Little Charlottes Cafe — Restaurant in Scotland

Really disappointing start to our visit to Islay. After looking up places to eat, this cafe seemed perfect. We arrived, moved some dirty plates from a table for two (so as to not take up a larger table) and then unclear on whether it was table service or not (no menus on table) we went to the till area where two staff were making drinks. We were completely ignored for over 10 minutes. One staff member caught our eye and smiled, but that was it. The other actually had to kind of move past us to serve tables but still it was as if we were invisible. We waited to see if we would be told to sit down, or acknowledged in any way. The staff member just kept moving on to other drinks orders, whilst the other staff member cleaned the machine, avoiding our eye. If it had been table service, it would have been good to know. After standing awkwardly for the ten minutes, we decided to just leave and went somewhere far friendlier and welcoming instead. It was such a strange experience, and one that I feel is embarrassing for tourists to Scotland to receive. More training needed for staff might help, maybe we caught them on an off day...

*Edited following owner's reply - I am very sorry about your health issues.

My review is not intended as any kind of personal attack, but I think that it's fair to provide an honest opinion of our experience as potential customers. We had actually made a detour based on the good reviews, which is why we were quite so confused about our experience which differed greatly. I tend to only "blab" about (both!) very positive or negative experiences, so that these can be shared. I think that's the whole point of reviews?

You're right, I had missed that the "giant menu in my face" mentioned ordering at the counter. I think you may have missed in turn that we were indeed at the counter, and we were completely ignored at the counter. The fact that the menu actually states to order at the counter and then we were left with no acknowledgement whatsoever is even stranger and definitely suggests more staff training is needed. It was very odd.

We can understand when staff are busy, which is exactly why we didn't interrupt them, but having moved on to at least the third drinks order and also cleaning equipment we expected to at least be noticed given that we were probably in the way by this stage!

We were really looking forward to trying the food which looked tasty, but you're right, we didn't get the chance. As said before, maybe it was an off day and I hope things improve for other...

Never been treated like this in a cafe before, the coffee we were served really didn't taste good at all so after deciding to tell the staff we were accused of being very rude by the owner and she proceeded to tell us she or her partner had been having some heath issues but really I don't think that should be a reason or excuse for firstly telling us about it and secondly telling us we were rude and telling us never ever to come back again as if we would have anyway.

Would just like to add that the reply I've just received from the owner would now like to discredit me by saying we had trouble somewhere else in the town where we ate, so as we only ate in one other place the whole weekend and we ate there three times and I gave them a 5 star review. I think she just made that up.

I don't believe I had a problem with any of your staff they were very pleasant, it...

The cafe is in a large room and so has a good number of tables. Unfortunately it’s not well positioned to deal with a lot of orders, made at a small hatch, when I was there the person taking the orders had to make the drinks and this left everyone waiting a very long time - one table was forgotten about completely so after half an hour of waiting the couple had to ask for a refund and left. Nearly every other table had to ask how much longer they would wait. The family next to us bought some cakes to keep them going before their main arrived and their cold drinks never came. Our coffee when it came was lukewarm and had to be remade. The toasties came with nothing on the side and were small portions. The bar in the adjoining room was stacked high with unwashed dishes and plates. All in all it was disappointing, although we liked the decor and the music...