Bread Source - The Refectory — Restaurant in Norwich

Unpleasant experience - clear lack of staff training and supervisor responsibility though food is very nice. The mostly teenage staff were clearly trying their best but the supervisor behaved extremely strangely, didn't seem to do much other than chat/deflect responsibility and clearly does not train her staff adequately.

Problems started in the queue: the supervisor was chatting with a lady in front of us and didn't respond when we asked for help with food as we had a hungry party of 4. She waved at the display in front of her saying that's all they've got and that they're a bakery with a somewhat rude tone. She then got what looked like a large sausage roll from a heater on the back wall and gave it to the lady in front. We asked her whether we could have some of those too and she walked off saying that there are no more left (there were clearly 5-6 more in the heater), coming back to cover the front of the heater with a row of blue paper towels so we couldn't see the sausage rolls. What a weird thing to do. Next, at the till, we bought cakes but the staff member behind the till (who looked unsure about the environment and was probably new) stacked the cakes onto a single plate and remaining plates underneath, which I'd never seen before in a cafe and indicated that staff training wasn't on the top of the strange supervisor's priority list. Of course, the cakes scattered as soon as the plate was touched and thankfully the one that went on the floor was replaced without cost.

Next, we waited for an espresso for 40 minutes (after the other coffees had arrived, we had asked different servers about the missing espresso 3-5 times and every group after us had been served). Other tables were cancelling orders due to slow service so my mum went up and demanded to speak to the supervisor. Initially, the supervisor wasn't keen to speak with her so sent over a teenage employee (most there) to apologise, which is just spineless - the responsibility of customer service and the running of a business falls on a supervisor. If you can't take responsibility, you shouldn't be a manager. Eventually, the supervisor came over and apologised offering cakes and using the party of 15 they had (who arrived a while after us) as an excuse for poor service.

Ultimately, the staff other than the supervisor looked like they were doing their best but didn't appear to have been trained in operation of the coffee machines or other aspects of the business. I felt really sorry for the employees. What disgusted me most was that the supervisor sent the young lad over to apologise instead coming over herself. How shameful to send a junior employee to apologise for something that is your...

Beautiful building - open, airy and a magnificent use of the unique location. Looked like they had a lovely selection of food and drinks too but, unfortunately, we didn't get to enjoy the scones, capuccino and tea we'd ordered because the wholly unpleasant and thoroughly aggressive intervention of a dark-haired, middle-aged lady operating the till made it impossible for us to contemplate paying any money or even remain in the refectory for fear of what I'd say to her. Her perfectly pleasant colleague had taken our drinks order when this second woman appeared from the back shop area in what seemed like a well-practised "fit" of barely passive aggression, barking at my wife "what did you order?!!" and then making a painful point of looking away from us with feigned, theatrical indifference when we tried to answer her.

Had she been a spoiled teenager it would have been a little more understandable if no less inappropriate. She was obviously angry at something else and determined to take it out on the next cheery customer she met. So "Basil Fawlty" she almost got away with it on comic grounds but we couldn't have lived with ourselves if we'd handed over money in the face of such wilfull, open contempt. We had to just cancel the...

Set inside the absolutely lovely cathedral this is a very picturesque café and very popular. We arrived at just after 1pm and tables were in very short supply with as soon as one group left another group immediately took their place at the table. The options for gluten free here are extremely limited. There are no sandwich options it was simply quiche and cake. Usually there is apparently at least 2 choices of quiche but when we arrived they only had a tomato and red pepper quiche, which sadly only tasted like tomato. I opted for a piece of chocolate caramel cake which sadly was really disappointing as it was really dry and tasteless. In regards to other options for non-gluten free folk there's plenty of sandwiches, though no specific children's options so be warned if you have a fussy eater! The staff were friendly and very welcoming and attentive on clearing and cleaning tables so the cleanliness of the cafe was very good. Overall a 3 out of 5 as the options for me sadly were very lacking and what I could have was a bit...