The Fourteas Tea-Room Brasserie — Restaurant in Stratford-on-Avon

Our party consisting of two adults and one child arrived here at 12.40pm and we were happy to wait in the bar a short while until a dining table became available to us.

Service was prompt and we overall enjoyed the classic afternoon tea for two, plus burger and chips for one of the adults in our party.

I do suspect though that the cakes were not produced onsite, as they did not have a ‘homemade’ taste. The tasteless mini quiche were not freshly baked and had soggy pastry. The sandwiches were also very small, even by afternoon tea standards.

We were willing to pay for the overpriced food here as we were expecting to enjoy a unique venue with fun 1940s style vibe, decor and fashions, however we were disappointed as the waitresses were wearing cheap polyester polka dot dresses and headbands that looked as though they had been sourced from a low-end fancy dress shop. The girls also looked plain miserable, if truth be known.

The walls were painted in a strange combination of mustard/sienna and red, more suited to a Mexican restaurant, using a rag-rolled paint technique last seen in the 1980s .. totally incompatible with a 1940s theme and a wholly unconvincing way of achieving an ‘aged’ look. Whoever organised this has appallingly bad taste and a complete lack of knowledge of 1940s era interiors.

The 1940’s themed posters plastered everywhere did not compensate or help to produce an authentic 1940s vibe but instead amped up the tackiness.

The music played sounded era-appropriate but was played at an uncomfortable volume.

We have visited other period tearooms done much more authentically and with a sense of fun and spirit sadly missing from this venue.

What really spoiled it for us, though, was the pressure we felt from waiting staff towards the end.

As the dining room filled up, we observed an elderly man standing at the till, glancing around the room impatiently, glancing at the waiting staff, who in turn seemed to become anxious. I presume this was the owner or manager of the business. We then began to feel an unpleasant pressure from staff to finish up and leave.

First, a young male waiter approached us while we still had not finished eating, to ask if we would like a box to take away the cakes still remaining at the top of our cake stand!! We declined his offer and pointed out to him that our child was still eating. In decades of eating out at many different types of restaurants, we have never before experienced a waiter with the cheek to proactively offer a takeout box /doggy bag without being asked for one, and we did not appreciate it.

Next up was a young female waitress who asked if she could clear away our plates, to which we replied that she could clear away the 2 x adults plates but to leave the cake stand and our child’s plate as they were still eating. The waitress flashed us an insincere smile and told us “take all the time that you need, we don’t close until 4”!! After this piece of sarkiness, we did end up hurrying in order to leave as quickly as possible.

I checked my watch as we left, and it said 2.05pm, so we were seated at the table for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes, excluding the 10 minutes or so that we sat waiting at the bar. The harassment from waiting staff probably started inside the hour.

1 hour and 15 minutes sat at a dining table is FAR from an exceptionally long time when you are spending over £80 at an overpriced venue.

A serious question: why not just convert your business into a fast food joint or takeaway if you want all of your customers to leave promptly inside an hour? Otherwise, your staff need to learn patience and manners, and for this reason we do not choose to return.

We would especially recommend parents of young children to...

Final visit to Fourteas Cafe

We visited the Fourteas today after admittedly a couple of years not being able to because of the pandemic.

We live local to Stratford and the Fourteas has always been the perfect place to have some lovely freshly made sandwiches in such a cosy atmosphere. We think it has probably changed hands because the owner seems to have changed from the original patrons. Unfortunately , that’s not the only thing that has changed. Firstly the decor previously was muted walls in a calm and nostalgic atmosphere with plenty of posters from the war adding to the wartime experience . This seems to have been replaced with an overly bright gawdy yellow and red wall effect which is more akin to a Greek Taverna or coffee bar. Therefore has lost much of its atmospheric nostalgic feeling. Decoratively this establishment now doesn’t seem to know what it is.

We ordered cream teas, they arrived promptly - however the standard of food within the cream tea has also taken a dip in quality ….sandwiches were always incredibly fresh and scones were of a good size and were freshly baked and warm with plenty of cream and jam. The sandwiches appeared to be made in a hasty manner and were not presented in a good a standard as previous visits. Also very cold as if they had been made the night before and refrigerated? The scones were incredibly dry didn’t feel fresh at all and there was such a tiny amount of cream and jam to go with four scones (literally a tablespoon of cream and a tablespoon of jam to split between four scones which is quite difficult! The other cakes I felt were not home-made but perhaps shop bought … ie Mr Kipling Battenberg shop bought cut possibly sometime ago because again they felt slightly stale. I seem to remember previous visits cakes and sandwiches and scones were all lovingly prepared and home-made by the kitchen. All I can say presume is that the old chef possibly left with the previous owner.? On the matter of owners- the owner now appears to be a gentleman who seems to be either welcoming or brusque in his manner. It’s uncomfortable to sit there trying to have a cream tea when you’re aware that he is barking orders at his staff , who in defence of them are trying their best to keep the ambience light and easy. You really got the impression that this is now a business that is purely run for profit and nothing else. The new owner seems to have also acquired the building next door and has cobbled together some kind of bar on the side which doesn’t fit with the original business at all and again decor cheapens the whole experience. All in all very very disappointing , none of the warmth and atmosphere of the previous owners. I understand that post Covid the previous owners may have more wanted to sell the business onto someone who could take it forward but unfortunately the personality fit...

I tend not to leave bad reviews as I truly believe if you don't have nothing nice to say you shouldnt. However after going this weekend I had to say something. If you have been to this establishment under the previous ownership do your self a favour and give this a miss. It has fell of soo much it's unreal. GONE are the home made cakes and delicious teas. Me and my wife having previously been and loved the old time atmosphere, music and delicious food and drinks thought we'd visit again. Greated at the door by a very friendly man who I can only assume is the owner were given a choice of table and say down. Very quickly we could see the ambience has changed. However we ordered two cream teas and a pot of the fourteas tea blend ( I'll come back to this). While we waited for our scones we looked at the afternoon teas being given out to people around us and noticed gone were the cute little sandwiches and home made cakes and in were the shop bough desserts you would expect from a Asian buffet. This worried us as we started to limit our expectations of what was to come. Our scones arrived quickly with our tea and the sand timer for the tea brew was started. Unfortunately as we expected the scones were shop bought and we had less than a teaspoon each of jam and cream ( a proper let down). "oh well" we thought atleast we have the delicious Fourteas tea blend, as the timer finished my wife poured her first cup of what can only be described as dish water. " No chance" am I drinking that I thought so I flipped the timer again to give it another 3 minutes and then I proceeded to pour myself a cup of STRONG dish water. I struggle to understand how a tearoom can't do good tea. Very disappointed we paid our £9 each ( actually not a bad price if the quality was good enough) and left vowing not to return. This place actually gave us the vibe and idea that we went with for our wedding when we went last time so we were actually gutted to see it in this state. Oh I didn't mention it has half the capacity as well now as 50% of the room as been taken up by a massive bar in the middle of the room that has been repaired with bits of decking. Clearly Aiming to catch out tourist now it really is a shame what it's become. I've attached a photo of what we received last time we went to the tea room. Honestly try somewhere else near. This used to be the best in the town but is nowhere near now....