Halladays Tea Rooms — Restaurant in Southampton

EDIT: As you can see from the owner's response there has been a complete denial of the facts and no apology. We know some of the other visitors to the cafe that day so can confirm that no one defended the staff's actions. Other people have also since come forward to us to say that they've witnessed similar discriminatory behaviour at this place. Shameful from a small business owner in a city that gains so much from having diverse communities.

Tried to visit with my mother and sister in law yesterday morning. We’ve always thought it’s a cute little place but after today’s shocking experience will never be returning.

As usual, most of the tables were full but we were happy to wait for a table to become available. We knew someone at another table so my mother in law said she could sit down with them while we waited. There was a spare table for 2 so sister in law and I sat down there to wait. At one point the waiter came over to take our order and I told him to give us a few minutes so we could order when we were all sat together.

In the meantime another group of 4 walked in asking for a table. They stood in the middle of the restaurant and were told that they needed to wait outside in the rain as there was no space. Then, when a table became available and we flagged the waiter down so we could move over to it he told us we couldn’t, because the new group of 4 who had arrived after us would be seated there.

We arrived and were patiently waiting for about 10 minutes (sat at tables but clearly not ordering anything) before these people turned up. The waiter was adamant that we’d agreed to sit at separate tables so had sacrificed our ability to sit together but there were plenty of others in the restaurant who could confirm that this wasn’t the case.

Eventually, the owner came out from the back room and was incredibly rude to my mother in law. She raised her voice so the whole restaurant could hear her saying ‘This is my tearooms! You can either order at the table you’re sat at or leave.’

It was humiliating for us and embarrassing for her. I also hate to think that racism could have been at play here but it did cross my mind - my mother in law is Pakistani and the group who were seated at the table instead of us where white. It did make me wonder whether this was just stupidity on the waiting staff’s part or if it we were experiencing discrimination.

Either way, we felt awful for the diners who had to witness the owner’s outburst and chose to leave the place. I hope we are able to receive a heartfelt apology from the owner for the way we were treated and would urge people considering a visit to think about whether to spend...

Was very disappointed with the service here and wished I had taken the reviews I’d read into account before attempting to come here for a special occasion. We were excited to come here for my moms birthday for an afternoon tea. The space is lovely and decorated beautifully and the food from what we saw on the tables looked incredible.

My sister phoned to book for my moms birthday, she was told to come at 2pm and that there would be a table for us so that’s what we did. When we arrived one of the waiters said, very rushed, they have no space and the kitchen is closing soon, so we explained what was said on the phone and he said well he wasn’t the one who answered and I asked why we were told that and he said ‘I don’t know’ and then turned around and ignored us, I then walked to the front of the tea room as I wanted to talk to another member of staff or the lady my sister had talked to, and the waitress just looked at me and turned away so I decided to leave as this made me feel very uncomfortable.

We left and I rang up and asked about what happened and the lady who answered seemed to get a bit shirty and adamant she told my sister on the phone that she explained that they were fully booked and was unlikely we’d get a table and people have to book 3-4 weeks in advance. However we were not told this on the phone and if we had known this would we have paid to get a taxi to have a special meal on my moms birthday knowing it was fully booked and we wouldn’t likely get a table? No.

She did tell me they had space for the next day, Sunday however at this point I had no hope our experience here would be special based on how we were talked to, and if she had truthfully said this on the phone to my sister we would of course have booked for Sunday.

Thankfully the day was saved as we went around the corner to muse which was lovely and then to The Pig in the wall for drinks where they went above and beyond for us and even gave my mom a gift so my faith in good service was restored.

I wouldn’t recommend booking here for a...

My partner and I went for brunch this morning (16th Jan) and we had such a lovely time! Few minutes wait for a table to be sorted (no problem at all) then when we were sat we were seen to very quickly. We both ordered a vegan fry up with a couple of alterations which weren’t a problem at all. The staff even suggested I could add something else for asking to have mine without a couple of bits. Then my girlfriend baffled them both with a new drink she’s just started enjoying (London Fog) and despite not knowing what it was they were super accommodating and made it anyway, one of them even commenting on the fact it ‘sounded nice and they hoped they’d made it properly for her’ which was lovely. My girlfriend loved it and said it was perfect so thank you. Then the food came out in absolutely no time at all considering they restaurant was full! The portions were monstrous for such a quaint little place (this is entirely a good thing) you get so many bougie places that serve you a quarter of an Avocado on on sourdough and charge you and arm and a leg for it these days as vegans. They had even added things to the breakfast that weren’t written on the board, making it more than what we thought we were paying for. (great touch) so much so that I had to ask that they we’re definitely our plates before starting! The food was lovely, the service was great and my only qualm wasn’t with the experience but that such a small little place doesn’t allow the staff to keep the tips on card. (I’m sure this is now illegal) I’d just suggest that with the pandemic and less people carrying cash you should allow your staff to be tipped on card, as especially today they thoroughly deserved it. So I ran to the cash machine to do so which isn’t ideal! Still not enough to stop a 5* review from me! We...