The Roastery — Restaurant in London

This place is next to Kew Bridge train station. A lot of the footfall is from people about to get on a train and grabbing a coffee/bite to eat. Therefore they often don't have long to hang around and wait to be served/coffee made.

I put up with their slow service a few times because the coffee is generally decent and the food is good quality (which is why it's 2 stars, not 1).

But I was standing by the till today, train coming in 5 minutes, 3 staff members in the kitchen area doing non-essential food prep and NONE of them came up to take my order. After about 100 seconds of me staring in disbelief, one of them bothered to acknowledge me and said they would be over in a few seconds (which was more like another minute), to which the train was coming in 3 minutes and they hadn't even taken my order, let alone made my coffee, so I just left.

The level of customer service is appalling. Given the location and type of customers that come in, you would think they understand the need to be quick (I can live without the smile and friendly service).

Edit 07/02/2023- I came in here one more time from desperation of needing a coffee. My train was coming in 8 minutes so I thought there should be enough time to get a coffee and get onto the platform. Just two people in front of me in the queue, so you'd think 5 mins and you should be out. 10, yes TEN minutes later, I got my coffee and MISSED my train. Absolutely Never again. Avoid this place of you're coming for a coffee and...

Recently opened in the disused Kew Bridge station ticket office, this is a top quality café. Definitely a step up from Costa and Nero.

They do a broad range of drinks, and blend their own coffee. They do a choice of blends, depending on whether you like your coffee strong and dark, or lighter. Drink prices are on a par with the chains, but in my view, better tasting. There is also an extensive range of hot food, cooked freshly on site to order. Again prices are only slightly more than you'd pay in a chain for a pre prepared snack heated up.

I had a bacon and egg roll. It comes in a large brioche bun, and had crunchy fresh lettuce and tomato so you can convince yourself it's a bit healthy too. Drinks to go are ready quickly, hot food takes a bit longer so plan ahead if catching a train or bus.

Conveniently you can see the bus times to London from the dining room, and a side door goes straight out onto the station bridge. The dining room is a good size with comfortable chairs and will be especially popular come bad weather. There's a customer toilet and the place is fully accessible. A wonderful addition to the local...

This place is style over substance.

I went in today and purchased a sausage roll, which looked very appealing.

The friendly server heated it up for me, packaged it nicely then said “£4.99 please”, I thought that’s a bit extortionate, but it did look good, so I tapped my card and off I went.

As you can see from the photo, the packaging is a bit excessive for a sausage roll, I think that’s what most of my £4.99 paid for.

I tucked into the sausage roll with the completely useless wooden fork they gave me, I noticed the sausage meat was wrapped in filo bloody pastry, who does this? There wasn’t a sausage in the “sausage roll”, just crumbled pieces of tasteless, mince meat with absolutely no seasoning.

I actually struggled to eat it, not only was it tasteless, it was drier than the Sahara desert! If it wasn’t for a few drips of tasty hot sauce that was lying around my office, it would’ve gone to waste.

Also, the cardboard box it came in had edges sharper than a Samurai Sword, luckily, I still have all my fingers intact.

2 stars because of the...