Loughton - Anonymous Review

Good food, terrible service.
Restaurant was under a third full, however they asked us to wait 25 minutes. Tons of empty tables. I thought maybe this was a covid policy, assuming they didn’t want it too full. Nope, as everyone that was allowed in were seated next to each other in one area. So I don’t understand this, there were tons of staff (I counted at least 8 members of staff and that’s just out the front) and as mentioned the place was mostly empty, so why make people wait?! So many people walked away deciding to go somewhere else due to this so they missed a lot of trade. When inside no waiting staff came anywhere near our table, we decided to just order through the website instead as knew our order wouldn’t be taken otherwise! Then when the food came, our drinks didn’t so had to ask for them. Food was nice. Then we waited, and waited, no staff came out from behind the counter at all. I ordered a custard tart and wanted to get it. Waited some more, still no one. So I walked up to the counter to ask for it, deciding to just get it to go after waiting for ages. Was hurriedly handed a custard tart in a box with a note saying it was a free tart in exchange for a review, but I paid for the tart! It was really soft and horrible, obviously baked a long time ago and had been sitting there on the counter likely for hours! I assume they were handed out in the daytime much earlier to customers. So I paid for a soft, old, potentially unsafe to eat custard tart that was intended as a freebie to others. Lovely. Food is good, customer service is not. Also when your order delivery with them through Deliveroo items are always missing. Such a shame as could be great.