The Malthouse Kitchen - Stroud

My wife and I called into this place for a coffee and snack after visiting the adjacent antiques centre. When standing at the counter waiting to place our order I noticed a young staff member working at the coffee machine rubbing off the previous customer’s...lip marks from around the used cup rim with his finger, whilst the cup was in situ, full to the brim and ready to be served to an unsuspecting customer. I continued with our order; two coffees, an egg and bacon bagel and a sausage and egg bun. After ten minutes plus, the coffees arrived. I had to refuse one coffee because around the face of one side was covered with red lipstick.The coffee was taken away into the kitchen and I assume emptied and cleaned, however, the staff member returned wiping it dry with his hand. At this point I went up to the counter and told him to wipe the cup dry with a towel or tissue and not with his hand before serving it back to me. After an almost further twenty minutes wait, the two snacks finally arrived just as we were about to give up the ghost and leave. Both fried eggs were well over cooked. Needless to say we didn’t finish eating, got up and walked out. Ok, so why didn’t we complain at the time? After the feeble customary and unconvincing ‘sorry about that’ over the coffee cup saga, what was the point? Would I have wanted to wait another twenty minutes plus for a replacement? I don’t think so. The place was half empty and no wonder why. In my opinion..... overpriced food for what you get, poor service, less than average food, poor hygiene, uninterested and I suspect, untrained staff. We frequented this place two or three times earlier in the year and had reasonable food and service. Somewhere along the line, based on my latest experience, providing the customer with an acceptable level of food and service and in particular, standard hygiene practice, seems to have fallen off a cliff. Would I go back? Not a chance. Have I ever put a review on Tripadviser before? No. Would I recommend to family or friends? No. Does this place deserve a truly negative review from me? Absolutely!

I have been many times before and it’s always been great food and service but sadly it’s gone down hill dramatically (not sure if it’s been taken over We arrived at 2:30pm with only a handful of people there so not busy at all. We...ordered two milkshakes which were bought out to us AFTER our food of which we waited 20 minutes for, for two basic and tasteless salmon bagels. There are no friendly servers to greet you and the menu is incredibly boring as are the drinks. Sadly we won’t be returning unless there are vast improvements.

My one gluten free menu option today was the homemade salmon fish cake. Can I just say — that super-fresh peppers rocket salad with capers, topped by a salmon and potato fishcake with homemade tartare dressing — was probably the yummiest fishcake combo I’ve...eaten in 50 years of living on this planet. Just divine! Thank you. Goes to show, you don’t need plenty of GF choice of the dish is incredible!

Met a friend for a treat breakfast as have enjoyed previous visits some time ago . I thought the biggest breakfast was quite expensive but why not ? .... No egg ! Never occurred to me you would not get an egg on a double...figure breakfast ! 2 crunched up bits of streaky bacon , no toast , not happy . My friend pointed out that the pancakes which used to have extras on which now have to be paid for piece by piece , . We have decided that we will go elsewhere , rip off . P,ease not the prices on here ar3 out of date

Christmas Eve and a treat or do we thought breakfast at The Malthouse Bar Kitchen, what a disappointment! Haven’t been for a while... It’s all gone a bit ‘self service’, get your own menus and cutlery, you go up and order at...the bar, no one talks to you or comes to your table. Thought they’d be championing local produce, but they served the cheapest sausages we’ve had in a long time, stodgy cheap supermarket bread (for my daughters sausage sandwich, which she wouldn’t eat), awful orange juice out of a carton (not even worth half of the £1.60/glass it cost us). £10 for a full English breakfast felt very over priced, and not even toast included. We used to get a warm feeling coming here, not any more it’s as if no-one cares any more, what a disappointment