Lilly Cafe - Milton Keynes — Restaurant in Milton Keynes

We were excited to see on Instagram that a new, independent café had opened in Milton Keynes.

It's always nice to support local, independent businesses and we were very keen to give it a try and hopefully become a regular customer.

Unfortunately, whilst their Instagram page has some lovely looking photos, our experience was very disappointing.

Lilly Café is located in Whitehouse Park, a new development in Milton Keynes, that is still very much under construction. The café is located within a building housing a health centre and it's actually not particularly clear how you find the entrance which appeared to be solely hidden at the back of the building.

When we arrived, the café was quite busy with just a couple of tables free. We sat down, perused the menu and then went to the counter to order. Despite there not being a queue to order, I was kept waiting for several minutes without even so much as an acknowledgement from the two gentleman behind the counter.

Eventually our order was taken and we sat down. We waited, and waited and waited. Several customers who had arrived before us had asked where their food was and it appeared that many people who had ordered after others, received their food before them.

In many instances, diners within the same group, sitting at the same table, received their food at completely different times to each other - five, ten or more minutes apart.

The gentlemen serving behind the counter appeared to be rather stressed with each other and occasionally other staff appeared from the kitchen pointing in various directions.

There was a very chaotic feel to how the place was run. Clearly, whoever is in change has never run an operation like this before. The menu isn't particularly complicated and there was no excuse for the long delays.

After an hour of waiting for our order, despite questioning where it was earlier, my 'food' arrived which was supposed to be a chicken and cheese toastie. What arrived was a cold, untoasted sandwich containing what looked like half a slice of cheese, something akin to (but not necessarily the same as) a Kraft cheese slice. The 'chicken' looked like it has been through a shredder several times and was in hundreds of pieces. The menu stated that sandwiches came with salad and potato chips but there were no potato chips and the 'salad' did not look very appetising.

It transpired that my wife's food, Avocado, Egg and Roasted Tomatoes, had still been forgotten and we heard one member of staff say to another that it should have been ready 'over an hour ago'.

We were not prepared to wait any longer, so asked for a refund, which they did provide without any quibble and we left having not eaten anything at all. There was no apology nor explanation, for the shocking service.

The management should be ashamed of the shambolic, third-rate service provided. I understand a former café within the same space closed after a short period and I can definitely see Lilly Café going the same way.

If you have hours to wait for a mediocre lunch that doesn't resemble what you have ordered then this place is for you, but if you want something a lot nicer then head up the road to Stony Stratford where you will find the likes of Bean In Stony and French Affaire who are run by experienced operators and who understand how to operate a first class establishment with the service standards that...

We are regular’s at Lily’s Cafe and have always recommended them to family & friend and also to my instagram followers. The owner the Palestinian lady & her Pakistani husband the chef were so lovely, we had a good chat with them on our first visit & ever since we have been visiting as the food is lovely and the atmosphere was good: We went today was extremely disappointed with the service we received.

We walked in and sat at the table only to find it was dirty. I asked the lady at the till to please clean our table she said ok and totally ignored us. We waited another 7 minutes and asked one of the waiters the owners nephew (i later found out) can we have our table cleaned please. He went off i thought he was going to come back. Waited another 5 minutes and went up to the till again and asked another lady if she can clean our table she was lovely came over straight away with a spray bottle and a cloth upon seeing her come to our table the nephew came with another spray bottle and cloth to wipe one side of the table leaving the other side when i pointed it out he grudgingly cleaned the table and said do you have a problem. Came up behind the till and he goes i’m not a servant. I said i asked three people and twice i was ignored until the third time the kind lady came thats when u jumped up. Wouldn’t you be annoyed?

He was angry and agitated saying i’m rude i said i asked you nicely yet u ignored me and when i asked the third person thats when you jumped up. He goes i refuse to serve you i’m not a servant with so much attitude! He was shouting. Believe me i was not impressed he was extremely rude i asked him can i speak to the owners he said he’s the owners and and when i asked again he said he’s their nephew theres no one else here.

This rude young man was so rude and than he refused to serve us not that we would have eaten there with his attitude and rude behaviour. This is a nice place to eat pity the staff let it down and the cleanliness has a lot to be desired. The first we came we have had to ask our tables to be cleaned. We even bought it up with the owners the first time and we heard her having stern words with her workers over this.

This place today was a total letdown i wanted to treat my daughter as it was her birthday we wanted brunch but don't think we will ever come here again! Is it a crime for customers to ask to have their table cleaned? Guess this young man totally needs to fix up his attitude what he did in front of a restaurant full of people leaves a lot to be desired!! No matter how good your food is if your customer services is this rubbish customers won’t be coming back again! We came to Fabrice in Milton Keynes and had an amazing brunch!

I have never left a bad review as this but i had no choice i was totally let down! I felt intimated and the worst experiences ever I’ve had in a restaurant!! If customer service and cleanliness is for you this cafe certainly won’t...

This place is an absolute shambles. I have never ever left a bad review but after today, I feel like I have no choice.

We went on father's day the service was poor. I left a private review and got this response.

"Thank you so much for reaching out and letting us know your experience. This honesty is so important to us. We're so so sorry about your experience. It should never have happened. It was our busiest day ever and we were just overwhelmed. Know that we are working on ironing all our issues out to make sure this doesn't happen again. We would like to make this up to you though. We're starting our Afternoon Tea service next week and we'd love to offer you a complimentary afternoon tea for 2 next week. If you'd like to accept this, please let us know so we can book you in. Azam"

Hesitantly we agree turned up today and the service was worse than last week. No table reserved..found a dirty table. Queued up for 20 mins. The polite over worked waiter said someone from the back will come over and serve us. We waited patiently at a dirty table for a further 10mins, by now annoyed walked towards the kitchen asked to speak to the manager. She discreetly took me outside. Said they preparing our food and are under staffed. I stressed we have been waiting for ages, at a dirty table. Nobody taken our drink order or asked if we wanted additional food for the children. Which we had said initially.

By now ready to walk out she turned up 10 mins later trying to place food on a table I had told her was dirty and had previous customer dirty plates etc on....Then she tried to move the afternoon tea aside dropped some of the desserts which were not replaced. Then was spraying the table where she had already placed the food on. Took the drink order and additional food order. My drink turned up after 5 mins my husbands about 30mins later. All the food was finished and we was ready to go.

This place looks good, the food when it turns up is nice but the service is beyond acceptable. Asking us back for even a worse experience. I would never step back into this place nor would I ever...