Lakeside Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Orton Waterville

A place i find myself returning to time and time again. Excellent view of the meadows and right on the lake, You're right next to ducks, geese and swans.

It is the main cafe & restaurant in Ferry Meadows. Which is a great big green space on the edge of Peterborough. Food and coffee without being overbearing and is right next to the car park. So you can eat on your way in or your way out. It has three different styles of seating including outdoor on the patio, inside the conservatory or in the main cafe space. So there's always a type of seating of that suits why I'm there and who I'm with.

You typically order at the cafe counter, which has a selection of sandwiches, snacks, cakes and cold drinks at the fridge. If you're ordering from the menu, you're given a wooden spoon/spatula with your table number on it. Give the large seating footprint, the started asking whether you're sitting inside or outside kind of just to make the little easier for them to find you :)

Whenever you sit, the seating is not cramped and very spacious. So you don't feel you're eating over someone else's shoulder.

Have a good selection of coffees and cakes and the food is excellent with generous portion sizes. I am often in there for breakfast and they have a nice full English in both meat, vegetarian and vegan options. Though I think the vegan options are slightly smaller it's still a good size.

It's child and pet friendly and also has both high chairs and dog bowls available for water.

It's OK (I'd even say, great) place to work from with a laptop. The two person tables are just about big enough for laptop and meal but plugs are not ubiquitous. There are certainly a few tables with plugs, especially in the extension (not to be confused with the viewing platform or conservatory). So if you are there for work, you might optionally want to find your seat first, but because they give you a spoon with your table number on its, and that can change, it's absolutely no disaster if you don't and it's...

Popped in for breakfast, have visited previously so knew roughly what to expect, but the service was just really poor.

Asked for a menu, was curtly told 'they're at the entrance'. Of course, silly us, of course the menus would be outside the restuarant and not one at the counter. Staff generally didn't seem like they wanted to serve anyone at all.

Asked for no egg with the veggie breakfast as there was no vegan option, was told 'no swapping' when asked if we could have a piece of toast or mushroom instead of the egg. Not blaming the counter staff for that as I know that is the (unreasonable) policy in a lot of places and they are probably told they can't.

None of this would have been so bad had we not paid £8.50 for a breakfast with one piece of toast, one tomato, half a field mushroom (couldn't stretch to a whole one?), a few beans and some spinach. Even with the egg it would have been terrible value.

Coffee was fine, and obviously the view is nice, but not nice enough for the prices charged and the poor service. Would...

I would just like to thank one of the staff at the lakeside cafe for been honest and trust worthy for finding my phone at the payment parking metre after I had done a good deed to a young lady giving her my last pound coins and change as the machine wouldn't accept her 2pound coins. As I was looking for change I put my phone on top of the meter machine. Then left Ferry meadows leaving my phone behind not know I had left it and drove to 2020 buffet in the Peterborough when we arrived i realised i dint have my phone and had to drive back to Ferry Meadows. The cafe was closed but found the staff room and inquired if anyone had handed my phone in? They said yes a member of staff found it and handed it in. In this day and age there are still decent truely honest people out there so thank you lakeside cafe your staff are truely what makes a great place worthwhile...