The Willow Tree Arts Café — Restaurant in London

Where to start? Our group experienced bizarre service from a person who I believe had zero people skills. The Willow Tree itself is a perfectly nice place with a simple menu comprising the usual go-to contemporary cafe staples... HOWEVER, THE STAFF ARE LAUGHINGLY AWFUL. On entry we were greeted by silent and non-expressionate faces, so non-responsive that I had to actually stimulate conversation with them in a way that I felt I was having to teach someone how to converse for the very first time (the bizarreness actually started the previous day when we popped in to try and book a table for the following day, only to be met by 3 people who between them didn't seem like they fundamentally understood what I was asking when I said "Can I book a table for 4 people tomorrow?". Anyway...). On trying to explain we had booked a table and receiving the response "Well they don't ever tell us anything" we were then pointed to the main seating area and told "Just pick anywhere" . When we got around to ordering I politely asked if I could swap out a component of the meal for another (which is usually ALWAYS OK ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE ELSE), to which I received a slow and blank shake of the head and a terse "No" and then after some awkward silence from me I got a further "You can get the other thing but you pay extra for it" (fair enough, but there's a way to say that. And ironically the extra thing I wanted? they didnt even have as they'd run out, to which I mentioned "All Day Breakfast? It's 10:50am, I think you probably want to get some more of that?" only to receive the curt reply "Well we close soon". They close at 4pm on Sunday....ANYWAY). After we received all of our food, one of us noted there was no cutlery, to which the previously mentioned staff member seemed to suddenly realise, but then just as quickly chose to (instead of get us some cutlery) silently slow-point at an area where there was some cutlery. At this point a neighbouring table turned around and, rather apologetically, told us "it's awful like that here ... they're soooo bad. It's a nice place but the staff..." . Anyway, I could go on and mention other things but tbh this is by far the longest review I've ever written lol. It's just that we experienced such AMAZINGLY POOR SERVICE that, as the person who made the booking, I feel compelled to pass on the feedback. I wish for no people to lose their job, just for people to show a basic level of competence and interest. Also I am hugely supportive of independent...

I was coming here fairly regularly with my partner, and we both enjoyed getting the breakfast plate, which was previously really good as well as reasonably priced. The atmosphere in the cafe was not always great, not sure why, but some of the people working there were friendly and this helped. However, we came for breakfast last weekend, and had a much worse experience overall. The cafe has changed to table service (with a 'wait to be seated' sign, despite the place being pretty quiet), which made things feel awkward and less welcoming, but some food items have also completely changed, despite appearing the same on the menu. I understand the need for menu development, but the breakfast plate now contains fewer items, and was not as good quality. I also had a ham and cheese toastie, which came out cold and chewy, as if it had been sat around for a while. My partner asked for a filter coffee, but at 10am on a Saturday we were told that they had run out of filter coffee - meanwhile, 3 of the 5 staff members were standing around or leaning against the counter. We also ordered a cinammon bun, but were given a chocolate bun - we couldn't change it, because the cinammon buns had then run out. The service by the person who took our order was not very good, but bordering on rude; though another person was very friendly when I went up to pay. We paid £27 for a really disappointing breakfast, and this is something we can only afford to do occasionally. Having worked in cafes for years myself, I don't take complaining lightly, but this sort of experience isn't good enough when you're paying around £30 for...

Beautiful space and interior but thats about it. I have been to this place few times since it opened and every time it was a massive disappointment and I have regretted going there again. Below average quality of coffee, burnt milk, and poor choice of hot and cold drinks. On another occasion I bought a pricey pastry cardamom swirl as it looks delicious but it was raw dough inside, it put me off these sort of pastries for good. Another time i went for avo toast with egg and avocado was really not fresh, more then half of it was brown. But you couldn’t see it u til started eating, also overly salted. The baby high chairs are absolutely filthy as if they have never seen a wipe. And on every occasion the staff is just so unpleasant. Barely acknowledge you to come in, look really miserable. Actually apart from one lady she was...