September 2025 by Caroline
Warning- not clean, not dog safe or friendly. Unhelpful and incompetent staff. Do not visit!! Cost us £250 in emergency vet fees! Avoid at all costs.
Stopped for lunch and were shown a table. Table area was unclean, with large bits of cake underneath. Dog ate some before we had a chance to inspect under the table. Could immediately see it appeared to be many raisins under the table, which are highly toxic to dogs. 1 can kill.
I approached staff members to understand what the ingredient are used on their cakes, explaining I needed to understand asap as if it?s raisins or sultanas they are toxic to dogs and would need to go immediately to vet. Staff were incredible unhelpful. 1st member said ?I can clean it now?. 2nd one was quite rude and said ?you can see the ingredients yourself displayed in front of the cakes.? (Some signs were there, others missing).
The 3rd member of staff then got involved (male manager) by asking me to move whilst I was trying to read the ingredients on display (despite it being in a customer area).
Finally, there was a helpful 4th member of staff who was actually helpful (thank you to the blond young woman behind the counter). At the point, I could see based on picking up the large amount of leftover cake on the floor that it was a flapjack which had the ingredients ?dried fruit?. The 4th member behind the counter went and checked the actual ingredients list and confirmed raisins.
Emergency visit to vet cost £250 and vet confirmed raisins consumed.
Accidents happen and busy cafes can?t expect to be perfectly clean all the time. I should have checked under the table (although dog is 8 and have never had this issue in any other establishment). However, the amount of food under the table was far beyond crumbs and was large chunks of food. Additionally, the response from the staff was absolutely unacceptable. It should not take 4 people to confirm basic ingredients lists. Had the tea house been responsive and helpful, I could have overlooked the filthy floor. However, they need basic customer service training to be able to respond to an ingredient request.
Avoid- other nice clean places with better staff on the high street.
August 2025 by Ginny Thompson
Mixed experience. Lovely waitresses but not a great owner. We ordered one thing and got a different order. When we spoke to the manager he made up some rubbish story about this being the dish When it clearly wasn't. I get the impression he's not bothered instead that it's mainly holidaymakers and so it doesn't matter,flip customer move on.
Toasted teacake was luke warm so the butter couldn't melt.
On the plus the sundaes ? were great.
If back in Lyndhurst I will choose elsewhere.
August 2025 by James Carlin
Great place for breakfast when in the area. Both the English and Full English options were delicious, made with quality ingredients, freshly prepared, piping hot and really tasty. Lovely pot of tea to accompany it too.
Dog friendly, and tables didn?t seem too packed in either. Cakes looked delicious but managed to resit temptation on that front on this occasion!
August 2025 by Sara Sanchez
Ordered the afternoon tea. Portions of everything are very large and prices more than reasonable, but that has a reflection on the quality. Service was quick although I think the day of my visit bank holiday August they were undersaffed. One comment regarding the owner: please talk and treat your staff in a kinder manner, what i witnessed was just someone barking orders. All my gratitude to the waitress..you were doing a great job ;).
August 2025 by Thomas Barker
A very nice tea room with a reasonable menu.
August 2025 by Jon Pemberton
I acknowledge I?m seemingly an outlier here and there are many accolades for the cream tea from other diners. Frustratingly for me, my experience ( with the exception of the cuppa ), was really sub optimal. I returned the scone which was frozen in the middle. A freshly heated one was later delivered. It took it?s place alongside the 2 small plastic containers of jam and the perhaps 3 teaspoonfuls of cream ; combined, it was a pretty tasteless effort. So disappointing relative to the rave reviews
August 2025 by Luke MacKinnon
Lovely tea house in the centre of Lyndhurst. We went for breakfast before a morning walk in the forest and the food was so good we went back again for lunch! Would highly recommend the full english breakfast - hash browns were amazing. The milkshakes and sundaes are also very tasty. Will definitely go back next time I?m in the area
August 2025 by nazineful
Lovely food, pleasant staff and nice atmosphere in the New Forest.
I ordered gluten free full English and smoothie! I was surprised when they had gluten free hash browns too, as I haven?t seen that elsewhere. (I had to double check for reassurance). My husband ordered smashed avocado (regular). Food was tasty, but small portions.
