The CakeShed — Restaurant in Tunbridge Wells

Not our favourite stop off during our holiday. Initially a staff member was very helpful finding us seating for 4 adults, a toddler and baby. We ordered two kiddies cheese toasties, two duck wraps, a filled croissant and a filled bagel. Coffees and drinks arrived quite quickly but it was an age (around 30 minutes) before food arrived: toasties arrived first and were very very dry with very little tasteless cheese. Filled croissant/bagel arrived and were similarly dry and lacking flavour. There was then another 5-10 minute wait before the wraps arrived. After we left we noticed a 10 or 15% service charge had automatically which we hadn't spotted. We didn't recall seeing anything on the menu saying that a service charge had automatically been applied, and were not advised when paying. It seems unusual to have a service charge in a cafe but note to self: always ask to see a breakdown of the bill before paying....

Mid afternoon snack post a walk around the Pantiles.

The sun was shining, the terraces full of happy people drinking and enjoying company again. Pooches also suffering from not having socialised with their own kind for a year were barking happy territorial barks to each other. Children ran around care free enjoying the arrival of summer, or is it still spring?

We were fortunate to find a table indoors which was quickly replaced with one in the sun by our lovely waiter. We enjoyed a "prawn star" and "cheese, shoots and leaves" sandwiches. The bread was gorgeously soft, pillow like seeded slices and contained generous portions of fillings. We enjoyed an Americano and G&T both at reasonable prices. We couldn't fit cake in for fear or ruining dinner (see Lago entry) but we will definitely be back on Day 2 for a slice or 2 of in house...

Reasonable coffee but that's about it for this place. Firstly, there's a 'please wait here to be seated' sign but none of the staff pay you any attention and you're just left to it. If you find a table, there's no real interaction from the staff and this is probably the least customer-service focused café I've visited - a very strange and offputting experience (and my expectations aren't high for this). The quality of the cake was very poor and had a dry texture with no flavour. They then add an automatic service charge on top even though there has been absolutely no reason for this at all. Overall a very disappointing experience and visit and certainly much better options...