"Belle Epoque - Not Quite Beautiful!"

A review of Belle Epoque Patte by Anonymous written on Tuesday 16th of June 2009

I used to be a regular of what was once a fabulous, bustling cafe bakery on Newington Green. You couldn't get a table on a Sunday morning for love of bread! I went back this weekend, for what was to be the last time. I should have known something was up when upon entering, 5 wide eyed staff looked up. There was not a single person in the cafe, bar 2 reading a paper in the back garden. Orders of 2 x salads, a coffee and Perrier set us back £20. Reasonable one might think! I asked the waitress if the salads had iceberg lettuce in them (I am allergic), her reponse was "our leaves are all fresh, not frozen". Thank heavens.

Goats cheese salad arrived on a sideplate, with a few chunky pieces cucumber which had been sliced more than a day ago, doused with wholegrain mustard, 4 half slices of tomato, and a wedge of dry bread with melted goats cheese. Cheese was tasty but the springling of wilted leaves it sat on was appauling. No sign of the sundried tomatoes as advertised. Chicken salad looked similar, with unripened avocado instead of cucumber, and small cubes of dried out chicken instead of cheese. Accompanying bread basked of toasted bread sat sadly on the side. We were asked to pay extra for butter.

Staff are sloppy and clearly untrained and very much unenthused. When a second guest did finally appear, they were made to wait more than 10 mins for coffee to arrive. All the while it was ready made, simply waiting to be picked up and brought to the table by one of the clearly bored staff.

It appears more is being spent paying extra sets of hands to do nothing, and not enough on buying at the very least reasonably fresh ingredients.

The cafe itself is gloomy inside, and pictures have been taken off the wals, revealing stained, dusty walls. Floors could do with a good clean and staff could do with a smile!

Don't spend your precious weekend time at Belle Epoque. .

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