Waterside Cafe - Walsall

I frequently use this cafe because it delivers on so many fronts. The food is freshly made and locally sourced, the coffee is excellent. The setting too is a delight, with restful views across the lake. However, it is a dedicated whole staff team that make this place so special. It remains a family firm with a philosophy that has been in place for three generations, that values and puts the customer's needs at the heart of everything they do. We are incredibly lucky to have such a gem in our neighbourhood!

Our family breakfast birthday celebration turned out to be a disappointment. We had reserved a table for 6, including a child, and brought in a birthday cake to be presented after the meal. Unfortunately, we were informed after waiting in line to order that breakfasts were no longer being served due to a staff shortage. Despite explaining our situation, we were told we could have breakfast after a 45-minute wait. By that time, our 22-month-old granddaughter was already hungry. When the breakfasts finally arrived, one was late and most of us had almost finished eating. The poached egg breakfast had to be sent back as they were overcooked, and the toast was burnt. There was also not enough scrambled eggs compared to the amount of toast served. Overall, it was a disappointing experience for our family birthday celebration. It would have been better if the management had prioritized the reserved tables before taking on additional customers.

Popped in for lunch with my Husband we took advantage of a full cooked lunch. Had the lasagne the meat and pasta were tasty, however it's far too loaded with cheese for me some may like this, but it was swamped, shame. Salad looked a bit tired too it's been much better on other days. Happy to give the benefit of the doubt as it's usually fab here.

Lunch here took nearly two and a half hours due to the slow service. Initially we had to select a table that wasn’t clean one young male staff member started cleaning it then buzzed off without finishing the job and didn’t come back to the table, so we had to get the attention of someone else! Yes the cafe was busy, but some staff were not doing a lot and the staff operating the till were taking a long time and didn’t know the answers to simple questions about menu items e.g. was the quiche vegetarian. The staff member checked with the kitchen and came back saying the quiche had cheese eggs in it, so they were clearly unaware of basic dietary differences between vegetarians and vegans! There was an issue with the card machine where it wouldn’t process our payment then the machine froze our transaction produced a ticket for the kitchen but it was unclear whether the money had been taken, so we had to pay again just in case! This later affected our enjoyment of the meal as we had to keep checking online banking (on the cafe’s slow WiFi) to check whether the payment had gone through once or twice. The manager did advise that if the payment was taken twice, she would of course arrange a refund. Food took a while to come out and there was over a 5 minute wait between the first and fourth main courses for our table. This was an unnecessary delay; it’s not difficult to get 4 plates of food out to the same table at the same time or within a minute or so of each other. I had asked got extra butter with my jacket potato at the time of ordering and was assured it would come on the side of the plate it didn’t of course, so I requested this from staff and had to ask a second time when they returned to the table without butter! My potato also arrived with no cheese, when I had clarified at the time of ordering for a potato with cheese beans. Condiments on the table had also not been replenished. Surely all of these are basic things to get right, from a cafe that usually has higher standards. The food tasted nice, but was pricey. Puny portions of peas. Tea was also very expensive and not value for money at £5.20 for a small pot for two! Ordered puddings and these took a g e s to be served. All 4 were brought over separately one at a time, and again with about a 7 minute delay between the first and fourth which was utterly ridiculous!! Time wasted by staff creating a dragonfly out of cocoa powder rather than serving the puddings, but they only did this on two of the four plates unnecessary and why the inconsistency?! What really made me cross was when the puddings were brought to the table, the young male staff member who had earlier abandoned the task of cleaning the table put the puddings down without removing any of the dirty plates from our ‘main course’. He made no attempt to do this and this should be basic common sense/customer service in food establishments! I literally had to pass him some of the empty plates and ask him to take them away, absolutely unbelievable! The scone was quite dry and would have benefited from more jam. Puddings were better value than the other food, but at an overall cost of £75 for lunch for 4 people, it won’t be a regular occurrence for us to eat here.

I ordered a baked potato with salad and coleslaw, but it came without the coleslaw. I reminded the waitress and she promptly brought it out. However, I was surprised to find that the coleslaw portion was extremely tiny, only a spoonful. When I inquired at the register, I was told that this was the normal amount. Needless to say, we won't be returning for lunch there again. What a disappointment!