Flourish Craft Bakery — Restaurant in Watford

The family and I have been meaning to come here for so long after hearing so many good reviews. However, this really was a very disappointing experience!

We arrived at 230pm, luckily in time for kitchen closing time at 3pm. As it was blustery wind and nonstop rain we made our way inside to the eatery where there was at least 20 unoccupied tables.

Female member of staff approached and said “sorry we currently only allow people to dine in the outdoor section on picnic tables as we don’t have enough staff...(but yet there was at least 4 other colleagues wandering around directly behind the serving counter).

We proceeded outside & made the order at the window. Adults had toasted sandwiches and florentine. For the kids we wanted to order the ‘marmite cheese toast’ just without the marmite.. and again, they surprisingly refused saying they can’t change the menu. Very accommodating.

The tables and chairs were completely dirty. When I asked for them to be cleaned, it was a quick wipe down with a dirty cloth and the table still had crumbs and I ended up wiping it all myself.

The cappuccino which I asked to be EXTRA hot, was extra luke warm. The food was mediocre but served in polystyrene packs which I wouldn’t have minded if I hadn’t paid such prices and then had to clear away my own rubbish.

The weather turned and it became even more unbearable and as we have young children I once again requested if we could at least sit inside to warm up. She replied “I’ll have to go and ask someone above me” I said I think you mean a member of senior management? “Yes. She responded. Few mins later, she prances back stating that unfortunately it can’t be allowed at the moment as then everyone else would want to come in too.

I said “what do you mean by everyone? There’s currently only one individual sat with his dog, at the end of his coffee and looks as though he is about to leave anyway’’ she was so disinterested and rude it’s unbelievable. This was far from a 5 star experience and I would never come here again! 0/5 if it...

As a customer since Flourish first opened I feel more than qualified in posting this review. We have purchased hundreds of Ancient breads over the years. The quality has noticibly declined in recent months. Flourish now only offer one size of Ancient and if you purchase early in day it hasn't settled and is warm and sticky inside. In this state it cannot be cut, it will not settle even if you leave it out to rest. The solution to this is to order 2 days before you need it (the cut off time is equally unhelpful) . The other major gripe is that the size of the loaf has decreased by at least 25%. Flourish will no doubt deny this. But as a buyer of this same bread of over 5 years it definitely is smaller. We don't cut it any differently we don't don't consume any more but yet it lasts 2 days less than it previously did We use same brand of plastic storage bags for this bread and it didn't used to completely fit inside and now it comfortably sits inside. Without fail every weekend people would queue outside for them to open in order to get bread. This is no longer the case which would indicate a decline in demand. Several other people I have spoken to also complain of exactly the same issues I have highlighted. It's a shame as the bread was without doubt the best around. Sadly that is no.longet the case. And one final point, take away bacon rolls used to be a staple on the menu and now replaced with a luxury sandwich.Perhaps no call for takeaway bacon tools I guess. Unfortunately we will take our custom elsewhere. Really hoping that the owners will revert to how their bread was and not what...

Visited just over a week ago for a quick bite and a couple of drinks. Ordered a pizza and two drinks (peach tea and a cappuccino). The pizza arrived quite quickly, within about 10 minutes, and it tasted very nice. However the drinks did not arrive.

We waited quite a while, then asked a waiter who said he would check. Nothing happened. Tried to get another waitress’ attention, she saw us but ignored us. Eventually we spoke to someone else. By this point it had been about 20 minutes and we had almost finished the pizza. She asked if we still wanted both drinks. I said we would still like the peach tea but not the cappuccino now as it had taken too long.

A couple of minutes later both drinks arrived. I explained again that we only wanted the peach tea now. The cappuccino was taken away. Another waitress came over to say the manager had agreed to remove the cappuccino from the bill. I said that was fine, but if it was being removed we could actually still have it. We waited again but it never came.

When paying, we noticed the pizza price on the till was higher than the menu because of an extra topping, even though the topping price was already listed on the menu. The manager came to say the cappuccino had been removed from the bill, but we had not had it anyway, so it didn’t really help. At this point we just paid and left.

Overall the pizza was tasty, but the experience was really disappointing. There were plenty of staff, but nobody seemed organised or aware of what was going on or even caring. Simple things took far too long and communication was poor. A shame, as it could have been...