The Farm Cafe by Black Pig — Restaurant in Maldon

Where do I start? 20 minutes to take a drinks order, another 20 minutes for drinks to arrive - it was super busy but I would expect atleast a tap water within 40 minutes of being seated when paying premium. Not 'allowed' to order my food with the drinks (?). When i mentioned after 40 minutes that we were still waiting for drinks was told I had only waited 20 minutes for my drink, correct, what about the initial 20 minute wait to even have our order taken?? I asked why no water was offered?? No water offered because they didn't have enough glasses for everybody and they couldnt have the staff all getting water at once for people because it was so busy back there (what?????)

2 other tables approaching us asking if they could use our menu because they hadn't been offered one, by the time we were allowed to order we couldnt even remember what we'd chosen. Had to then wait for another menu to be brought over.

Told the wait is because a large group (18 people) arrived, so large groups are accommodated at the expense of others experiences?? If you cannot offer minimal service (tap water) at full capacity/peak times reduce your heads, get more staff, buy more glasses or introduce a booking system for large groups. Abysmal service today which leaves a bitter taste when paying £20 for breakfast.

After an hours wait, the food came out wrong (asked for sauce to be on the side as opposed to over the food) didnt send it back as was just frustrated and hungry - it was tasty and the only redeeming quality of this experience.

Really disappointed because this was my go too for brunch, and each time the experience is getting worse and worse.

Peak times and busy periods is not an excuse to give terrible service. I won't...

There were 4 of us, lovely looking cafe and not particularly busy on a Thursday afternoon. My food came, looked lovely, but we were then informed they didn’t have what we wanted on the pancakes- they are supposed to come with berries, yoghurt, honey and chocolate crumbs-we only wanted honey but expected to pay the full price, they didn’t have any honey- surely we should of been told this before I even got my food? I waited for the other 2 meals to arrive, the waitress came over apologised and questioned where the other meals were but returned without the them, we decided to order 1 naked pancake as my daughter was starving, waitress returned from the kitchen still without the other 2 meals and informed us there wasn’t any pancakes left. I finally gave up and ate my by then luke warm bacon, egg and benny. I finished my food before the other 2 meals arrived! One of the meals was wrong so got sent back, waited again for the correct meal. The waitress apologised again and said she would take something off our bill. The bill was put in our table, not a word said by the waitress, nothing taken off. We questioned this and she said management had refused. Never have I eaten a meal when all guests ate at different times! Very...

I was in a party of 5 and we turned up right in the middle of the busy period on Sunday. Of course there wasn't and available seating but a 20 minute wait resolved the issue. This wouldn't have been a problem at all except all the seating outside was soaking wet so we had to stand. Not the venues fault but it's what happened to us. Food was amazing, I was initially a tad vexed at the pricing but the portion sizes along with the ambiance and service more than justify the pricing. I was undecided as to what to have so ended up having kippers with sausage and bacon ordered as a side... delicious and cooked well enough that I was able to remove most of the skeleton in one leaving very few bones in the fish. Very doggy place, which is fine as I love dogs but if you don't, consider that you may be sat near one... Yeah, ...