Havilands Tea Room — Restaurant in Stratford-on-Avon

Wanted a light lunch while out with the family on our first afternoon in Stratford and the menu looked ok in that regard. No other customers in there when we sat down which should have told us something, given that this was peak lunch period. Dining area was quite cold and the menus were dirty, which was also off-putting, but with two hungry kids in tow we decided to go for it. Really wish we hadn’t…

We were asked to point to the items we wanted on the menu as it seemed the waitress wasn’t totally secure in her English - fair enough, I thought, if it meant we got what we ordered.

We didn’t.

My partner’s cheese and tomato toastie appeared as a (more expensive) fish finger sandwich. My own fish finger sandwich appeared with tomato, which I had asked to be left off. We explained that there seemed to have been a mix-up but were met with indifference/blankness by the waitress. The owner/chef seemed to have recognised the mistake as she proceeded to give the waitress a bit of a dressing down but, in the end, my partner just ate the sandwich rather than have to wait any longer. We hoped/expected we’d at least only be charged the price of the toastie. We were wrong.

Food itself was average at best. The fish fingers in the £9.50 fish finger sandwich were very basic, almost certainly from an Aldi multi-buy pack if the ketchup bottles on the table were any indicator of their preferred wholesalers.

Confusingly, the waitress came to check whether I wanted chips with the sandwich some time after I’d already placed the order.Apparently, these were ‘extra’, even though the menu stated clearly that it included chips!

When I challenged this at the point of paying the bill, the owner/chef seemed to think it was more than reasonable that we should be charged. I took a different view and was annoyed that I even had to be making the case to her.

Even then, the final bill of £50 for a very modest lunch and 4 drinks felt like daylight robbery.

Isolated incident? Apparently not. The lady who came in after us ordered a spinach and ricotta pasty from the menu. She had to return the first one as it was the meat version - cue more public berating of the waitress for that. The second attempt was veggie, but not spinach and ricotta. Again, the chef/owner seemed to think this was a minor detail. I hope she got a discount but I seriously doubt it…

Mistakes happen but you need to take a bit of ownership of them. This was just really poor from...

After my hospital appointment at Stratford Hospital, we went to the Stratford Tourist Center and ended up at a café called Havilands Tea. We were excited to go inside and try their pastries. We ordered two cones, one amazing loaf, and one teapot, with a total charge of £13.98, which we paid.

However, we noticed that the lady from the till after she count the money. She turned around and start touching the scones with her bare hands -(not wearing gloves while handling the scones) and placing them in the microwave and she touched again the scones and put it in the tea cake tray. The tongs were right on top of the microwave, but she didn’t use them.

Later, my sister decided to order another teapot costing £2.99. She paid £10 and received £7 in change. She then requested milk, two portions since we had ordered two teapots.

As we began to enjoy our tea and pastries, the lady came over and told us that our payment was not enough. We tried to explain, but she did not listen and instead spoke to us in her Indian language. To avoid further argument, we decided to leave the café, disappointed. She asked for an additional £3.99, but to prevent a scene, especially since other customers were coming in. We gave her £3.00 instead and left, even though she insisted on another pound.

We also asked for a receipt, but she said they didn’t have one because “it’s in the till.” In addition, when I requested an extra cup to use, she refused, saying they were not allowed to give another cup because everything was counted and the owner could see it through the CCTV.

We did not finish our food because we had already lost our appetite after that...

Awful. We were seated and looked at the overly expensive menu but decided it was a treat and ordered 1 small breakfast and 1 full breakfast, alongside a pot of tea and an orange juice. Server seemed nice enough however had basic English levels. Orange juice came in a latte cup, the tea was poor quality and almost looked grey after adding milk. Our breakfasts came out, quality looked basic and the bacon had barely been cooked. Looked more like ham and the fat was still gooey looking. Explained to the server that our bacon wasnt cooked - again poor English skills gave little confidence this would be rectified. We decided we would pay for our drinks however were no longer interested in eating here. Another lady came out and asked what was wrong with our food. Again, explained the bacon had barely been cooked. Apparently... they do it like this for elderley people who struggle chewing?! And I should have asked for my bacon well done. If you gave elderley people that, they'd have no hope of chewing it and it would have probably made them ill. After trying to be as polite as possible, we were practically shouted at, told we had wasted the food and that it was still down to us for not asking for it well done. (I dont want well done bacon... I just want it cooked!) After being spoken to horrendously, we became increasingly unhappy and simply decided to leave, while being told we were rude. Awful place, poor food and even worse service. Would not recommend. Left feeling upset,...