Alfresco Caffe — Restaurant in Newark and Sherwood

Greatly overrated. I arrived 15 min before closing time, 4pm on a sunny Spring Saturday, and was told this by a grumpy owner who then gave me no chance to say I would take my custom elsewhere but proceeded to prepare my order, attractive looking tray bake jam tart and cappuccino. I was unceremoniously charged £6.50. Proceeding to sit outside in Bull Yard I found that I had been given the corner piece of the tray bake which was nearly all thick crust. The cup size cappuccino was just that 'cup size'. Almost immediately I was surrounded by young staff clearing tables and outdoor furniture. everything but me and what I could hang on to. At about five to four I even had a strong hint of a clearing visit from the owner's equally severe, unsmiling and uncharitable 'nunber two' who took my plate and told me the owner had said they close at 4. I even overheard a young member of staff saying as he dashed inside just after 4 that he didn't want to be in trouble.

This place is run on an authoritarian pattern and the customer is never right. Wild horses wouldn't...

I've been here a couple of times before and it has been excellent. Unfortunately today not quite the same experience ordered lge cappuccino and sausage sandwich. Can't fault the food . Sausage a bit under browned for my liking but I didn't ask for it to be well done and as I said was lovely. When I sat down unfortunately I didn't put the little wedge of wood with the order number on show and young man who came to find me showed his distaste with a kind of shrug.. yes I didn't realise the number wasn't on show but hardly the end of the world. He in general was miserable and sluggish and looked like he would rather be somewhere else. Not really a good impression. The two owners I have to say were as usual lovely. It's a shame and hoping my next trip there...

Spent 5 minutes explaining how I preferred the fried egg to be cooked, failing which they were instructed to ' just cook it hard'. But, to please Just make sure there is NO uncooked white of the egg remaining. What a waste of my time. The egg arrived exactly how I'd asked it NOT to be! Wow! Did the chef even listen! £16.40 for 2 extremely weak cups of tea with cups laughingly, the size of a thimble. Outrageous. And two undercooked snotty fried eggs with a piece of bacon. Utterly disgusting for what I paid. Never again. It was that bad, I made a special effort to leave a warning...