The Waffle House - St Albans — Restaurant in St Albans

My parents suggested visiting St Alban's for the day on a Sunday and my mum had previously been here and liked the waffles so she recommended it to me and my dad. We got here around 1pm and the queue was long. I think in total we queued for around 30 minutes which wasn't too bad since we had expected to wait longer than that. Waiting staff were all friendly and approachable, taking note of our party size before we got to the beginning of the queue so they could organise the tables accordingly which showed good coordination and planning strategy.

It was a rather chilly day with a bit of rain while we were queuing and we were so lucky that they gave us a table inside the tent so we didn't have to get wet. The place itself is massive, offers plenty of outdoor seating with clean bathrooms.

We went with 2 savoury waffles and one sweet to share so we could try a bit of everything - banoffee, buttermilk fried chicken with sriracha mayo and ham, cheese bechamel with mushrooms. Banoffee was, as expected, great but tbh it's something you can easily make at home. They did give plenty of toffee sauce and chocolate shavings as toppings which was good and portion was big. I personally enjoyed the buttermilk fried chicken waffle the most because the fried chicken was cooked perfectly - thin and flavourful batter with which the sriracha mayo complimented very well, alongside the refreshing coleslaw, it was a perfect combo. The ham, cheese bechamel and mushrooms one was just below average. Ham looked cheap and the bechamel sauce was way too salty for our liking. Mushrooms were flavourful but the sauce overpowered the entire dish. Not to mention the sauce covered most of the waffle which made it soggy and soft hence the texture of the entire dish was worse. Generally speaking though, I liked the waffle batter they have because the waffles aren't thick and eggy. Rather they were light and fluffy which made it so much easier to eat in larger quantities and less filling in a sense.

Overall, I enjoyed our experience here and would be happy to come back although may only do so on a week day to avoid the...

I met with a friend as a halfway point, she came from High Wycombe and myself from Highgate in north London. We both enjoyed our food (chicken and meatball waffles) and drinks (elderflower cooler and homemade lemonade, then a flat white and a fresh juice).

The alarming thing for us (and we don’t truly know the full outcome yet as we only visited on Saturday evening) was that when the bill came it came with a “reminder” that parking fines are automatically issued by a third party for staying more than 2.5hrs.

Seeing as we had each driven just under an hour to have a catch up together, we didn’t even think that a proper restaurant we’d made a reservation at would have such a system in place for their patrons. I am aware of similar restrictions in leisure parks where you may be restricted - but those sorts of places tend to be fast food venues, not somewhere that’s a “destination” in itself. I would hazard a guess that a large proportion of visitors arrive by car.

What would be useful, is upon arrival for your reservation this is highlighted, rather than sitting for 3hrs+ over food and drinks to discovered this when it’s too late. Fine is £100. We raised it with the person who served us and they did take our registration plates so, hopefully we will not receive a fine but it’s definitely a system that needs to be made super clear. We arrived in darkness too, so yes there are signs in the car park but, as often with these private firms, they don’t made it super easy and I genuinely wouldn’t even be looking for this information when I’ve made a reservation specifically to...

Service was lacklustered, but that was mainly due to management chatting instead of watching team / tables.

The food was good but that's the only positive from our visit.

My wife had the Brie & Bacon special, so I'd thought i'll ask for a side of bacon to go with my buttermilk chicken.

Waitress came back and said I can't have the side of bacon as the chef has said they need to save it for breakfast. I was lost for words that a business doesn't want to make extra sales, especially when the item was on the menu. I feel that the truth was that the chef couldn't be bothered to cook an extra portion of bacon.

Drinks arrived, my neck oil had a weird foam like head on the pint it tasted ok but looked odd.

The wife's cocktail had a hair on the strawberry and 2 chips in the glass rim. Beggers belief how the bar man missed this.

Our food came, and I asked for some extra sriracha mayo. Waitress came back to say she would have to charge £2.75 for a portion of mayo with a few drops of sriracha sauce in. This was the final straw, I told the waitress not to worry!

We asked for the bill, then asked to speak to the manager to discuss the service charge and who gets the tips. We had a supervisor come over, the two managers on duty couldn't be bothered, it seemed.

We had the service charge taken off and gave our waitress £5 cash, as she would keep it and not have her serviced charge taken/shared with lazy chefs...