time or whether we'd both be available before it expired. She was told to email the shop, which she did—requesting both an extension and a goodwill refund of the £60. A week passed with no response, so she followed up. The reply ignored the refund request but granted a one-month extension. When she replied to thank them and asked again about the £60, she received no further response.

We visited this weekend—putting aside the lost deposit—but the food was underwhelming. We arrived at 2:10 for a 2:30 booking but were told to “come back later,” despite the venue being half empty, assuming this meant in 20 mins we sat outside and waited. When we were seated, the food arrived immediately, suggesting it had been sitting out waiting for the 2:30 guests. The menu wasn’t what I’d expect for a traditional afternoon tea, but I was open to trying something different. Unfortunately, it was all pretty bland: ciabatta with mozzarella, trout on brioche, a dry vegetable tart, and a bland pea and goat’s cheese tart. The cakes were fine, but nowhere near the standard the price would suggest. We've had high tea at the Savoy, Ritz, and the Langham—the price point here isn't that far off, but the quality is.

While our server was polite, the overall atmosphere felt indifferent—as though the staff were simply going through the motions.

Overall, it felt like we were just a number in what seems to be more of a tourist/Instagram trap than a genuine high...

The service here is one of the worst if not the worst I’ve ever experienced in London. We were lured by the beautiful setting and the promise of an idyllic afternoon tea in the sun but left with the incredulity as to why we just paid £45 each to come here.

We booked in advance but had to wait (standing among a non-COVID friendly crowd) for more than 30 minutes to be seated. There was no separate line or reception for those who booked. No one was there to point us in the right direction. When I finally found someone to ask if we need to queue as well, I was told our table wasn’t ready yet. The staff who was supposed to take us completely ignored us and treated us like some children begging for candy. Never came back to us in the end. There were at least 5 other groups who haven’t booked who were seated while we waited. We had to corner another staff in the end to finally let us sit.

They offered us some proseco as an apology, which we thought was nice and was the end of that. But no. We had to wait another 45 minutes until our tea and cakes came. I then asked for sugar and a teaspoon at least 5 times to 5 different staff. The spoon never came, not until we finished our cakes (which it should have been there in the first place! We’re having afternoon tea for god’s sake), We ended up stirring our tea with the end of our knives. Among the 8 things we ate, we only liked one. There was a dish that was essentially a mini tart cup filled with mashed peas the size of a coin ... I wouldn’t have complained so much if this wasn’t £45. With that money we’re really better off going to a nice hotel in central London for tea. The setting was never good enough to make up for everything else.

Tbh, I don’t think it was the direct mistake of the staff but because of how busy and how disorganised everything was. This place really need to rethink...