Flint Barn Cafe — Restaurant in South Norfolk

Horrific experience. Didnt even attend the actual cafe, was forced to walk through to gain access to another area. Myself and my family didn't realise at first that it was an enclosed space. 3 members of my family were shouted at directly into their faces, very rudely and aggressively while trying to put their masks on (which they did the moment they realised it was actually a proper building and not a walk through type underpass which it could easily be mistaken for). We didn't hang around and were only just walking through in one door and out of the other (barely 10ft apart). We were followed and gauped at by the rude member of staff. A family member returned to raise this concern with a manager and was met with an extremely aggressive Ms French who continuously screamed and shouted at him, denying all complaints of rude and aggressive behaviour, while being rude and aggressive. I mentioned that I also had witnessed her colleagues rude and uncalled for behaviour and she began shouting at me in an aggressive way. I stayed calm and explained that her people skills were lacking and she became increasingly volatile. I reached a point of fearing for our safety and began recording her. She acted in a very strange way, putting her thumbs up to the camera when I explained that I wasn't happy being shouted at but she retreated from shouting in my face and stood behind the tills instead. All very unusual behaviour from an apparent manager and a grown woman. Whitlingham Country Park itself was beautiful, avoid the café...

We like to stop here for a drink and a cake after a dog walk. It's great that you can take dogs in, and they even sell dog bone biscuit. The staff are quite friendly, and the cakes seem like they are home made and are very nice, the coffee is also nice, and the atmosphere is ok, well it is until they want you out by 3.30pm dispite closing at 4pm, they make it known you are no longer welcome at 3.30pm, they shut the roller window doors, stack the chairs on the tables, they certainly make you aware you are no longer welcome, this could be a lovely place dispite this annoyance. It seems like I'm not the only reviewer who noticed this at a different time, and it didn't feel like they were short staffed before this is mentioned....

Update 25th August 2023 returned to see if things had changed for the better, the only change is the cafe is open until 5pm apparently, this isn't the case. The staff start clearing the things up at 4.20pm and the Barn doors were shut up at 4.50pm. They even took the umbrellas down when we were still eating, there nothing better than telling...

I was gauped at by a member of staff when I walked in. No 'how can I help?' or any kind of customer service. When I said my friend and I would like a table, he blurted out 'you have to do the track and trace' and pointed to the poster, we were then told that no prams were allowed due to space. My 3 month old had just gone to sleep so it was the perfect opportunity to have a coffee and a bit of cake hands free but no, they expected me to have him on my lap whilst in the cafe and leave the pram near the entrance out of sight. I was actually told 'if we let yours in, we'd have to let everyone in' Absolutely shocking customer service. I certainly hope they wouldn't refuse a wheelchair user from using the cafe due to space. I love the walk around the lake but I certainly won't return to the cafe...