The Tea House at Bishop's Park — Restaurant in London

I want to like this place and I should, but the sloppy way it's run and managed let's it down whenever I go there. I have used it 3 or 4 times over the past 18 months when no other option is convenient for me. The queuing system is bad especially when some customers are queuing with dogs off leads, buggies kids swinging bats and balls around or knocking into you with bags of 'whatever'. It's like eating on a busy train station platform. One of the staff taking orders this week spoke hardly any English, this is a struggle when she didn't even know the items on their own menu, so ordering took a long time. They don't take cash, when I asked why, a staff member just said 'I dunno'. There is a tiny notice about cash apparently but it's by the till, only visible after queuing for 15 mins. The food has always been ok to be fair, although ordering for 4 people, can arrive at your table one at a time with minutes between each plate arriving, although that didn't happen this time but has every time before. The toilets didn't work this visit either. There is a public toilet about 50 yards away but when you have kids eating with you, this is awkward leaving the building to visit nextdoor. They are always busy, so I guess they feel they are earning enough to not change anything? However, I feel a well managed venue, attentive owner and a better system would really be...

Food ok but almost every time we go to this cafe some of the staff are rude, unprofessional and "arrogant". I use quotes for arrogant as yesterday night I bought a tea and got the very bad experience to be seen as fool, just because I asked for skimmed milk and when I saw the waitress was serving me semi-skimmed milk I tried to stop her saying I wanted skimmed. She then looked at me in a condescending way, and with the support of her colleagues she answered "but this is skimmed!" by showing me the milk bottle and saying "look, this is written semi-skimmed, and in semi-skimmed, it mentions skimmed!", then looking at her colleague like "this person is fool!". Maybe my foreign accent made me lose credibility at their eyes as I could feel this subtle attitude of superioty... It's a shame, as we come to have a good time which also brings them business, and it turns to a very unpleasant experience! Without to mention the previous times I visited this cafe and faced a very rude waitress, who went until throwing the ice cream onto the counter! I think I will stop going there as most of the times it ends up with disappointment and...

A long awaited update under the new management. Still a few things to improve but we are lucky to have them here. Much loved friendly local park cafe by the kids playgrounds alongside popular walks. Enough indoor seating. Plenty of outdoor seating both in front and at the back. Need a little more attention to what goes inside what they serve: example, avocado in my bagel wasn’t 100%. Otherwise, portions are generous and the food is fresh. Staff is attentive and welcoming. Coffee is good. Ice cream is excellent. Selection of off-the-shelf snacks is fun. Sweet treats are great variety and we always buy too many, because they look so good! Shame they shut their toilets to discourage all the walkers by from using them but hope they can come up with a better solution than that. The park toilets next door are as expected in London: well below standards. Overall we are loving this place and highly...