Raffles Coffee House — Restaurant in Preston

What a great shame to see how this place has deteriorated.

My husband and I have been frequent customers since 2001 when it used to have so much character. There used to be a classy old-time feeling about it and when we were students we loved spending our Saturdays sipping tea there. It is disappointing to see that it has just become another generic coffee house, not much different to Costa, Nero etc. The classic charm has gone. We went in today to hear 'Adele' droning on repeat - not the old-time voices they used to play. It took a while to get anyone's attention to make an order today and it feels like the staff can't be bothered. They seem to have no concept of personal space when they do attend to you. The vegetarian choices are absolutely appalling really and the options in general are nothing inspiring - the usual - toasties, baked potato or sandwiches. I was told the soups today were sweet potato and mushroom or cauliflower - but if I hadn't have asked the staff to find out whether they were vegetarian, I wouldn't have found out they used chicken stock in both!!!! The baked potatoes were so hard, a steak knife would have been better to cut them with. We tried to order a second pot of their lovely Earl Grey (tea leaves are so much better than bags) but after several failed attempts to gain anyone's attention, we decided to give up and leave. Nobody smiled and all in all we left feeling disappointed and ripped off. Very expensive for very bog-standard food and no real...

Looked ok , nice decor , plenty of seating , acknowledged as soon as we came in, got menus within a minute. Table and chairs were clean , everything great so far. Ordered drinks , and food ,received drinks fairly quickly. Drinks were ok, and we then spent the next 14 minutes spinning out drinking them till food arrived. then it all went downhill. 15 mins later I received my baguette, my daughter didn't get her chips. Waited. And ,fairly, remarked it had been a bit. Yes it's not McDonald's,but what we got wasn't even 5 minutes of work (I'm a chef) Lauren said sorry, but that she had placed the order so ..that was that. Chips arrived ,delivered by another lady (I think Lauren had taken offence at me complaining) I ordered a baguette with spicy chicken , this is where it goes downhill again...the baguette was warmed through, but had lettuce in it, and the chicken pieces were cold...what is the point of that? Really poor. Curly fries were ok, so that was a win. Would I go again ? Nope. Service was ok ,it's a shame the kitchen...

tmosphere, excellent service, delicious food, reasonable prices.

I have allergies and intolerances. They take it seriously and always accommodate my choices.

Recommend the breakfast, the eggs are very fresh and the bacon is excellent. Even the sausage is great quality and I have eaten in other nice places in Preston but the sausage here far better, by far. The Americano coffee is my favourite drunk black, its not burned its excellent quality. Likewise the tea and white coffee my family say are super.

The toasties, soup, club sandwich, breakfast sandwich and omlettes are absolutely fantastic.

This isn't fine dining it's a friendly cafe serving home cooked food. The milkshakes and cakes and scones and toasted tea cake are delicious.

It can be noisy because they welcome families and the toilets are downstairs.

Polite staff. I once wasn't too keen on a scone I ordered and I had no issue with the Owner. It wasn't charged for and since then we've been visiting each week for over a year....