Tesco Cafe — Restaurant in Stevenage

They turned it into a touch screen “order yourself” cafe and it just doesn’t work. Where’s the socialisation? The communication & interaction? It’s all being stripped away and honestly why, what was the reason. We can’t even order lunch now without having to go through a machine and not be able to talk and order face to face anymore? It all has to be done by “self service”?

It doesn’t make it faster, the poor waiters and waitresses are walking around looking clueless trying to find who ordered the food they are carrying. There are queues because people take ages to choose at the order screens. There are always dirty tables as well which are still not cleared even if you sit at them. It doesn’t help that they are quite clearly understaffed as well. I really do feel for them, it must be such stressful work.

The food and drinks are alright - I enjoy their food and their hot chocolates are always hot and a nice size but sometimes you do end up waiting ages especially when it’s busy.

Honestly, self service works for some things but it really doesn’t feel right in a cafe like this. I don’t understand why...

When we arrived the first thing we saw was the drinks fridge then a free standing table with cakes. There was no screen in front of them and there were plates for the customers and tongs for us to select our cakes. We stood there for a few seconds deciding what to have. We made our selection and as we were putting the cakes on our plates someone came up to us and said "you're not supposed to do that, we have to serve you". My wife said they we don't know that and there are no signs saying so. He repeated to comment, I said that there was no-one there to serve us so we did it ourselves. Then we walked to the drinks area and he followed on his side of the counter. My wife asked what types of tea do you have and he said "there's a list down there". Clearly this guy has a degree in being ignorant! In case Tesco don't know, there are many other places to eat and drink in Stevenage and everyone that we've ever been to has staff who are friendly courteous and helpful. Needless to say we shall not be returning to the...

Not a pleasant experience.

Came at 2pm, cafe was empty, no queue.

I have ordered a burger.

The burger came with fries and 2 tiny onion rings.(really? Why 2 tiny? Well..)

The burger meat tasted a bit wired as if it was not the right meet for a burger or it was not cooked to be one but something else.

Cost 6 pounds I expected something tasty. This wasn’t so much.

The rest of the burger collapsed into itself where the preety looking bun could not hold to the task as it was only good for the look of it..

The fries came so dry, you could understand something went wrong in the process of cooking them.

Why the server did not offer condiments when she brought the tray or even after that ? No clue.

Why the server tried to offer me halumi cheese on the burger without letting me know it will cost me more? No clue. The burger came with uncooked! Slice of...