The Refectory — Restaurant in Newark and Sherwood

This was my very 1st visit to this establishment, set in the grounds of Southwell Minster which is a very popular location with the locals(the older generatiions are very noisy with it aswel )With outdoor seating for when the weather permits & plenty of tables inside which are all on ground level and it also incorporates the Cathedral gift shop to the rear.On this occasion it was very busy & 10 mins ish wait was needed till a table came free,cleared then cleaned (very pleasing to see)by the busy staff .There's a quite a varied drink & menu choices which includes some strange variety meals on the special board on the wall ! .With table service provided, my party of three decided on tea for two,a Cappuccino coffee & 2portions of 2slices of Sourdough toast with marmalade & jam, after an initial enquiry as this wasn't on the menu but looked nice when bring served elsewhere in the room .There was a nice large tea pot for the shared drinks but along with the Cappuccino coffee which came pretty quickly but really far too early as there was along wait for the toast as it was very busy with orders, resulting in the coffee being half left & cold due to the wait.The Sourdough toast was very tasty but the crust was like concrete & slightly burnt on my 2 slices which I left as I didn't fancy a visit to the dentist.The place is dog friendly for those with animals which I'm not fond of having inside a foody place.The toilets facilities were nice & clean,the gents hand drier takes 4 or 5 go's as it doesn't stay on long enough to dry your hands ! .Payment is made by card at the counter...

We stopped by on a hike through Southwell hoping for food and coffee, but had to settle for just coffee. Staff were as welcoming as you can expect minimum waged Saturday staff to be, it looks clean and the toilets are decent. There's a slightly confusing one door for in, one door for out one way system still in place that isn't apparent until you're inside. It's immediatly apparent that food here isn't cheap, the specials board show a sandwich with crisps and salad starting at £10 which I slightly expected given the type of area Southwell is.

There were no vegan friendly food options at all(all the vegetarian options contained cheese or butter), not even vegan cakes or flapjacks. Soya milk is 60p on top of an already expensive coffee and the coffee was luke warm with only a single shot of coffee in it.

Many of the customers were a lot older than us and as a consequence there was a lot of loud conversations as people whose hearing might not be great struggle to hear each other. Which is fine unless you want to talk to the person you're with as well.

Wouldn't visit again, probably better off heading to a pub or somewhere else in Southwell for a better chance of getting some vegan food or snacks and more reasonably...

Had THE most awful experience today- I usually enjoy this cafe as the location is perfect for when I go to visit the minster however I feel so let down by today’s events. Please have words with the waitress working today maybe in her early 50s, dirty blonde, pony tail and wearing a navy sweatshirt. She has the most disgusting attitude. Whilst waiting for my friend she spoke harshly to me I suppose she was thinking I was waiting for her to seat me however it wasn’t the case, after frequent glares from her we did get seated only to be told by her at 11:30 that we are no longer allowed to order from the breakfast menu that is supposed to finish at 11:45. We were informed by her that we could not order food now until 12pm. We were fine with that and enjoyed our coffees despite her hostile attitude and at 12 when we could order she walked straight past us knowing we were waiting and deliberately served a couple who came in a long time after us. It’s a shame that waitress served us today because her bad attitude does not do justice for a coffee shop with...