The Old Coffee Tavern — Restaurant in Warwick

Whilst the venue itself has nice decor and a good ambience, unfortunately it is severely let down by the management.

I visited with 4 friends with the plan to have a few drinks and dinner and so we booked a table for 5. The table only accommodated 4, so I was perched on the end which wasn’t a great start.

The female waitress, who was very pleasant, took our drinks order and provided us with menu’s (unfortunately the wrong ones but no big drama). However, one of our group is celiac and so obviously cannot eat gluten. This was pointed out and he asked for a GF menu… there isn’t one and instead was provided with laminated sheets, by a male member of staff, of what each dish contains and which ingredients are allergens. Apart from a steak, there was basically nothing else he could eat, which was poor.

He did raise his frustration with the staff member, not blaming him, but rightly pointing out that the menu is clearly marked up for Vegans and Vegetarians but no mention of Gluten Free, which is as a result of a medical condition, not a dietary choice.

This is where the “fun” began… shortly after, the manager, Heather, arrived at our table and from the outset clearly had an attitude problem. I have never heard someone working in a front of house role talk to a customer in such a manner. Her tone was patronising, downright rude and she would not let my friend get a word in edgeways, even telling him that being a celiac is an allergy, when it is in fact an auto-immune disease.

He tried to ask what he could have and where substitutions could be made and again raised the question as to why nothing is marked on the menu as GF or GFA when Vegan and Vegetarian are clearly highlighted. This was met with more earache and a barrage of words, all meaningless and just exacerbating her tone of self-importance.

My friend asked if the chef could be spoken to, to see what could be prepared GF, as rightly pointed out, if they are the ones cooking, they would be best placed to know. Cue Heather cutting in and clearly stating “No, the chef doesn’t need to know what’s GF. As the manager I am the only one who needs to know!”

With that, we handed the Menu’s back, finished our drinks and left. As we were walking out of the door, Heather, quite load and rather sarcastically said “Thanks so much for coming guys.”

Needless to say, none of us will...

Cannot say enough good things about our stay at The Old Coffee Tavern, especially about the Manageress Heather- she is a complete diamond and from the minute we entertained Heather could not do enough or have been more friendly - changed rooms so all 3 couples could be on the same floor, advised us with regard to parking (although none on site there is ample parking very closeby - if you have a disabled badge you can park in the car park literally just in front of the hotel for 2 days for free - if not there is a carpark just around the corner where you can park for as long as you like ), The hotel looks like it has recently been refurbished and was so clean and lovely, it is a real surprise when you go into your bedroom and see how beautiful it and your ensuite are - we were not expecting anything so lovely . We were there for 2 days, 1 night as we were going to Warwick Races (something like a 6 minute walk away) and felt so comfortable here for the whole time. We did not eat there but did spend both nights in the pub area and the service and atmosphere where both fabulous. We did have a quick walk around the area and it was so very pretty with various places to eat and drink. This is definitely now our go to place to stay/ visit if ever we are in the area - thank you Heather for...

Cannot say enough good things about our stay at The Old Coffee Tavern, especially about the Manageress Heather- she is a complete diamond and from the minute we entertained Heather could not do enough or have been more friendly - changed rooms so all 3 couples could be on the same floor, advised us with regard to parking (although none on site there is ample parking very closeby - if you have a disabled badge you can park in the car park literally just in front of the hotel for 2 days for free - if not there is a carpark just around the corner where you can park for as long as you like ), The hotel looks like it has recently been refurbished and was so clean and lovely, it is a real surprise when you go into your bedroom and see how beautiful it and your ensuite are - we were not expecting anything so lovely . We were there for 2 days, 1 night as we were going to Warwick Races (something like a 6 minute walk away) and felt so comfortable here for the whole time. We did not eat there but did spend both nights in the pub area and the service and atmosphere where both fabulous. We did have a quick walk around the area and it was so very pretty with various places to eat and drink. This is definitely now our go to place to stay/ visit if ever we are in the area - thank you Heather for...