Grounds Café Milton — Restaurant in South Cambridgeshire

Oh, where do I begin with this delightful establishment? Picture this: you stroll in, hoping for a pleasant experience, but are met with "out of order" toilets and staff who seem to have been trained in the fine art of grumpiness. Customer service? Clearly an abstract concept here. The outdoor seating area features a charming DIY cleaning station, complete with a spritz bottle and paper towels, since the staff apparently don’t believe in maintaining hygiene. The culinary offerings are equally exquisite: pre-packaged meals lovingly reheated in a sandwich toasting machine, ensuring a taste experience as memorable as a cardboard sandwich. The clientele? A sweaty congregation of happy joggers who seem to be the only ones not dismayed by the bare minimum service. For the discerning visitor, might I suggest bringing your own picnic hamper and fetching a coffee from Costa at TESCO Milton beforehand? The staff here won't mind, as they’ll be too busy perfecting their rudeness with the queue of unsuspecting patrons. Or better yet, skip the visit and enjoy a peaceful walk in the park. Truly, an unforgettable experience for all the...

Just so rude.

We’ve been regular customers of the cafe for the last 10+ years, usually before/after a parkrun or junior parkrun on a Saturday or Sunday morning. The food and drinks are fine, though pricey. We’ve never minded because we like supporting the park and the cafe.

Today, I was bluntly confronted for the crime of walking through the empty cafe towards the toilet without making a purchase. My cheery good morning was countered with “the toilets for parkrun are at the car park.”

Turns out there’s no consideration for regular customers. Without payment, I was not welcome. Do I need to explain that I’d be back later for coffee and cake? And that it’s reasonable that I come in for a bit of toilet tissue for a runny nose, now?

So, Coffee World it is. I’m fully dismayed at the lack of friendliness. I had always thought the cafe appreciated parkrun for the custom it brought. Perhaps they’d rather we stick to Costa and Coffee World. Leave Grounds to the dog walkers.

… I’ve learned it was the manager who corrected me on my visit today. And she was just so proud of...

Visited here this morning and it was quiet, had no more than 5 other customers in for context, so wasn’t like service was fully under way and the staff were rushed off their feet so customer service could be slacking. The staff were unfriendly and quite frankly rude, we had 2 children with us who were excited and started playing on the ramp upstairs out of the way. All the customers (4 people) were smiling at the children laughing and having a good time. They were screaming or approaching the tables, they were simply going up and down this ramp a maximum of 3 times and we had the manager storm up the stairs and have a go at us and to be considerate of the other customers. We were nothing but considerate, they were not harming anyone or putting any one of their drinks or food, so couldn’t see where she was coming from. Never have I had someone so negative and nasty from the get go have a moan at me for my 2 year old laughing playing around. This is a family park that encourages family days out but the cafe seems to hate children, won’t...