The Pavilion Cafe — Restaurant in London

OK guys, how any local guides can give this anything more than 3 star makes me think they've never experienced a really great Cafe. Firstly, many of the reviews are obviously based on previous management, so I suggest only referring to recent reviews-which are generally BAD. Things 'not' in control of management here are obviously good- a central park location, plentiful parking (for those who really 'must' travel by car (I don't), quaint circular two story building of character set within greenery for outside seating and close to Observatory/Planetarium- which is why i give more than 1 star. Royal Parks need to be checking these reviews themselves and getting these guys to up their standards pronto,(same for the other cafe by lower park gates-again only just over 3 out of 5 from reviews) This gives the multitude of overseas visitors here a dire impression of all of we locals and the UK in general when it comes to cuisine/customer service and cleanliness- let alone being able to make a decent cup of coffee which is more than lukewarm. (on my first recent visit here my coffee was just warm, and on this visit guy in front of me was returning his for same reason, so baristas poorly trained.) As previous reviewers have noted (and mgt. obviously ignored,) cakes etc should be under glass ideally behind counter, not on open display-really allowed? In winter with the amount of coughing and sneezing there's no way i would be tempted though they look fair as cakes go (not a patch on those in the Kew Greenhouse Cafe i sampled day before on visit to Kew Gardens (see my review). They could take lessons from that place here and improve things no end. Prev reviewers also noted seating-uncomfortable bench style upstairs. And still using a large fan heater downstairs-no central heating still? BUT, the biggest problem by far- tables are not being cleared!! I was there around half hour and didn't see one table being cleared (or cleaned!) by staff. Customers themselves were having to move dishes/cups/food wrappings to any empty table where they were already getting piled. just so they could sit somewhere. some were even taking them to central collection point and emptying food waste/paper waste in th the recycling bins for the staff. Dear Management- This is NOT a McDonalds! And at £2.85 with no reduction for using real cups rather than take away containers which contain non recyclable material, no incentive to use the china and eat/drink inside. Again Kew Gardens themselves have it sorted, they have a luxury cafe (Botanical) amongst several other cheaper options, which is £3.05 for a cappucino, but my my, -service 5 out of 5, politeness/cleanliness/hygiene standards/friendliness-they all said goodbye sir/madam and actually smiled!/quality of tea+coffee-all deserve 5.5 out of 5 if that were actually possible. I suggest since the staff appear disgruntled/overworked/unhappy in their work, that management/owners are pocketing too much of the profits from this 'constantly fed by park visitors/tourists perfect location' to bother with hiring either enough staff or the properly trained staff-its not the staff's fault that Mgt. do not pay for enough staff to run this efficiently on what is not even a peak weekend. Come on Royal Parks, you should know how to run a cafe by now, and how to remove management teams that do not make the grade-and you should be looking at reviews on google/trip advisor and the like-not relying on a constant flow of daytripper's. We locals want to be proud of our home town-there are better...

I probably need to revisit on a quieter day to get a proper feel for this place, but today (Easter Sunday) it was so busy, that it was just utter mayhem! I can imagine that on a quieter day this would be a gorgeous café to visit and enjoy a coffee - unfortunately, today was not that day!

The building itself is beautiful, with lots of outdoor seating. Once we entered the café, there were people everywhere. We didn’t have a clue if they were queuing, or waiting to pick up their orders. So we joined what looked like a queue for the tills. The queue eventually branched off into two lines, and when we thought it was our turn to order, the cashier called to a customer in the other queue to come over!?? I asked if we were in the right queue, and she said yes. When she eventually got around to serving us, she basically barked at us when asking what we wanted to order. The writing on the menu behind the tills is quite small, so we had to wait until we were at the till to see it, choose and place our order. We wanted to sit in, she asked us what our table number was, I said we didn’t have one, she said we couldn’t eat in without a table number and would need to take it away. It was obvious she was getting frustrated with us, and probably felt we were holding the queue up, but there’s no notices saying you need a table number, etc. Anyway, we ordered take away, but ate in. The entire conversation was very rushed, and not good from a customers perspective.

Now, they’re incredibly quick at taking your orders (and money) but the speed of service was painfully slow. We were waiting (with around 10-15 people) for over 15 minutes for our drinks order. During that time I saw several people returning their drinks, as it was either incorrect, or they’d accidentally picked up the wrong drinks in all the confusion. Once we eventually got our drinks, we then had to wait around another 10 minutes or so for my son’s pizza.

To be fair our long awaited coffees were good, and my son enjoyed his pizza. But the service was so unorganised, and really confusing for myself, let alone a visiting tourist for whom English is not their first language.

I was actually going to give them just 1* but I understand that today was probably exceptionally busy for them. I also understand that staff are probably under tremendous pressure, but customer service should be their priority. Perhaps clear signage regarding table seating, and menus on the cake table to peruse whilst queuing would...

I just visited the cafe for the first time today and it was the most unpleasant experience. Honestly, it was a bizarre experience, if not short of embarrassing.

I tried ordering ng Cream Tea because there were posters everywhere all over the walls about it. The lady at the counter just heard “tea” and punched it on the till. I clarified and told her I wanted Cream Tea. I then proceeded to ask to get the set that comes with scones and jam. She m pointed to the table behind me and said that I had to pick one, to which there wasn’t any. I was told afterwards that they were out of stock. At this point, I just said, “if that’s the case, can I please just change my order to an iced americano?” And she just goes “are you sure?” To which I said, yes, I don’t want any of the cakes behind me so I’d rather have coffee than tea.

I had to repeat two more times that I just wanted Iced coffee, and her response was “It’s okay it’s okay” and told me to leave! I told her I wanted to order AGAIN, even signalling my watch to pay, but she just again said “it’s okay” and then signalled to shoo me away with her hand. After which, I stood there wondering what on earth happened. Instead of clarifying, the lady just ignored me.

I just wanted coffee. Take my money. Please. Your customers are not people to shoo away if you can’t be bothered. Whoever that lady was at the till, I give you zero stars.

P.S. the staff also messed my friend’s order of an Iced Caramel Latte (they forgot the caramel). The same lady at my till rushed so quickly and grabbed the drink from the collection counter, carelessly pumped caramel inside and all over the actual cup and cover because she couldn’t be bothered then sloppily handed over...