Secret Garden Cafe

I ordered an English breakfast. The portions were tiny and overcooked. I complained but only got a smile and nervous laugh in return. Need I say more?

My husband and I visited on Monday at 11.20am. We waited at the top of the stairs to be seated. A waitress asked us if we had booked. As we hadn 't she said we could go on a table which was booked out at 12 noon. We ordered a coffee, tea, fruit scone and a cheese scone. The drinks were brought with the fruit scone. The waitress took the items off the tray and was about to leave. I asked where the cheese scone was. She said it 's coming . The fruit scone was very anemic looking. My husband said it was ok but not the best. Meanwhile I had drunk a cup of tea and was still waiting for the cheese scone to arrive. We asked again where it was. She said it was being cooked. When it arrived it had been sliced horizontally into 5 pieces and toasted crisp! I have never had a cheese scone served in this way before. It was very hard and not pleasant. I told the girl when paying that I had never had a scone served like that before. She said they were from a bakers in Bradford on Avon and asked if I liked it. I said no! She didn 't apologise or ask any more. Won 't be going there again.

Popped in here for a lunch and although it was busy we were shown a table straight away, table service was prompt, though waitress didn't return with the water we ordered and we had to go and find it ourselves. Food was nice but again nobody came to check if food was ok or if we needed anything further. Overall a nice lunch.

We visited in December, waited 45 minutes with no sign of our food. When we asked how much longer it would be, we were told 5 minutes, waited another 7 minutes to be told it would be another 10 15 minutes. We decided to leave and find lunch elsewhere were given our drinks free and a piece of flapjack on the house as an apology. We visited again today, hoping the previous experience was a “one off”, however after being seated we heard numerous other customers complaining of waiting over an hour for their food, so decided to abandon ship (pre ordering) and find lunch elsewhere! Surprised there aren’t more negative reviews; unfortunately we won’t try for a third time.

What has suddenly happened to our favoured destination to dine with family friends? Having been regular loyal diners we could never find a flaw… but…! Recently the service , well,we were made to feel unwelcome albeit it was far from busy, we had to wait for 40 minutes for our food to arrive. WHEN it FINALLY arrived, we all agreed it was “nice” … but… nice is a bland word ! We couldn’t avoid overhearing the comments of the customers either side of us , whose disappointment replicated ours. Our 3 rd disappointment in as many weeks.