December 2023 by Rosie H
Despite many other reviews I think the food here is good. I usually have the soup and a portion of chips (the chips are amazing). The cakes in the centre isle always look good too. However, the service is appalling. Every time I've been I hope to have a better experience, but sadly not. The staff have no urgency about them at all, the queue gets longer and longer, and they generally seem to be disorganised and disinterested. All the customers complain about it. The reason I gave four stars is all down to one member of staff. His name is Abdullah and he came to the rescue this Saturday. He was so efficient, taking orders, hurrying the staff along and even delivering food orders to tables. He single handedly improved the service and got the queue down. This is how you run a restaurant. Your restaurant needs more Abdullahs. I don't know who's in charge, but it should be Abdullah. I hope he gets a good Christmas bonus. He is your hero. And was mine on Saturday. And I told him so. He is a tiger working with a bunch of sloths.
December 2023 by 551ameliamae
We were treated by a very pleasant member of staff, who advised that we should find a table first before getting food, as it was busy. We did this, there were tables available. As we had bought a fair few items we went one at a time to get our food, as it wasn?t possible to work out what was available from a menu. It took 15 minutes for my partner to get his food and a coffee. I then went up to choose my food. Same experience. One person on a till and one making the coffees. I was over 15 minutes queuing to order, pay and then wait for the cappuccino to be made. Hardly any gluten free options were available. My partner had finished his meal when I sat down to eat mine. Hardly an enjoyable lunchtime break. There were more staff clearing tables than serving. It?s a sad demise of what used to be a reliably good place to eat in any John Lewis store. When we left the same nice member of staff said goodbye. All the time standing by the entrance, when they could have been helping stop queuing.
November 2023 by neilstacey18vic
Second time I've visited in recent weeks. I'm afraid it may be my last visit. Yet again table after table is covered in dirty plates, cups, napkins...... And yet again the serving of coffee has taken an age. Surely the buying/ serving can be organised more effectively. Shame because the coffee is good as is the mince pie.
November 2023 by Bernardo2000
Food and drink is fine and what you expect for a JL cafe. It?s a nice space and handy if you have babies or accessibility problems. My major gripe is that it?s always very messy - so many of the tables aren?t regularly cleared and it looks awful. You end up having to move other people?s dirty cups and plates onto other dirty tables to clear room. This isn?t a one off, it?s like that every time and not just at peak times. There is usually someone clearing tables but they?re so slow and there seems to be no effort to keep on top of it. Some of the staff could also benefit from customer service training. It?s strange as the staff who work in the shop are great and so helpful and friendly, but doesn?t seem to be the case in the cafe.
November 2023 by Suzanne M
20 mins wait at lunch time 1.00 for drinks and to pay for sandwiches. One guy on till also doing teas, another lady doing coffee. Second time this has happened, they need more staff in the cafe. This is John Lewis after all.
September 2023 by red2009
Having had a busy morning shopping, we decided to pop into the John Lewis cafe for a snack. We were very disappointed with the choices - poor quality; the scones were hard and the hot Chocolate was lukewarm. My sister ordered the Black Forest cake which was soggy and tasteless. I?m very disappointed with the quality of service and food. Come on John Lewis you can do better! We won?t be returning. Overpriced and poor quality.
August 2023 by Claire N
Awful service; staff are slow, bordering on ponderous, and were non communicative. One member of staff walked away and left a queue and did some random clearing up that could have waited. The lady who served me made my drink and left it at the other end of the counter, despite walking up to where I was waiting by the till, where she proceeded to serve the next customer. I eventually located my drink but it seemed such a lazy and pointless way to serve someone. Cakes were not presented well so I dodged those, as they didn?t even look appetising. From reading other reviews, they don?t seem to improve. Very poor for a JLP store. A serious review needs to take place, both for skills and attitude.
July 2023 by raya665
Popped in for lunch, what a disappointment. Even though it was only 1pm, very limited choice. I had steak pie, peas and chips. The mint peas were luke warm and disgusting. The chips were ok, but only 12 !! My wife had a cheese and onion panini with salad. The salad comprised 1 small tomato cut into 4 pieces and 3 small thin slices if cucumber. The staff seemed totally disinterested. On a positive note, at least they had someone cleaning tables
June 2023 by Suzanne20717
No labelling for gluten free & cakes are mixed on counter with other cakes using the same utensils.staff are unhelpful!
May 2023 by Tru77les
I arrived first and got a table. We like it here because it?s spacious and feels safe The central island till wasn?t working and there was only 2 ladies serving , one taking the orders and one making coffees I waited 20 minutes ( my sister timed me) They were trying their best but the queue was getting longer When I finally sat down I noticed once the queue had gone someone came to the centre island and another assistant appeared where I had been queueing This situation wasn?t managed well Surely both coffee machines could have been used to ease the pressure My sister and I did not enjoy our coffee on this occasion
May 2023 by ebidd2019
Very Disappointed ? Every Time I've been the Portions are getting smaller including All the Cakes, quality average. Now Poor Value for money, the cafe was almost empty even around Lunch time. Not surprised as the cakes are expensive for what you actually get, used to go regularly. Not from now as you get almost a few crumbs of cake and coffee is quite weak. M&S hope you keep the quality and the sizes fair.
March 2023 by Glenn N
Well things haven?t changed at John Lewis. Great store but a terrible cafe. They advertise breakfast till 11.30 but after queuing for 10 mins from 11.05 they ?sold out? of all hot choices. I politely asked them to cook a few more sausages as there were still 15 minutes to the deadline but was told they couldn?t do that because they had ?run out? of all hot breakfast options. How convenient! I don?t have the time or inclination to give full details of the huge queues for coffee ( 15 minutes at least). I actually felt sorry for the ONE member of staff trying to make the coffees. I hope he gets more than minimum wage but I doubt it. And don?t get me started on the price of sandwich?s. £5.75 for a chicken salad sandwich-I don?t think so!
October 2022 by Travel792382
We bought tea and cake from the counter where an obviously-inexperienced newbie was being trained up. The staffing was ok for hot food but totally inadequate for coffee and cake. We won?t be returning. We used to visit every other week but the delays are now too lengthy.
July 2022 by LisaB23_11
We popped in just before 10 am on Friday 29th July. We both had vouchers for a free breakfast roll. Very minimal staff on hot food counter, obviously struggling to cope with the stream of customers. We ordered after quite a wait and were told that they didn't have the brioche rolls and were offered a choice of white or sourdough bread instead. This was fine, as we both prefer sourdough to brioche anyway. The poor partner, working alone, on the hot drink section was deluged with customers and kept apologising for keeping people waiting. We sat down with our coffee and our breakfast arrived after about 15 minutes, with more apologies as it turns out they didn't have sourdough bread either, so it was white sliced. It's a good job this was a reward offer John Lewis. If we'd paid almost £4 each for the food we'd received, we'd have been very unhappy. As a Waitrose partner myself, I was disappointed with the experience. You can do better than this JLP. No wonder we are struggling, our reputation for outstanding customer service is not currently evident.
April 2022 by Helen H
Great service helpful staff ! Asked for had sanitizer was no problem quickly came with some very helpful ladies! Lovely cheese scone! Thank you! If wanted to improve our had sanitizer near entrance again maybe! Thank you to the helpful lovely ladies that served me yesterday ?
