Waterloo Tea (Whitchurch Road) — Restaurant in Wales

I stopped by while I waited for my partner who had exams at the All Nations Church and I was disappointed to say the least. I’ll list each issue separately. Nothing personal against the cafe, the staff was lovely, just the food and coffee is some of the worst I have had in a long while!

The customer service was immaculate and thorough from one of the younger members of staff. However that’s as good as this review gets.

I believe they use Hasbean coffee, not just cheap swill, which was exciting. However, it was unfortunately drowned in syrup and undrinkable. This is my first time I have not finished a coffee, it was unfortunately that bad.

The cake I had (orange and pistachio) was dry, it tasted 3 days old. It did not hold its shape when being picked up by my fork and it just crumbled apart.

My partners Egg and Sausage bap looked amazing, but was under seasoned. Whilst the egg was amazing and a nice runny yolk, it was bought down by, yet again, a dry bun and some overcooked sausages.

The prices for everything are just overpriced. £8 for one sausage and egg bap? My local I can get a sandwich, brownie and drink for that, or a panini with side salad and tortilla. Safe to say I won’t be...

They currently have a £5 coffee/tea + cake deal (weekdays only). I always have a black coffee (I'm an easy date) - it was very good coffee and a good size. For the cake, I had a slice of the best carrot cake I've ever eaten in my life (and I've had a lot of carrot cake). It was light, moist, flavourful and not overly sweet (including the cream cheese topping). The other cakes look very appealing too, so I'll give them a try soon.

This location has lots of tall glass windows that let in a lot of natural light, and I like the wooden chairs and tables - it's a nice place to be. In the summer, the windows open fully and that adds to the open and airy feel. I think they probably could add more seating capacity if they needed to.

I've always found the staff to be friendly and responsive.

The toilet is clean, well furnished and spacious.

They probably need to keep an eye on two things - keeping on top of clearing the tables, and ensuring good airflow/ventilation with an ajar window. Both have varied during my visits but I wouldn't go so far as to say there's a general trend.

If I lived locally, I'd be...

The service is rubbish, the food took ages to arrive, we’d finished our drinks and were in the queue to order more when the food arrived. The queue took so long, I gave up, we ate our food without drinks then rejoined the queue and ordered more drinks. It’s always understaffed and far too slow. The kitchen smells from the kitchen are off putting and the noise from chairs grinding against the floor is annoying…… Poor guy behind the counter is making coffee, delivering coffee to tables, clearing tables and serving at the till on his own……

Empty tables had dirty cups and plates on them, it wasn’t busy and this isn’t unusual, woefully understaffed….it was 11:00 when we went in.

I work at the hospital, this is a convenient place for the staff to go on breaks. Everybody has a story about returning to work late as a result of slow service at the Waterloo. And the prices are widely discussed too…..

Restaurant pricing, but cheap...