Octagon - Swindon

Situated in town centre with big windows perfect for people watching! Food was served quickly and piping hot! Great food at a good price. I highly recommend the breakfast and the loaded fries!

Visited last week, this cafe must have a new chef. They used to make the best scones in Swindon. Now they are the worst, Gross!

Decided to revisit The Octagon last week on two occasions after a few years abroad, The first time was a disappointment so I decided to go back a couple of days later to see if it was just a one-off. Sadly it wasn’t! Having heard they had changed hands recently, my sister and I went for some lunch. After climbing through the mess of binbags, cardboard and bird excrement outside the doors we found the place to be empty and I can understand why... This restaurant used to be one of my favourite when I was in working in town, situated in the prime spot between the bus station and the Tri-centre buildings. The milky coffee and array of home made cakes (especially the scones) made it worth walking from the other end of town- at least they appear to have kept some of the better staff. The display counters were filled with over-cooked shortbread and rock hard flapjacks, bought in loaf cakes, muffins and biscuits. Such a shame as they used to make a wide range of Fruit cakes, flapjacks, bread pudding, and sponge cakes on the premises daily. Perhaps the new owners could rehire the old chefs to teach them how to bake cakes.! I decided to try a tuna sandwich and my sister had a Ham and cheese roll. My sandwich, despite saying ‘freshly made today’ was like eating cardboard! isn’t that false advertising..? We were served by a young girl, who seemed to think it was okay to sneeze into her hands before serving us. I think she left her manners at home that day too! Our teas were stewed and luke warm so we had to be returned twice- how hard is it to make a nice hot cup of tea..? We struggled to find a table clean enough to eat from so had to ask another young girl who could barely see over the counter for a cloth to clean it ourselves. We quickly ate our lunch and left, leaving the place empty again. I can safely say I won’t be back again, this place is doomed if they continue what they are doing. Perhaps if they get the staff to clean tables, learn basic hygiene customer service, serve food that isn’t similar to a back-street petrol garage, then this once popular restaurant can avoid being next closure of Swindon town centre.

I popped in here with my Guide Dog and my New Partner who popped down from Oxford to see me. I had The large Breakfast and a cuppa. Food was delicious and i thoroughly enjoyed it : My partner only had a bowl of chips which she enjoyed. I do think with Tea it should come with the tea bag in the cup on it's own with hot water and not ready made !! so we are able to make the tea or Standard Coffee as strong we like to make it Maybe with a miniature jug of Milk with the choice of Blue Top' Green Top' or Red Top' asked at the counter when purchasing tea or a standard coffee : And Maybe a little pot of sugar instead of Paper Packets which hold hardly any sugar in lol !! I would definitely recommend this Cafe to anyone IN or Visiting Swindon.

I dropped in here while waiting for a coach to Heathrow. Plenty of seating and the staff seemed friendly. I ordered a sausage sandwich and a tea. Tea was hot and strong and served in a mug. The sandwich was offered on a choice of bread and had a generous filling of sausage. Food was cooked quickly and brought to my table with a smile. Would defiantly drop in here again.