Blue Garden Café — Restaurant in Tendring

I went up there with my wife and daughter (it was me and my wife's Wedding anniversary, and our daughter had travelled up from Waltham Abbey to take us to lunch). We ordered a meal (we have eaten up there before) And I asked for a vegetarian breakfast, to be told that they were only available until 12 o'clock. I therefore ordered a vegetarian roll, having established that vegetarian sausages were available, and I asked that the egg be hard fried (I don't like runny yokes). The food came out, and it appeared to be fine. I bit into my roll and said to my wife "I think that these are meat sausages, it doesn't taste right". My wife and daughter had a look at the roll, and it had large rasher of bacon in the middle! My daughter took the roll back to the counter to be told "oh the sausage is vegetarian", and she was gob-smacked ! I'm not a soap-box vegetarian, having not eaten meat since 1972, indeed many people I know are unaware that I am, since it is a personal choice, and one I have no wish to discuss. However, the chef doesn't seem to have grasped the idea of a vegetarian meal, by putting a rasher of bacon in the middle of the supposedly vegetarian roll. The waitress came out and apologised, and showed me the order that was given to the kitchen, clearly stating "no bacon", which I would have thought was a reasonably straightforward, simple request. We never established if the sausages were meat or not, since I had no desire to carry on eating, since the incident had turned me right off the food in there. The waitress was extremely pleasant, and apologetic about the incident, but we saw nothing of the chef, who I naturally assumed would have come out of the kitchen to personally apologize, he didn't. I don't expect Gordon Ramsey in the kitchen when we go into a local Clacton eating establishment, but it would have been nice if we could have had a chef who could work out that a vegetarian roll doesn't normally include a big wedge of bacon in the middle ! We weren't charged for my roll but, other than apologies from an upset waitress (her Mum, she said,was vegetarian), the rest of the staff seemed to pretend that the incident hadn't happened, and seemed keen to usher us out! We have been here before, but it obviously won't be high on our list of recommended places to eat, when friends and family visit. A nicely kept place, somewhat spoiled by this incident. The restaurant wasn't particularly busy at the time...

Before i start i really hope management read this review and take on board the criticism, we dont have many nice places to eat in clacton so i want to see it thrive!

Blue garden cafe is nice dont get me wrong but it has the potential to be 5 star and rosette award quality

The ingredients are sourced locally from reputable suppliers and i enjoy watching the videos of the chefs out buying the products we are eating, great touch!

Here is my criticism, firstly nothing is buttered, even the sandwiches have just a tiny smidge of butter in them, its rather frustrating, toast comes dry with them little butter portions but as we all know the toast is semi cold by then and it doesnt butter well like that, might seem small problem but i like my toast buttered when its hot, i once ordered eggs Benedict on sourdough toast, again not buttered, i had to scrape all the food off of my toast butter it with those silly portions of butter and re apply my food, that's poor service guys!

Secondly, again may seem small to you but if you portray a high level of standard that is what i expect, i ordered the cali once, smashed avocado with tomatoes and red onions topping, the tomatoes you use are cheap and tastless hardly red, hardly ripe its not a seasonal thing, cherry tomatoes are available all year round, also the size of the tomatoes and onions are cut way too big to be enjoyed, big chunks of onions and bland tomatoes are not befitting of your restaurant

Id love to come back here and give 5 stars, please management do that...

Went to this establishment on Sunday 11th May with my daughter and mum we had pre booked when these establishments have as many covers as the blue cafe does when fully occupied they will always struggle from producing quality service to presenting high quality food if they are going to run a Sunday breakfast with a fully booked restaurant they should reduce what’s on the menu and have a cut of point so they can get ready for a busy Sunday lunch also they need a very confident front of house manager as customers were coming in there was no one explaining to customers how long the wait would be the food we ordered took 45 minutes at least to come out I don’t mind the wait as long the food is served hot and fresh my bacon was cold and hard eggs warm toast rock hard the bowl stroke plate what come with the food was very difficult to cut your food my daughter Spanish breakfast was really nice this establishment as got to realise they are not a back street cafe they are charging quite a good price for there food either cut the covers down when fully booked or cut the menu down and they really need a experience front of house I’ve eaten in this establishment before and it’s been a lot better the staff was trying really hard but no one...