Capabilitea — Restaurant in Stafford

A seriously awful incident. Having been to this cafe before and enjoyed it, today we decided to go again. We queued and order our drinks and were told they would be bought to us shortly. We were going to sit on a sofa, but one of our party, who is over 70, found this too low so we moved tables. Half an hour passes by and our 2 teas and a coffee was still nowhere to be seen so one of my family members when to ask to unsure we hadn’t been forgotten. When they arrived, they were slammed on the table and served with an eye roll as we had moved tables. You’d think the manager that had served us would’ve been more understanding but sadly we were met with severe attitude. When one of my party mention they wait, the manager got very angry very quickly and began ranting at her. I stepped in, seeing it was upsetting her and the manager raised her hand at me in my face and began arguing. I have never felt so intimidated and mortified in my life, it really was a horrible experience. After drinking my cold coffee, I approached the desk to ask for a complaints email, shaking at this point as the manager had made us feel very targeted and embarrassed. I explained that I was not happy with how she had spoken to a family member in her 70s and she said it was because she’d asked where the drinks were! I was absolutely gobsmacked that a person who should be managing and ensuring good customer service had made us feel this way. She again shouted at me in front of others and sarcastically wishes me a merry Christmas. I have never in my life been spoken to in such a way and some serious customer service training needs to be had. I sat back down and other customers were also saying how rude, abrupt and miserable this manager was and should have been more understanding. Others were also complaining about the wait time and it was just a mess. I feel very sad as I always look forward to visiting but it has really shaken my family member. Being kind and not knowing what people are going through is vital, not shouting, raising hands and rolling eyes at paying customers who simply...

This is the first place I will ever review, because of how bad the experience was. When I first came in at August 27th at 12PM ish, I was greeted with a very bubbly pleasant girl at the tills. I ordered a cake and a coffee, just a simple flat white with a slice of cake on the side. First of all, I waited over 30 minutes for this cake and coffee. I mean seriously, I am one of those people who never time people when they are making an order, however, I saw the workers having a chat to each other and gossiping, while there were many orders to be had. I am all for a little natter when working, but you can also work alongside. The cake itself was not homemade. I started to speculate when I saw the carrot cake was actually sold at Costco, as well as the chocolate cake. I thought "where have I seen this from?" and it is actually a store bought cake made in a warehouse. The flat white was actually nice, however slightly lukewarm, which I did not complain about, because the girls were working behind the till. Overall, I ended up leaving feeling really dismal, I was expecting a much better experience and felt quite sorry for myself. This place is very in my budget in terms of things I can afford to treat myself to, however, the majority of it is cheap food plastered on a plate. I was also really disappointed. I understand affordability when making a business, however, knock off teddy bear crisps from Tesco on display are pushing it. The food itself is less in quality than the food you would buy at the supermarket. And the staff have no shame in flaunting this to you. They will go into the back and bring out cans from supermarkets and microwave the remnants into a plastic container and serve it over a jacket potato. The experience in conclusion is very disappointing. I know that capabilities tearooms has a notorious connotation for being very hit or miss, but most of the time, it has been a miss for most people. Which is such a shame, since it has had such highs and lows when reading the reviews of other people. 3.8 (Tripadvisor,...

Dissapointed with our lunch visit to Capabiliteas yesterday afternoon. Being a diagnosed coeliac for quite a number of years I was looking forward to a gluten free toasted sandwich (which I have had in this cafe before). However the food presented to me yesterday was very miserly and poor, (2 small slices of gluten free toast with minimal cheese and onion filling, and a very small side salad). Dissapointing quality and portion for the price of £4.95. On questioning this with the staff (presumably the manager/owner?), I was told that 'gf' bread is expensive to buy and if I wanted an extra slice she would have to charge an extra £1 I found this comment and her tone to be quite condicending as I know exactly how much a loaf of 'gf' bread is and that there is 'gf' bread even in the supermarkets that were better than what I was served yesterday. I would have quite happily have paid slightly extra for a meal that was of similar quality to the other toasted sandwich meals. For what I was served, the she has no need to have any worries about losing out on her profit margins. I scored the cafe 2 as the other 3 'normal meals' were good, however I will not be using Capabaliteas cafe in the future. Which is a shame as it is a pleasant place to sit and eat, but think that the Manager/owner needs to buck...