Café on the Common — Restaurant in Three Rivers

We arrived to meet a family member. We were 5 mins early so came in for a table and were seated immediately. So far, so good. Unfortunately, our family member was held up in traffic so was 10 mins late. While we waited, we noticed that one of the members of staff was very friendly with people she obviously knew but kept looking askance at us and walking past our table looking disgustedly at us. Although we'd told another waitress that we'd wait to order until our relative arrived, in the end, my husband felt so bullied by her, he ordered a drink. Alas, that didn't stop her and the looks continued until she approached the table and asked whether our relative would arrive soon. We appreciate that it was busy but we'd only been waiting ten minutes by that time. She was continuing to hug and be very friendly to new arrivals whom she obviously knew so her unfriendliness towards us was even more marked and we were made to feel very uncomfortable. When our relative arrived and we'd ordered an early lunch (for which we had to wait some time, after all the poor treatment when we were waiting!), she did soften and was friendly at the end but that in no way made up for her earlier poor treatment of us. We wouldn't return, solely because of Erica's treatment of us, which is a shame, given the values the café espouses ( supporting people with...

Been here many occasions. I have recently got a new puppy. I went a few weeks and my puppy slept on my lap while in there with no problems (even had members of staff coming up to her and saying how lovely she was). I arrived today was seated at the bar area so put Nellie who was sleeping on my lap (she was not touching the table just sleeping on my lap). A lady with blonde short hair came over and said my puppy was not allowed to sit on my lap- I explained how it wasn’t an issue a few weeks ago and that the sign outside the cafe states dogs are not allowed on furniture which Nellie was not. While tellling me the policy says dogs aren’t allowed on owners laps she was getting closer and closer to me waving her hands in the air, she then just walked off. Her manner and tone was awful, other customers approached me outside to say how rude the service. My puppy who is a 15 week cavapoo was simply sleeping on my lap. It’s such a shame as I have always had a positive experience however how I was spoken to today...

I ordered a smoothie and a bottle of still water from the trainee staff who was doing so well. He came out with tap water which I can't drink so I asked again for bottled water.

A young dark haired woman came over from the serving area and told Oskar he was confused because the customer had asked for still water and it's on their system as something else.

I tried to nicely say he's not confused. I read out exactly what's on the menu, and he looked for what I asked for. Perhaps think about changing the menu to help the staff.

She went into gaslighting mode at me and started patronising and making out I was to blame and I was confused. (!?)

Apparently she's been training a WHOLE TWO YEARS.

I feel sorry for any of the trainees who have to work with her. Seems like a lovely cause but with histrionics and a blame culture like that I couldn't...