Tesco Cafe — Restaurant in Stafford

This morning, myself and my wife decided to go and have breakfast in the Tesco's cafe in Stafford and sat close to the balconies edge overlooking the shop floor. While we were waiting for our food to arrive we spotted a friend of ours buying groceries down below. Rather than making a scene by shouting and waving, my wife decided to zoom in with her camera on her phone and take a photo of him to send to his wife with the caption to the effect of "spotted in Tesco's". As we were in a publicly accessible area where there are cameras filming everyone at all times and people use their phones everyday not only to talk and message one another, but also to take pictures of products and prices throughout the store all day, we were both under the impression this would be fine as no other members of the public or staff were in the picture. We then noticed 3-4 staff members pointing at us from the shop floor and felt extremely uncomfortable. This continued for around 15-20 minutes. While we were eating the security team approached us and my wife unprompted showed them the photo and explained the situation of knowing the person, to which they asked if we had been taking photos of any staff members, to which we said no. They understood and told us that it was clear we were not C.I.A, or members of any sort of terrorist organisation and that everything was OK. Even so, after the security had left the same staff members from the shop floor were still pointing and staring at us and we continued to feel very uncomfortable. Even the staff in the cafe, who's customer service was fantastic, seemed confused as to why the picture was a problem and why the security team were even called. We finished our food and before leaving made a purchase on the way out, but felt distressed and uncomfortable the entire time. We realised that the staff members were concerned about the photo, but we are very confused about what policy if any we might have been breaking or even what they were suspicious of us doing by taking the picture. Going forward if I use my local store, do I have to be concerned about having my phone out? Am I still ok to use my phone to take photos of products and prices in the store as I'm browsing? If I see customers or staff members behaving inappropriately for example am I not ok to record them with my phone because it's in the store? Am I ok to even make a video or phone call while in the store? What is even happening here? What would make a person who works in a publicly accessible area that is being filmed at all times feel uncomfortable about their picture being potentially taken? Were the staff members doing something that they did not want attention drawn to? So many questions, but quite clearly not the most comfortable breakfast experience I have ever had. I would like to reiterate that both the staff in the cafe and the security team were extremely polite and professional, it was the shop floor staff that unfortunately made us feel both uncomfortable and that our patronage...

Andrew the manager is one of the most hardworking people I have seen in a cafe works the till for orders delivers and makes the tea clears the tables delivers the food and sought out any problems with your meal we love being served by him he’s like a one man show I’m sure he does a bit of cooking as well though I haven’t seen that the meal are very good and tasty my bacon and eggs with a fried bread my absolute favourite with pot of tea what else do you need with the floor show thrown in well done to you all there very accommodating give them a try you won’t be...

We waited over nearly 30 minutes for a baked potato with cheesy beans and fish an chips.... my baked potato had been put out for me 4 times, the fish and chips weren't done. They cooked my potato in the microwave 4 times by the time I got it.... it was horrible the beans were dry and cooked to death the cheese didn't taste fresh, potato hard microwaved too much, the salad was wilted. Told the guy at the till ... it was disgusting he did ask me if I wanted to come back.. I said NEVER AGAIN. Needs a new cook or retrain her she...