The Kew Greenhouse Cafe — Restaurant in London

Awful, overpriced food, owner lacking in basic understanding of food and customer service. First and most definitely last visit here today. We ordered the vegetable palata which looked like a tasty, large frittata served with salad. The staff said it was spicy as had chilli in it. Not true. What arrived was heavy, dense and rice heavy with the most unpleasant flavour - not spicy at all. Apparently it was flavoured with smoked pepper but managed to be both bland and yet awful tasting at the same time. As a previous reviewer said, the accompanying salad was a joke - even the vinaigrette on the table was awful, old and tasteless. When I asked if they had balsamic vinegar, they didn’t but they gave a pot of sweet chilli which apparently the dish was meant to be served with. It didn’t help at all and we couldn’t eat the meal despite being hungry. This was the worst food I have tasted in a very long time. When I returned the plates saying how disappointed I was and waited to pay, the owner was called. He was defensive, not open to feedback and simply said it was a popular dish and we shouldn’t have ordered it if it wasn’t to our taste (how you can know this when trying a dish for the first time remains a mystery). He also said his vinaigrette was very popular (!). Faced with practically untouched dishes by customers visiting for the first time, his response was to not care at all and we were charged full price and left still hungry with an unpleasant taste in our mouths from the food and the owner’s attitude. Very disappointed and felt ripped off - the dishes we had and two small bottles of water cost nearly £30. Avoid this place at all costs - the food we had was truly awful and the owner (an elderly man) should retire and leave serving food to those who understand how to make palatable fayre and how to...

We can not really give this more than 3 stars overall.

The cafe itself is fine - it screams east london turkish haunt having never been updated since its opening, whenever that was.

Staff are nice enough. Orders are taken at the counter so 1/2 a table service as they do bring food to you.

At some point their 'cash only' rule has been retired, which only makes sense in 2025.

The food, or at least the english breakfast, is passable at best. The poached eggs are absolutely nuked, as is the bacon and the beans, which are volcanically hot on arrival. Mushrooms come directly out of what appears to be a (dated) can. Brown and white toast are absolutely standard tesco fare. Coffee was acceptable.

We are told that for £11.95 - you can call it £12 - we should not complain considering the cost of other breakfasts in the immediate area. If you are going to position yourself as the 'greasy spoon' of kew gardens then you would need more than this fare to make that stick. The quality of food at the Tap on the Line, or even the funny 'torelli' place on the other side of Royal Parade Station Approach with the extremely suspicious website that looks and smells like it has been hacked, is leagues above this.

We suspect this place trades almost exclusively on its fortuitous location en route to Kew Gardens, because it would not last long in Central London selling food like that which we recently...

I am willing to provide a fair assessment of the café I just visited today. The prices firstly are not displayed at the counter as any other café, instead prices are displayed on the window on the side of front door in 10pt font. They also have menus on the tables, but if you are a first timer you wouldn’t know that they were there as you order at the counter. I expected to pay a high price which is fair as it is a small business and as a kew resident I am willing to support the local businesses. Unfortunately £11.75 for a slice of chicken pie reheated in the microwave and a bit of stale salad on the side is a bit of an ask. When I raised the extortionate price I was confronted by the eccentric owner I assumed, who made an insulting comment that if I was unhappy with the prices then I should go to McDonald’s. I am unsure why he raised this as a fair comparison and I can only assume that this was based on his own prejudiced judgements against myself. I questioned why he raised this, which he failed to respond to and just continued to further insult me. On a positive note the dark haired waitress was fantastic and the amount of greenery is inviting. It’s just a shame the quality of food was subpar and is obscenely over priced. Word of advice, in order to not confuse walk in customers, display your prices in the counter windows...