Caffe Gloria — Restaurant in Tendring

We were a group of about 20 people of all ages. We stopped at this place for a round of ice creams for all of us. While I was buying ice creams for everyone, one of the children in our group who is too young to read, helped himself to the bottle of syrup that was placed outside the shop on a make do shelf. There was a hand scribbled note there that kids shouldn't do that but because he can't read yet, he didn't know better. The moment he did this, one of the ladies from the shop came yelling out at him and the other kids and start berating them for doing so. I apologized and offered to pay their 20p additional charge for the syrup but she grew more and more obnoxious and kept telling the children off. She basically wanted to fleece more money out of us because the kid innocently put in syrup himself. Never mind that, we ended up paying £45 just for ice creams. When we were about to pay I asked the lady behind the counter if they accepted Amex. She rudely pointed me to a sticker of Amex on the glass pane of the ice cream freezer and told me to look there and that they do. Well fair enough, I paid using Amex but just as I completed my payment, another one of them came out yelling saying "We don't accept Amex, we don't accept Amex". I politely pointed her to the same sticker which was shown to me and then to the lady who had pointed that sticker to me but this new obnoxious one wouldn't have any of it. She threw tantrums, made faces and tried to force me to pay again. I had to show them my Google Wallet and then my Amex App to prove to them that they have indeed taken my payment.

Finally I thanked them as I haven't written a review here on a while and told them that given their behaviour with me today they've woken up the "reviewer in me" and that I am going on Google reviews and...

Really awful people. Was going to get Gelato there at the end of the day. Waited behind this large family and they literally shut the window in my face. They had three people trying to work a window but somehow it was too much effort to make one more cone. Completely digusting place and the gelato is not worth it. Super basic while trying to push London prices. Avoid! So many better options on the street with friendlier staff.

In response: I have had your gelato. It is basic. And I was in front of the window. They...

Very friendly welcome not just by staff but customers 😀. Everyone appreciated dogs even if they didn't have one themselves. Coffee was nice and the cake selection looked good. I had a toasted brie and mushroom sandwich which is a combination I hadn't tried before but to my delight was really tasty. However they don't do a child menu which is odd and a missed opportunity as much was freshly made. So should be easy...