Longparke Farmshop & Café — Restaurant in Scotland

Visited for the first time and unfortunately don’t see us returning. Despite a great website and social media, the experience doesn’t match up.

Upon driving up, felt the outside lacked much of a presence or aesthetic however inside was lovely. When coming into the shop, we felt it was really amazing to see so many delicious looking products and the display was gorgeous. However there was no staff on the til to purchase anything.

We made our way through to the cafe / restaurant and were sat down quickly. The staff were very pleasant but clearly some were more experienced than others.

The menu was confusing by only stating some items were gluten free and not all options. I had to check with my server if I could actually have the Halloumi Salad and the chips as I was sure I would be able to (being celiac 10 years you know what you can and can’t have pretty well). I’m aware with chips that sometimes you can’t have them due to shared friers and they assured me that are safe for celiacs so surely this should be marked GF on the menu.

There were also numerous spelling mistakes on the menu - not a good look or an indication that attention to detail is their strong point, which went on to be a theme. We never received the water for the table like we asked for twice, nor were we informed of the yoghurt not being available on the pancakes (we were only got told when asked after beginning to eat them), the chips were cold, getting a surprise of a flavoured syrup in a coffee we didn’t order and, we never had any of the finished plates removed from the table even after 30 mins of being finished and subsequently being served coffees and cakes.

We also found it confusing that after ordering a kids ice cream, the waitress returned 5 minutes later to inform us that we had to go to the shop to get it ourselves and they couldn’t get it and bring it to the table for us. Upon going through to get the ice cream, we had to come back to ask a staff member to come through to the shop to serve us.

I was also disappointed to see in the baby changing toilet that the mat was badly damaged. A cheap replacement is easy sourced.

I feel this place started out with good intent but has quickly become overwhelmed. The lack of staff (and experience) coupled with accepting in too many customers they could cater for definitely impacted looking after the tables / customers that were already dining.

I hope they can take on the feedback / review and not let down...

This venue has a small 'farmshop' and a larger cafe/restaurant attached. The car parking is on rough ground and is not marked, so spacing is haphazard. It was a busy day when I arrived but I did find a spot, if it's a very wet day stout shoes should be considered. The footpath into the shop is paved but a lot of the paving stones are broken making it an uneven entrance, care needs to be taken here. The reason for that appears to be the lack of boundaries in the car park and vehicles driving over the path. Once inside you find the shop which had the usual collection of biscuits, jams, chutneys, expensive gin, some children's bits and bobs and a display of candles/smelly aroma stuff. It'll take about 1 -25mins to go around it all. The restrooms are on the left before you enter the eating area, they were clean but not large and there was a wait to use them. The staff were friendly and nice throughout, I don't know her name but there was a Canadian woman who was really helpful and pleasant as well as being efficient. The food was ok, it's not particularly noteworthy but no complaints with the quality. The table order was not completed and we ended up with one person not getting their's until everyone had finished (or almost finished) theirs. Coffee was ordered to go with cakes but the drinks were incredibly late arriving. Again nothing wrong with quality but there was an obvious disparity in staff to customer ratio as it was a busy day. Those are the things that cause me to grumble, why have coffee and cakes but deliver them so far apart it becomes two very separate elements. Would I go again? Very likely, but I'm not...

I was looking forward to a rare child-free hour for coffee and breakfast, but this place was a huge disappointment. Despite the café being nearly empty (just four tables occupied), I had to wait a couple of minutes to be seated, with no reason for the delay. As a solo diner, I was put in a far corner and then ignored completely. No acknowledgement, no chance to order even a coffee while I looked at the menu.

After sitting there for around 20 minutes and trying unsuccessfully to get someone’s attention, I got up to leave as my hour of bliss would soon be up. Nobody noticed. At the desk, when I explained I was leaving due to the lack of service, there was no apology, just a late, “what would you like to order?” On my way out I raised it with a senior-looking staff member in the farm shop, but instead of concern I was told I should have gone to find someone.

This was my first visit, found via Google, and the menu looked promising. Sadly, poor customer service ruined the experience. With a little effort from management on basic training and awareness, they might not be so empty on a summer...