The Green Table Cafe — Restaurant in South Hams

A truly shocking experience at a place I really like which just makes it feel even worse.

Went in with my partner and 5 yr old. Chose some beans on toast and some avocado on toast. So far so good. Took our drinks to our table and began the wait. “Shouldn’t be too long it’s just beans and avocados” was the general sounds of our table. Half an hour passed, my partner had to go back up and get some crisps to keep our little one happy. 45 mins “shall we go check” oh they didn’t get a ticket in the kitchen. My partner had to prove that we paid for it. This was when the issue could have been fixed. You had a technical issue, that’s fine, maybe offer an apology a free drink and rush it through the kitchen, we could have our food and brush it off as a simple slip up.

No. That’s not what happened at all.

We were told it would be rushed through the kitchen. 10 minutes later a tall waiter, taking food to the table next to us, sensed that we weren’t too pleased and had clearly been waiting a while. He offered us a free drink. “Sure we’ll have another apple juice” as that’s what we had ordered over an hour ago. He comes back 5 minutes later. “Sorry no apple juice, coffee?” “Sure a couple of decafs would be nice”

5 minutes after that our food arrived. There’s bacon on the beans which we didn’t order do. They have to go back. Another 5 mins to fix the beans. We ate the avocado but by the time the beans came back our kid was long past being ready to leave so we left. No sign of any coffees coming. Maybe he just pretended he was going to get some?

Either way a truly shocking experience. No sign of any management, no customer service skills, no sign of anyone owning a problem and getting on top of it. Just a bunch of people following what the system tells them to do and when something goes wrong just running...

I'm confident that the vast majority of people visiting this cafe have a positive experience. In fact, having visited a few times in the past, all has been well. However, on Sunday, all was not well. My partner and I found a table grabbed a menu and then placed our order at the till. We received our coffee fairly quickly, but three quarters of an hour later, we still hadn't been served the food we ordered. Seeing other people being served - who where behind us in the queue - it soon became apparent we'd been forgotten. Feeling very sorry for ourselves, and a little frustrated and hungry, we approached the kitchen staff to ask about our order. We we're told it would be 'chased up' and indeed another ten minutes later (how long it takes to make a salad) it arrived. When it did finally arrived my flatbread salad looked like it had been thrown together, with the flatbread parcel opening up on the plate, and the three salad leaves looking very lonely all on their own. The cold chicken mixed with a creamy type salad dressing and a little rocket salad, wrapped in dry flatbread, was runny and unpleasant to eat. I didn't in fact eat the second one out of the two. Over twenty pounds for two coffees and a couple of sandwiches, that arrived unacceptably late, left me feeling very hard done by with no apology offered either. Poor show guys. You might also want to look at the idea of customers picking a table number outside and then going inside to order food. This doesn't really work without menus on the table, especially if you're on your own, because when returning outside the table might then have been taken by someone else. As a general rule I don't leave negative reviews, but if nothing is said, poor service...

Rude service, but not just rude, intentionally rude, and unacceptable. Arriving 10 mins before opening time. I waited, along with a handful of other customers by an open door; there were 3 doors to choose from, so we naturally formed a queue by the one which was wide open, facing the staff in the open kitchen area. Once the clock on our phones clicked to 9am, we entered and stood at the till point, where a mustached man stood - he may have been opening the till for service. I smiled and brightly said 'good morning'. He looked up, said good morning back, and then proceeded to leave the till area, to open another of the doors into the restaurant to let in 2 more customers in. He returned back to the till area, but chose the empty neighbouring till, intentionally blanking me and waiting customers behind me. He proceeded to serve the 2 others people he'd just let in, leaving us waiting at a now unmanned till point by his side. We all looked at each other incredulously, we were being ignored as service proceeded for others. We watched, we couldn't believe how someone could be so intentionally rude and treat us as if we were invisible. As soon as the 2 others customers had been served, we moved to the till next to where we stood and I asked why we had all just been ignored. He said (with satisfaction in his tone) that they were not open when we entered, and he had customers waiting at the other door to serve first. Rude, rude and intentionally rude service. Not the best start to the day for us all. That said, my bacon and egg sandwich was delicious and the coffee equally as good. The offensive service ruined my morning and I will never return as a result. I hope senior management take note and...