FRENCH & BYRNE — Restaurant in Stafford

We were looking at the menu outside when a very enthusiastic man came out and cheerily said ' Come on in you are in luck we have a free table'. He showed us to a table and seemed to be a very pleasant person. In my opinion a customer should be able to make a decision about whether they want to go in to the cafe or not without interference from staff. We spent £30 for food that was not very nice at all. It was certainly not worth the money. The only nice thing was a really good cup of coffee. The weak and sweet milkshake had no flavour and was undrinkable. A child in our group ate a couple of mozzarella sticks bought in McDonald's as they are extremely fussy eaters and are vegetarian. The same man who brought us in came over to our table, where he then sat down in the spare seat and Very Loudly said ' Sorry but you can't eat Picnics in here it's for our food only.' We said 'Sorry no problems we will not let her eat them , she is a child and is a fussy vegetarian eater'. To which he replied ' We do Chicken Nuggets and everything and other veggie options '. I in turn said ' I beg your pardon we are not having any Picnic as you are inferring we have spent £30 on our lunches'. He replied ' It doesn't matter what you spend in here you still can't bring in a Picnic .' I got the child to put the mozzarella sticks away. He then replied loudly ' Oh eat it this time but please don't bring Picnics in here again its not fair to other people. ' I appreciate this cafe may not allow you to eat other food and respect that policy but this was Very Poor Customer Service as he could have said it to us quietly but instead he was speaking in a very loud voice and left us totally embarrassed as other people at neighbouring tables were staring at us and giving us funny looks. This man never shouted out oh you have spent £30 on other food he just shouted out about ' Not having a Picnic in there.' It was unacceptable to humiliate paying customers in front of other diners especially when he was getting quite a lot of money from us for the other below average food. A couple of mozzarella sticks can not be classed as being a 'Picnic' and it was a child eating them and not an adult. I found it concerning that he quoted they served 'Chicken Nuggets ' after we had explained the child was a Vegetarian. A waitress then dropped someone else's tray at the end of our table and the same man was standing close to our table but he did not say sorry about the loud tray landing on the floor at the end of our table. The men and women's toilets are in the same room and both men and women share the same sinks. Staff don't explain that the men and women's toilet cubicles are in the same room when you ask them where the toilets are as you just get told that they are upstairs. Not a pleasant environment for children using the toilet facilities. I definitely will not use this cafe again only to have some rude customer service member humiliate me in front of other customers despite having spent a substantial amount of money for below average overpriced food. I am not saying that the food was below average because a staff member was rude to us but the rating is entirely due to the quality of food that we were served. I cannot believe that it was the same man who embarrassed us in front of several other diners, and who had practically begged us to come in from the street as we read the menu and had appeared to be pleasant when showing us to our table. It was as if he had 2 different...

We've been twice and had a terrible experience both times. I wouldn't put much stock in the reviews from over a year ago.

The first time we went for food but found the sandwiches weren't freshly made. They were sitting in a chiller cabinet in cling film. Compare that with sandwiches at The Soup Kitchen which are the same price but freshly made to order and suddenly it seems expensive for the privilege of slightly stale snacks.

Our second visit we decided to avoid the food and give them a second chance. We just went with a milkshake. Nothing complicated.

The milkshakes are out of a bottle, not made fresh. Worse yet the milk was warm. Don't confuse what I've said. It wasn't slightly cool. It was warm. They hadn't been in a fridge that day I don't think.

Avoid and head to Cafe 15 or The Soup Kitchen. By all means shop local,...

Stopped for a quick look at the menu when we were looking for a quick lunch with our 3 year old. The manager popped out and told us they have a kids menu and a table available if we were wanting lunch. We were seated straight away and served by a lovely lady who's name we didn't catch, but she couldn't do enough for us. Made conversation with our son, and when she noticed he was stealing cheese of his dad's plate, she brought him over a small bowl of his own for his dinner. We all loved our food and although we ordered small meals we all left comfortably full! Will definitely return, we all enjoyed our quick stop and next time we'll make time for...