Harriets Cafe Tearooms — Restaurant in Norwich

A laughable experience. Visited 26th November at 2pm, had been booked by my husband as a surprise for my birthday. When he booked, he confirmed we had 1 toddler, 1 vegan (me) and 1 gluten free diner. When we arrived, we weren't provided with a childrens menu or high chair (which they apparently don't provide). The room was freezing cold. We asked what the gluten free and vegan options were, and were told that the vegan option was a "ham sandwich" several times, despite explaining a vegan wouldn't be able to eat ham. The waitress that took our order (which we waited 20 minutes for) started by telling us "just so you know, we've had loads of complaints about the wait". Ordered 5 cream teas (1 vegan, 1 gluten free, 1 kids, and 2 special) the 2 special ones requested just cheese sandwiches, and we asked for a cup of water with a slice lemon for my daughter. We were told they couldn't do the slice of lemon, as this would need to be requested from the kitchen and would take at least 40 minutes. We never received the water but didn't chase it as we bought a drink for her with us. The waitress came back 3 times to confirm our order as apparently we had "made it confusing". Our cream teas came almost 2 hours later (my toddler was hungry so we had to get her some food from boots next door), and were wrong. The 2 special ones had the incorrect sandwiches (the manager/supervisor did sort this out) but the childrens one was completely different to what was advertised. Instead of finger sandwiches, we were given open egg mayo and coronation chicken sandwiches, which my daughter found really difficult to eat even with assistance. My vegan one was disappointing, the avocado open sandwich was nice, but the only other sandwiches were a hummus finger sandwich and hummus open sandwich, which was just out of a packet and pretty flavourless. Everyone said the scones were dry, and mine left a weird taste in my mouth. The coffee was nondescript, the teas were apparently fine. My husband said the coronation chicken tasted like it was out of a tin, and the gluten free cakes were dry. The bill came to just shy of £100, and honestly I don't know what we paid for. The place needs some serious TLC - shabby looking, tatty uniforms, peeling chairs and paint, no heating, and an unrealistic wait time considering the amount of other people in there. The service left a lot to be desired (the poor staff all looked miserable, kicking off by advising there were already multiple complaints, and the confusion about dietry requirements was not reassuring), and the food was poor. Would never return, and advise others...

My daughters took me to Harriet’s for the second time for a birthday/Mother’s Day treat . First trip was wonderful . Second trip was eye opening! Food was ok , we had miniature afternoon teas . Nothing special cucumber , ham , egg fingers , a scone with clotted cream and jam , a tiny macaroon and a tiny chocolate chip fudge cake with a pot of tea . We were seated at a table to the back of the cafe opposite the toilet . Not very pleasant area and squashed in . One daughter and myself had decaf tea which was awful , tasted like dishwater ! One of the other customers sitting near the front entrance had been drinking all day and was suddenly not very well , she rushed to the toilet being sick as she went . It was on the floor and door handle . The staff hadn’t noticed so my daughter went to tell them . Eventually the manager appeared and we warned him it was on the floor and door handle , he said is she with you ? No we replied . She’s pissed he said been drinking all day ! He was very rude to us , even though all my daughter did was warn them . There was no wet floor sign used and just paper towel and spray to clean the floor and wipes for the handle . We had already witnessed the manager chastising a young man for not clearing a table . . When we went to pay the manager said sorry about the confuse but I’d had some stick from her table . My daughter said well you was very rude to me after only trying to help. I joined in and said yes you were very rude ! He just said I’m sorry I’m not normally like that . We paid and as we left said we won’t be back . Not very professional at all or hygienic dealing with...

Having received a gift voucher for an afternoon tea experience at Harriets I was very much looking forward to a nice treat together with my daughter this was our fist visit to Harriets and I am sorry to say probably our last. Upon arrival we were not acknowledged by any of the staff as we waited to be seated, after a good 10-15 minute wait we were finally spoken to and taken to our table at this point we were both extremely hungry and looking forward to some food, some 20 minutes later we still had not been served service so slow! again we were not even acknowledged by the staff that were wandering around shuffling tables, had I not had a gift voucher I probably would have left at this point. Our order was eventually taken with a further substantial wait for the food to arrive, without the tea! this followed a while later. Sadly the food was very disappointing, very mediocre, dry hard scones and certainly did not represent good value compared to other afternoon teas I had experienced in the City. Being a Saturday I appreciate it was busy but to be honest as a business you ensure you have enough staff to give excellent customer service and maintain high standards every day of the week. To sum up appauling service, poor food and...