Ardens Kitchen — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

REMOTE WORKERS BEWARE.

I’d love a response from the owner as I didn’t catch everything you said in the moment you told me off like a kid in the back. Please justify your response for any future remote workers and how you expect them to behave in your cafe.

First, I have never written a bad review or felt the need to as I know how crucial they are for local businesses. BUT, I’ve also never been pulled aside by the owner of a cafe and told off for using their space after paying and on my way out the door. I didn’t have the time to properly respond to the owner today off the cuff, so I wanted to share this here.

Myself and my colleagues use Arden’s Kitchen to meet in person sometimes (2-4 of us max) and usually have no complaints about the other staff, the ladies who work there are always so kind. We have always been friendly in return.

For context, I have visited 9 times since April 2024 and on average have spent ~£10 per visit as I checked my account history to see if there was any truth in his statements. (By the way, the average spend in a UK cafe is £12.60.)

Today I was pulled behind the counter close to the toilets by the manager saying “can I have a word”, of course I agreed. He then went on to say that even though we come in here and buy drinks/food (he acknowledged this himself and has served us) it is not acceptable we sit "for hours on end" and not be buying things. While I can understand this is frustrating for a business owner who’s looking to make cash, between myself and my colleagues we are not sitting there without spending at all and we all bought multiple drinks. Plus, it’s never actually that much time between getting food/drinks. We’re nearly always gone by lunch time. Still this isn’t the point.

If the cafe was really busy and people couldn’t get tables, we would move. In fact, we even did this on one occasion in December when asked and we left immediately without fuss as this was totally fair. This is never normally the case and there are always multiple free tables.

Some constructive advice. As a server, you can go up to customers and ask if they want a drink. If you want to make more money, simply ask. You can politely ask for the table back if that isn’t what the customer wants. Most of the time the answer will be yes, can I have a… It’s not our job to spend.

He said we are using his cafe as meeting room. Well, yes, that’s what you do in a cafe. You meet.

He had several other complaints like it was disrespectful to leave our own refillable water bottles on the table and we were using all the wifi and “he couldn’t download” something because of it. That’s not our fault, that’s the bandwidth’s fault. We were paying customers and it is the customer wifi we were using.

Finally, he closed by saying, “take what you will from this for next time you come”. What does that even mean? Don’t come back? Come in and spend more every time we visit?

Looking at some of the recent reviews, this isn’t the first time the owner has been strange/rude with customers. The silliest thing about this is you’ve lost multiple repeat customer(S) all for the sake of your pride and not being able to download something on your wifi. And all you’ll have is another empty table and the bad will of a customer.

Poorly handled. We won’t be back, but I suspect you think you’ll be better off. Plenty other spots along the high street.

EDIT: I though a lot on whether I should reply, but I cannot bare the thought of you 'clarifying' being lying. You know you've put your foot in it so you're inflating the truth to cover.

We always arrive with laptops fully charged as it can be generally hard to find plugs. You've lied about the amount we consume we all buy multiple drinks and eat breakfast regularly.

We'd move because the sun was too bright. You've massively inflated the post-it note situation. This was in October, we appologised and you've never spoke to us since.

Never had problems on the high street/town and always welcome. Thanks for being clear about returning. Your polite tone/offer to come talk is...

Aghhhh, how I hate leaving negative reviews, but I am being constructive in order to try and help The owner of this potentially excellent little café. Having initially given it three stars with room for improvement, I’ve now had to downgrade it to one star based on the following: Three weeks ago, I thought I would give Arden’s another Try, as it showed so much potential on my first visit but didn’t quite cut it. When we arrived just after 11am, we tried to order English breakfast only to find out they had run out of bacon sausage and other ingredients. I thought that this must be a one off. Today I called in with my daughter once again, hoping to grab a full English breakfast, and once more they had run out of main ingredients not even being able to supply us with a bacon or sausage sandwich. This is so frustrating, because I know how difficult it is to succeed in any business these days, and I can also see the potential in this café, but the owner appears to make the same mistakes over and over again. After my last review, the owner asked me to give Ardens another try. I did today, but this will be my last visit to Ardens kitchen. I have left this review, largely for the owner with the hope he can turn things around, which honestly wouldn’t take much. It is not left to put others off going, as I know that they are very capable of producing good wholesome food. ……. maybe I was just very unlucky, but I’m sure that something can be learned from this.

First review 3 months ago. Firstly, may I say that both the tea and coffee were perfect. They were both well presented and offered up in a nice large mug. The main issue we had was the poor ventilation, and we came out with our clothes, smelling of ‘fry up’. We had the full English breakfast, but mine was missing black pudding, but I did get two eggs, as they have broken the first one and gave it to me under the second egg which was perfect. Also, the beans I like served in a separate ramekin, as it tends to make everything on the plate, a bit sloppy, especially when they also include chopped tomatoes, rather than half or a whole grilled tomato. My hash brown was also chilled in the middle, and the bacon, although tasty slightly under done for my liking. Having said this, I believe it was the chefs first day working in the kitchen, and when I look at one of the reviews below, I see that the beans and tomatoes were served in separate small dishes, and the bacon looks as if it is cooked perfectly. The café itself is nice and clean and the staff are very welcoming. I would love to try their amazing looking corn beef pie with thin pastry. It looked delicious. I hope that the management view this post, and don’t mind the constructive criticism, as Gosforth really needs a nice café like this. I would love to see...

It was our first-time visiting Arden's Kitchen as we saw it while passing by, and unfortunately, it left us with a negative impression. Upon arrival, we were hopeful to enjoy a coffee and a pleasant meal together. However, our hopes were quickly dashed when we observed the quality of the food on display.

The food looked very stale and unappetising, resembling leftovers that had been sitting out for few days or more. The manager even remarked that the pizza looked like it had "seen better days" and immediately removed the pizza, which is not surprising. The potato wedges looked way too overcooked and dry.

While my partner continued to browse the menu, I came back out from the bathroom, she asked if I wanted anything but she'd much rather go to a well-known bakery down the road instead. The manager had told my partner that the burgers were still good, however they were all wrapped in foil, you couldn't see it at all and she couldn't trust the quality at this point. We extended a courteous apology to the manager/owner for not proceeding with a purchase (obviously nothing is fresh, everything is stale)

To our surprise, the manager's demeanour suddenly shifted, and made an offhand comment, warning us that the restroom was for customers only as we were leaving and started to tell us off like children and said “if everyone from next door and the surrounding area all used his toilets without paying first then they'd all be using his toilet throughout the day and it would be so busy full of people using his toilet so we should be paying and ordering something”. Wow. Really? Ok.

While we understand the importance of maintaining facilities for paying customers, we found the remark very unnecessary, rude, unprofessional and unwelcoming, especially considering that it was our first visit to Arden's Kitchen. This is a clear indicative of a blatant disregard for basic courtesy and hospitality, and given how stale the food is looking (likely to give anyone food poisoning). It's a very poor customer service and offering especially in the likes of Gosforth.

I understand that businesses may have their ups and downs, but the attitude displayed by the manager/owner left a lasting negative impression on us. Stale food, coupled with the dismissive and disrespectful attitude exhibited today, is nothing short of unacceptable. Whether it was due to a bad day or a decline in business, such behaviour is inexcusable.

As a result of this experience, I cannot in good faith recommend Arden's Kitchen to anyone seeking a pleasant dining experience.

In the future, I hope to see improvements in the quality of the food offerings and a more respectful and customer-centric approach to...