Lakeside Cafe — Restaurant in Newquay

Changing my review as I have boycotted Lakeside. And I've heard similar stories from other locals. Poor service, rude staff, very "clique" clientele nowadays. A couple of years ago, I went in to have coffee and cake with my son and dog. I was having a particularly bad day with my anxiety, however, I force myself into things to make sure my kids have a nice time. We waited at the door for several minutes (only 2 other tables in) We were finally, rudely greeted by an older lady. I asked "is it OK to sit by the fire?" Perfectly reasonable question considering they could be booked. I was rudely told "Well ys because that IS where people with dogs sit". My dog then slightly jumped to greet her, from about 2 feet away where she started screaming "Your dogs going to bite me". She's never bitten anyone and was no where near her so I pulled her away. I then had to find my own menus as they weren't brought over. I ended up leaving where I was then chased by this lady (I believe she was called Jacqui/Jackie) who suddenly had a personality transplant and made out like she couldn't do enough all of a sudden. I told her maybe hospitality wasn't a good vocation for her as I've been in the industry over 20 years and never been treated or treated a customer the way she did. A lot of my friends and dog owners also no longer go in. I hear constant complaints about the place these days. Such a shame, used to be a...

Review #1 - January 2022 Nice food, and atmosphere, although disappointing knowledge of allergens by staff, who suggested "they don't think it contains [x]" whilst seeming reluctant to want to check.

Review #2 - August 2022 Unfortunately I've now downgraded the review to 1 star, from the previous 3. I'm aware that summer has hit Newquay, and it's busy. What I'm not aware of though is the expectation that customers should be treated with distain because you are understaffed/overworked/too hot to be inside.

I was looking forward to grabbing a bacon sandwich, on a nice morning. We packed up my daughter and walked the ~2 miles from our house to Lakeside. Not wanting to eat inside because of the beautiful weather outside, I stood at the takeaway window, at 10:15, and after a few minutes someone approached (with quite an attitude), to tell me that they won't be allowing me to order a takeaway bacon sandwich because "there's a 30 minute wait on food". The restaurant was only half full.

What was clear though is that the staff were all incredibly highly strung. I thought it was maybe that they were understaffed, however I counted 3 members of staff working front of house, for a half full restaurant.

I'll reiterate my point: you'll expect locals to keep you afloat when you're out of season. Don't take us for mugs in the summer months when we want to continue...

I cannot rate highly enough the experience we had at the Lakeside Cafe. I have been a few times before for lunch and enjoyed it, so we made the decision to have our family Christmas meal here, for 21 people.

Start to finish they have been absolutely wonderful, so helpful in arranging the menu and food order by email, decorating our table with flowers, Christmas crackers and sequins. They even went to the effort of name settings so that they brought out all of the correct meals for everyone without any confusion.

We had several waitresses looking after our table and looked after our every need. And the food was Absolutley wonderful.

We will absolutely be coming back here for future meals, and will certainly be recommending for our family and friends.

EDIT * 3 years on and we are back. As expected you were absolutely 5 again. Fantastic at looking after our large party and catering for all the children. Beautiful decorations and table dressings, food and drinks all perfect. Thank you, we love coming back to you!!

EDIT ** another year on and we've come back again, your service is honestly first class. Emailing us for preorders, recognising us when we come in, attentive throughout our visit and all the details like the place settings and knowing our orders even when we don't thank you for once again hosting our family Xmas meal it...