Proud Mary's — Restaurant in London

Not entirely sure how proud Mary would be about this place if she knew the way it was run.

Of the two times I've been to this place, both times I've left frustrated. The first time I went with my daughter for a spot of breakfast, and she wanted a full English, but being five years old, probably didn't need an adult portion (she didn't really need the breakfast at all, but I felt like giving her a little treat). I asked the waitress if they did a child portion, and she flatly told me, "no". I then asked if she could halve the adult portion - "No, you'll have to order the full breakfast". I explained that one of the breakfasts was for a five year old, and would it really be that much of a pain to just cut the amount of food in half and then charge me half price. It seems like such a small concession to make for a customer. No, apparently, I simply had to order two adult breakfasts for me and my five year old. I ended up ordering one and just sharing it.

The second episode was this morning, which is what compelled me to write this review. I went in with my wife for a cup of tea, and she decided she'd like to get breakfast, too. She asked for the full English, but asked that instead of toast and beans, could she have some of the avocado mash (also on the menu) - "No, you can only have what's on the menu". My wife said she didn't mind paying extra, she just didn't want bread and beans. "No, we can't change anything, I'm afraid".

This is an insufferable amount of inflexibility; I'm baffled by that kind of attitude. These places live and die on their local trade, and this is a two minute walk from me, but I'll absolutely never step foot in there again as a result of these two experiences. It would be less galling if it weren't so incredibly expensive. It's almost exorbitantly so - especially for Shepherd's Bush.

It was dead in there this morning, there were five members of staff, and three customers - two of them being myself and my wife. Once we'd left, they were down to one. If they'd have been able to just drop the toast from the breakfast and replace with a bit of avocado, they'd have earned some money - isn't that the point of a business?

It claims to be a "laid back breakfast and lunch cafe", and it's anything but. Heaven forbid you have any dietary requirements - you either order exactly what's on the menu, or you get stuffed.

It's such an incredible shame that they are so inflexible, the decor and general ambiance of the environment are very nice. It's one of those places you can see yourself spending...

Ordered an orange juice and a brunch of avocado, sausages and halloumi - and assuming sausages is plural meaning at least 2, I was disappointed to see only one sausage which was cut into 2... and by the way, was pink on the inside - bearing in mind this was pork and I bought it to feed my toddler, I felt scared to feed him so I ate it instead.. The orange juice was great but it was served in a dirty glass, that felt like flour when I touched it by the lovely waiter did offer to change it - so that was good.

My halloumi cheese was battered to death in the frying pan and was really hard to eat it as it was overcooked. The first time I visited Hummingbird, I had a flourless chocolate cake, which had pieces of egg shell in it, but I gave it my last shot today at the Hummingbird. I think its a lovely idea of a café but a few things do need to be improved - offer at least 2 sausages for the brunch - for £8.50, I am sure you will not lose much profit and will have returning, satisfied...

You'd think between c.9 employees in a cafe the size of a postage stamp, that wasn't very busy for a Easter Saturday morning - a take-away order of a cappuccino and sausage sandwich couldn't go that badly wrong? Hmmm. I gave my order 3 times to one of the 3 waiters who were loitering at the entrance of the cafe. I then had to repeat my order 3 times because she kept hearing latte when I was saying C.A.P.P.U.C.C.I.N.O. After about a 15 minute wait - in which I had to suffer the staff's inane and soul-destroying conversation about who had the skills to draw an Easter bunny on the blackboard - I was given a "latte". Five minutes later, I clarified to the barista (and only person who seemed to be working) that I was also waiting on a sausage sandwich and looking embarrassed, she confirmed that the order hadn't been placed with the kitchen. All in all, an extremely frustrating experience and my last visit to the...