The Place To Eat - Kingston upon Thames

Wonderful café located in the center of John Lewis, perfect for catching up with friends over a cup of something and indulging in a deliciously large slice of cake to share.

The staff at the tea and cake counter were very inefficient during a busy time on a Saturday. It was frustrating to see them constantly getting in each other's way and not serving customers quickly. One staff member was seen wiping his brow with his hand before serving cake to a customer, while another young man with a reddish beard was obstructing the counter and breathing heavily. The young lady with a dark bob was doing her best, but had to deal with dirty cups and saucers right in front of the till. Overall, the service was very disappointing.

It's such a disappointment that this restaurant, with its delicious cakes and scones, is such a great spot for a break from shopping, but the experience was ruined by inefficient staff. We waited for a long time to be served, as the queue of about eight people moved slowly. Most of the staff seemed unsure of what to do, except for maybe two young ladies. Unfortunately, this seems to be a recurring issue. Please, restaurant management, address this problem.

Well, this was a surprise. Weak, tepid coffee, really poor service (lots of staff but they were all talking about how soon they could leave and managed to ignore the queue of 6 people for an age). Dirty tables; we could only sit looking at the river by cleaning one ourselves first. The spray and dirty cloth were handily set out close by. We used the spray with some napkins in full view of staff, no-one came to help or apologise. Our salad and wrap were tasty, but the staff were far too obviously interested in going home, and this was with plenty of other people who came behind us. By the time we had finished our meals, there were about 40 people there, at 4pm on a Monday, surely the staff should be used to serving at this time of day?

Expected a moister chocolate cake and wasn’t any option for a takeaway either which was disappointing. Other than that quite a lot of options with plenty of seating too.