The Old Courthouse Café — Restaurant in London

Horrible staff. Attended for a meet up with a friend and our children. My one year old has multiple allergies (dairy, tomato, pea, peanut) so I always have to bring food with me when we eat out. Myself and my friend purchased drinks from the menu, however I asked the lady behind the counter if she could heat my daughters food explaining multiple times that she has severe allergies and she wouldn't be able to eat from the menu as everything contained allergens. The lady advised they do not allow people to eat their own food on the premisis, showed me the kids menu and said I could choose from this.. (the menu was for sandwiches, cheese, tomato and ham????).

I again explained these options were all allergens (except pork which we do not eat) so she asked me why I needed to sit in their garden and why I couldn't feed my child on a bench outside of the gate.

As I sat on the garden bench outside feeding my daughter, the woman stormed over and told me to leave the garden as all 'my snacks' (my daughters lunch) were on the table. You should never be made to feel like this when you are out with your children and she definitely needs customer service training!!!!

I was approached by a few other regular customers who mentioned they have also had trouble with this lady before and that the treatment was unfair and unreasonable due to my circumstances. She is very very rude!

This IS NOT child friendly cafe so avoid at all costs, especially if your child has allergies as mine does!

**In response to the below, there are a number of things you are lying about. I did not ask you to heat up anything but a homemade meal I made for my child-as a cafe you will find a lot of mums do this as we need to feed our children and as a mum who's child has multiple allergies, I cannot feed her the food offered at the majority of establishments because they do not offer food free of these allergens.

I didn't slam the menu down as I was holding my daughters food, however I did try to explain that if you offered more of a variety I would have been more than happy to purchase her lunch with you, however after explaining her allergies you proceeded to show me the kids section which was tomato, cheese or ham sandwiches?? At no point was I offered fruit with pasta.

There was no verbal or threatening abuse and you can confirm that on your CCTV. You may think saying that turns things in your favour replying to a review but the truth is I was close to tears for this treatment. I was sitting down, feeding my child when you stormed over telling me to leave, even though we had made a purchase with you, I just couldn't buy my daughters meal with you. The only things on the table of mine were her lunch.

You assumed everything on the table was mine and asked me to leave and when I explained the majority of what was on the table was my friends, you still insisted it was me you wanted to leave, midway feeding my daughter. Im sure you will see on your CCTV that I offered to throw the pizza and sausages away.

If you spoke to me with a bit more understanding instead of being rude, where other members of the public came over to say it was unfair treatment, then you would have understood what I was telling you. The food I had wasn't for me, it was for my daughter who has not 1, but multiple allergies so it is hard for me to find food outside that she can eat. Even though online you advertise your cafe as child friendly, you were in no way understanding of this as it wasn't me being difficult but protecting my child from confirmed allergic reactions. Over 50% of children under the age of 4 have some sort of allergy, so maybe you should review your menu to offer more than ham, tomato or mozerella sandwiches. At no point were we offered pasta and fruit so that is also a lie!

This is an honest review of my experience and I hate complaining and I've never even written a review but I couldn't let this one go! To the point because I said I was going to make a review, you stormed out with your phone and took a photo of me...

Its a shame leaving this review as i have had many happy times here with my children and bought many friends with us to support a local buisness but after a shocking experience last week i wont be returning. We visited with friends and children were happily playing- 1.5 hours into our visit my friends toddler son was hot from bouncing on bouncy castle in the heat (hot day!) and took his top off like a few other boys had also done due to the heat. New Woman owner sends a staff member over to me to rudely and abruptly tell me “YOUR SON HAS HIS TOP OFF, ITS INAPROPRIATE I HAVE TO ASK YOU TO LEAVE OR PUT IT ON” Firstly the child is not my son, and the way i was rudely aproached was not ok. My friend asked why its inapropriate? The staff became even more rude and the new woman owner called her husband who was even more rude on the phone to us! We demanded a refund for the bouncy castle as it cost us £9 for the kids to jump and left. Such a shame the new owners have ruined it. Have had issues in the past regarding staff not being trained properly on...

This is a really awful place and I am incredibly disappointed by my visit as I had heard such good things and was so looking forward to going. They had an appealing looking menu and I really fancied a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich. On the menu they had the choice of a cheese and ham sandwich and a mozzarella and tomato sandwich. I asked if they could make me a cheese and tomato sandwich as I am not keen on mozzarella. They refused! They said it wasn't possible as it wasn't on the menu. My question therefore is, as they had the cheese and the tomatoes why couldn't they simply make me a cheese and tomato sandwich even though my request was off menu? The state of the tables outside was just awful! They hadn't been cleared from previous customers and, therefore, hadn't been cleaned or disinfected. As I say, I am really disappointed but there are lots of other lovely cafés in Barnet so unless there is a drastic improvement, I won't be back anytime soon....