I?d recommend marking the food with the allergy in someway (e.g. sticker or stating the allergy when serving the food) to reassure customers/highlight to staff which order belongs to whom, as it could have big health consequences if the groups order gets mixed up. (This has happened to me before, so I always like to double check, if it isn?t clear when served).
Otherwise a pleasant experience!
August 2025 by Lulu Robertson
Never fails to disappoint - the menu is vast and caters for all. And to add to that they welcome dogs too.
August 2025 by paul evans
Wow! We were met with extremely gracious staff who were very helpful and the panini and jacket potato were just what we needed after our lovely walk. Highly recommended!!!
July 2025 by Marin
Very bad made scones, jam in plastic little tins and the owner was ordering his staff around in a very unpleasant way. Not very friendly place, although the girls working there were nice.
July 2025 by Nick Matthew
Great cafe with inside or outside seating.
Good choice for all types of diets and the whole family.
The quality of the food and ingrediants is very high and it tasted delicious.
The staff were very helpful and polite, there was no waiting and the management were keen to ensure that every request was met.
All done is a very relaxed atmosphere.
If you are anywhere in the area give this lovely cafe a try.
July 2025 by David Millar
Dog friendly but not wheelchair friendly!
We wanted a cream tea - having been here in previous years. Wendy the manger/senior waitress who I asked said we could not go in to the Tea house because there was no room for my mother?s wheelchair as it might block the toilets or be in the way!! There is a whole side area that could easily have been slightly rearranged to accommodate us. Unbelievable to hear this in this day and age. My mother was very upset. Shameful!
July 2025 by Sally B
Lovely inside and out. Warm fresh fruit or plain scones for a fab cream tea. Lovely owner who makes his own delicious ginger lemonade, very refreshing! Would definitely visit again!
July 2025 by Megan Chapman
Extremely Disappointing and Dangerous Experience ? Do Not Visit If You Have Allergies
I strongly advise against visiting this establishment, especially if you or someone has food allergies or is coeliac. Despite advertising that they cater to gluten-free diets and food allergies, our experience proved otherwise ? with serious consequences.
We visited for what was meant to be a pleasant birthday lunch. Upon arrival, we specifically asked for a gluten-free menu. She ordered a gluten-free scone, while I had a sausage sandwich and my nan ordered a regular scone.
A waitress took our order, fully aware of the allergy requirements, and later returned with the scones ? explicitly stating, ?This is the gluten-free scone.? My sister began eating it, whilst I was still waiting for my food. By the time my food eventually arrived she would have eaten it all.
Fifteen minutes later, a member of the kitchen staff approached our table and asked who had the ?gluten-free? scone. He then informed us that it was NOT gluten-free. By that time, my sister had already eaten over half of it! This is absolutely unacceptable. Cross-contamination is one thing ? but serving a completely wrong item and failing to correct the mistake promptly is a serious food safety issue.
To make matters worse, another staff member attempted to downplay the situation, saying she ?shouldn?t be feeling ill straight away? because reactions take hours. This was not only medically inaccurate but deeply dismissive, especially as my sister was already in the bathroom being sick. Everyone reacts differently, and she happens to be highly sensitive. As a result, she had to cancel the rest of the birthday plans, an annual event the next day, and even her upcoming holiday she was going on 2 days after this due to the physical toll this took on her health.
When we left, not one staff member acknowledged us ? no concern. Several people stood behind the counter and ignored us entirely. It was humiliating and disheartening. One staff member even asked if she needed an EpiPen, displaying a shocking lack of basic allergy knowledge (EpiPens are not used for coeliac reactions).
This level of negligence could have had even more serious consequences. It?s clear that staff need urgent training in allergy awareness, communication, and basic food safety protocols. Mistakes can happen, but the way this was handled ? and the delay in even identifying the error ? was completely unacceptable.
I sincerely hope no one else has to go through what my sister did. We will not be returning, and I am considering escalating this further, as this incident should serve as a wake-up call for the business.
1-star is generous for how this was handled.
