Rocksalt Cafe Bar — Restaurant in Stockport

I visited the cafe this morning ( 31/01/24) to meet up with my friend, who arrived well before me, to do a bit of work on her computer.

She witnessed while she sat on a small table near the windows, a group of small kids running around the cafe, a mum sat opposite with a pram next to her, the staff member serving her and other customers was pleasant enough , she wasn’t bothered about the pram the lady had next to her, nor the kids running around the place ( middle aged lady, blonde hair/ pony tail, thin build)

I arrived @11am with my 2year old daughter sitting on a bugaboo bee 6 (small pram), after greeting my friend, we suggested moving on to a table of 3, my friend asked politely this particular member of staff, who didn’t respond immediately instead she looked hesitantly at the table and said yes that one! She then looked at me and said can you move the pram outside?

I didn’t say anything, my friend then asked if we could have a high chair?

The staff member then brought a filthy high chair, I wouldn’t dare put any baby in there .

Looked at me again and said, can you put your pushchair outside ? At that point we haven’t even sat down yet, my daughter still on my friend arms, stood up, wondering what is wrong with this staff member attitude, hostile, rude very impatient tone of voice?

By that time she must have repeated the same question to me 3 times? Without a reaction from either one of us, we both then realised there’s definitely a problem with the lady attitude and customer service skills.

Wevisited this cafe numerous times, we are both professionals and I never experienced such ill mannered customer service !

My friend decided to go and talk to this member of staff who clearly showed a different approach to me specifically as soon as I walked in !

She asked her! Is there any problems ? the staff knew exactly why she was approached but evidently tried to say otherwise

she knew the issue was nothing to do with the pram, it was clearly a problem from her side that we could not comprehend ?!

I would not use the race card here, as I was wearing a head scarf but my friend wasn’t.

I am still puzzled, why was I particularly treated and shown a lack of respect in the first 5 mins of my arrival, where she clearly let the previous customer sat on the same table with a pram, and was ever so pleasant to them???

We decided in the space of 5 mins, to exit the place and go and have a peaceful coffee elsewhere in Heaton moor and we did !

I would like a full explanation, to why this had happened ? why was I singled out ? Why was I presented with filthy baby chair ? Why was I asked to put the pushchair outside where the previous clients weren’t?

I was not allowed to be given the name of this particular staff member by the duty manager when I phoned the cafe to take the managers name/ staff name, Hence I had to write her physical descriptions instead, to distinguish her from the rest of well mannered...

Terrible service, terrible attitude and sone staff cannot handle working in a busy bar. The owner is entitled, dramatic and aggressive. One staff member was very rude and belligerent. To be balanced there is one lovely lad working behind the bar who did try to serve me but was stopped. Went in last night for a Xmas drink. Only had a couple of drinks previously with our meal so none of us was even close to merry. My 3 friends order a cocktail and are served a cocktail. I order mine last and I’m refused as it’s too busy for cocktails apparently even though my friend was served 30 seconds before. I challenge this therefore and say that I’m surprised I’m not allowed a cocktail as you just served my friend (she was passed a cocktail menu) and we are in bar which is supposed to serve cocktails. Still refused so I order a different drink and carrying on chatting to my friends. Pretty much forget about it and carry one. None of this was witnessed by the owner she wasn’t even there during the exchange. The landlady comes out and throws me out for making her staff member cry? (For asking a simple question particularly as my friend was served immediately before me in fact handed a cocktail menu) she was audacious, loud, aggressive, slammed her own bar door in front of all her customers and threatened to call the police - for what?? ordering a cocktail and questioning why I couldn’t have one? I told her to call them as it wasn’t me that would be getting arrested! I’m taking the issue further as her behaviour was unacceptable & highly aggravating. When you shout at a customer like that you shouldn’t be surprised when they shout back. I’m glad my friends and other patrons witnessed the whole weird...

I had brunch with friends here recently. When I arrived I ended up seating myself as 3 members of staff ignored me waiting for ages and I saw our table with our name on it. No-one came with a menu so I queued at the till to ask for one. After my friends arrived, a member of staff came over to imply we couldn't sit there as it was reserved. We said we'd reserved it and ordered food and drinks. A few minutes after were told our order couldn't be put through as it was too busy, but they would try to put it through in a few minutes. Our food finally came for everyone except one friend. When we were checked on to see if everything was okay, we said we were still waiting on a meal. We ended up asking three or four times, and when my friend's food finally arrived, everyone else had completely finished. We were advised that my friend's food had probably gone to someone else. When the bill came we asked if we could pay separately and were told no, not really as it was a faff. I put everything on my card to split out afterwards and was glad I wasn't asked if I wanted to include gratuity as the service was really awful! When I checked the bill, not only was gratuity already added to the bill, they charged for my friend's meal twice, even though she'd barely got it at all! I got a refund for the additional order, but I think it was pretty rubbish they'd charged for hers at all. The food was nice, but the whole experience was so bad we will never be going back and I wouldn't recommend...