Hetty's Tea Shop — Restaurant in Staffordshire Moorlands

When I have visitors I take them to Hetty's. It's local and friends are usually impressed. However, yesterday we were not at all impressed. My Canadian friend was on a visit. We wanted a light lunch before picking the grandchildren up from school. First of all, there was a lack of menus and we had to go looking for one. Then, we stood for a long time in an extremely long queue to order. When we got to the till we were told it was a 45 minute wait on food! By then, after standing in the queue for 25 minutes it was too late to change plans so, we took the risk. At 10 to 2 we ordered sandwiches and soup.We thought if we had the food by 2.30 we'd be ok. At 3 o'clock we were still waiting!! How long can it take to make sandwiches and put soup in a bowl? We eventually had to leave and asked for the order to be cancelled. Our money was returned but no real explanation for the unacceptable delay was given. Hetty's, I think you need to reconsider your system. If there's a delay on food, put a sign up saying so, then people can choose to queue or not.The queueing, in such a tiny space, causes difficulties for staff passing with trays and customers with their drinks trays.It stops people from being able to view the beautiful cakes in the cabinets and being able to see the specials board. I wanted the beef but when I asked for it was told they didn't have any! Take it off the board then! All in all, a very poor experience. I felt sorry for the staff who were...

I have been here four times & twice only been able to order cake (no meals available due to running out of food In the early afternoon on all four visits). The times I have been; the location of the cafe is beautiful; decor is outstanding, the cakes have been delicious, for this reason I thought it would be a lovely place to take my in-laws visiting from North Wales after a morning at Churnet Valley railway. We arrived at 1415 hrs today: waited in the queue for approx 15mins to be told no meal are been served, after the gentleman in front had ordered a sandwich & been served, we were told we can only order cakes & drinks. I couldn’t understand why after we had been observed waiting for this length of time we could not purchase a meal, it would of been beneficial if the staff had informed us at the back of the queue that meals were not been served. We all left feeling very disappointed. It’s a shame that such a beautiful venue appears to have difficulty in keeping up with demand in serving meals, and poor customer service due to lack of information. For this reason I will not be attempting to get a meal for the 6th time at...

We love Hettys! My Uncle Glynn is a regular there and has his breakfast most mornings, he’s treated like a valued member of the family to the Hettys team (which I absolutely love) and we join him when our diaries allow for a Sunday breakfast. The atmosphere is always friendly, Emma and the team really go out of their way to make our experience pleasant each and every time and always have time to come over at some point in our visit to say hello and see how life is treating us. The food is always lovely - shout out to the oatcakes and the vegetarian breakfast - let alone the cakes and afternoon teas which are phenomenal (especially the Alice in wonderland themed pod where I was lucky enough to celebrate a birthday one year as a gift from our friends). From their tiny kitchen they always do lovely food and they are definitely worth a visit if you are passing by, if they look full then check out the tables at the back by the canal as that’s a lovely hidden gem! Gorgeous setting and lovely people giving a new lease of life to a beautiful old building, why wouldn’t you stop in and experience it...