The Pond Cafe @Tyland barn — Restaurant in Maidstone

I joined a group of 10 ladies yesterday for lunch. I have assistance dogs to help me with my severe anxiety and have a letter from my gp to prove this. I always check that assistance dogs are allowed into the venues I go to so as to avoid confrontation. I checked this at your cafe before visiting. Your website says they are allowed and also signs on the way in. I joined my group. I asked if I could have some water for the dogs. I then had a lady tell me dogs aren’t allowed. I explained they were assistance dogs and they had yellow banners on the leads saying so. I said I had proof even though by law it is not required. I was asked to show it which I did. I was then told that was just a drs letter. That is all that is required. There are no certificates or documents in uk you can get. I was told that I had walked past 3 signs on the way to the cafe which all say no dogs. They do but also says except assistance dogs which they are. All I wanted to do was to leave as I was made to feel as if I had done something wrong. I felt so awful. My friends said to stay as I was not in the wrong. What with all of that and with the manager, I presume, being called in by the staff to come and sort out our table who he had been told was being aggressive and kicking tables which is a complete lie. He also asked if we still wanted our food. It was ready but did we want to stay. Obviously yes as it had been paid for. We had been waiting for about 40 minutes by that time. I have attended lunches with this group many times as it helps me get out and socialise. I have never been treated like this before. I was really looking forward to coming to your cafe and wildlife centre as I have never been before. Unfortunately the experience is one I never wish...

Our party of 10 mature ladies was treated despicably as one of us had assistance dogs and was told she would have to leave. She was called up to show their documents which in itself is not necessary and made to feel embarrassed. She was stressed and anxious and wanted to leave. Not all dusabilities are obvious and they even have a sign saying assistance dogs are allowed! They called in the manager and had told him we were a difficult table and someone had kicked the table which was absolute rubbish. We had waited 45 minutes for our food and apparently they held our food order which we had paid for until he arrived, and asked us if we wanted to leave as we were "being difficult"!! We had no idea this was going on behind the scenes! He did not bother to speak to us ladies to ask what had or had not happened but took his staffs account as gospel. Absolutely disgusted at how they treat someone with a disability. We would never go there again so they lost 10 customers. We had spent over £100 on cold food that had been sitting in the kitchen while they called in their boss. We were not offered either an apology or a refund. Avoid...

Came today for the first time with my parents and my children aged 4 and 7. We were sadly disappointed by the service we received at The Pond Cafe. There was no printed children’s menu available. The staff did not seem very professional or organised. There were black bananas on the counter which covered in fruit flies. These were replaced with fresh ones when I wrinkled up my nose and flapped the cloud of flies away but no other choice of fruit for the children was offered. The table service was quite slow and the adult sandwiches came out before the children’s which meant they had to wait even longer.

The children’s drinks were not brought to the table so I had to get up and check that it was ok to help myself to bottles from the fridge.

Also we did not think much of the furniture choices because the chairs were uncomfortable, heavy and difficult to move in and out from the table due to the uneven stone flooring.

This cafe could have real potential, we were grateful for the books and toys made available for children, it’s just such a shame we were disappointed by the...