Patisserie Valerie - Southend-on-Sea

Had an afternoon tea voucher nearing expiry and given we were in Southend for a day trip figured use it or lose it! I honestly wasn't expecting much and, as we waited for quite a while to be seated, I feared the worst. After ordering we asked whether we could move upstairs. This area is apparently only for customers ordering via the app, so it was almost empty and much calmer. The staff agreed and the guy who then looked after us was brilliant. I wish I'd got his name as he made us laugh as we watched the crazy Alice in Wonderland costumes going past outside. Our drinks and then afternoon tea arrived quickly. This was too much for the only other family upstairs, who claimed they'd been waiting over 40 mins for their food and subsequently upped and left. We had to go and get some jam, as this had been forgotten, but the sandwiches, warm scones and patisserie treats were actually not bad at all. I mean, it was no Fortnum and Mason afternoon tea but given the voucher price and that it filled us up for the rest of the day we're not complaining!

Terrible service. The staff did not know the menu or what gluten free mean't. They kept changing there minds as what milk was available. Horrendous.

Lack of service, really the place is a car crash, not been in here for a long while and won’t be going in again. Restaurant dirty, long waiting though relatively empty. Generally more like a school canteen

Visited here and went for the three Egg Omelet which was very nice and welll cooked. The Coffee was good also as was the service, a nice venue in the high street

I went to Patisserie Valerie with my son and sister today as a summer holiday treat. Was every so disappointed. It wasn 't her fault but there was only one girl serving, she was running around answering the phone, cleaning tables, taking enquiries ect We waited 20 minutes to have the table we were seated up cleared around us and to have our order taken. We asked for 2 coffees, a scone and a scoop of ice cream for my son. The coffees came out reasonably quickly, the scone was warm but was really hard I didn 't want to complain as a few items I had asked for first were out of stock and I actually felt bad for the girl on her own. Our coffees were long finished before we asked about my sons ice cream to be told it will be out soon and wait another ten minutes. The air con system was leaking onto the floor next to us and the cafe smelt really badly like inadequate plumbing we were getting wafts of raw sewage smells that were really off putting. My sister kept on saying we should leave but I felt sorry for my son as I had promised him a treat. I would not ever visit again. It used to be such a lovely place to go but it was tired, run down, and poorly managed.