Eaten in this cafe many times, especially when Adrian still owned it. the new owners are lovely UNTIL you run into issues. I love the bagels Rodney does, and even while having to wait over 30 minutes last time when he had to go to the shop to get ingredients, leaving me alone in the cafe, I didn't mind. Mistakes happened and I worked all my life in the hospitality industry to overlook certain things.
But there's 1 thing I cannot overlook, and that is hygiene issues. I ordered a bagel and coffee as usual, it came pretty quickly compared to before and was just plain normal. I always wash my hands before eating and found there was no hand soap in the bathroom. Upon asking Rodney, he handed me washing up liquid. He prepared my bagel without washing his hands nor with gloves (he later claimed he used gloves, but I clearly saw him prepping food without gloves).
I asked him how he can wash his hands without soap. It then went for about 15+ minutes back and forth and I returned my bagel and coffee without eating/drinking and requested a refund. He refused at first and even told me with a condescending smile I could go to the other cafes in the area. I persisted for a refund, but he wanted my bank details to do it later online. I informed him about GDPR data protection. He had no clue what I was talking about regarding handling data as a business. I responded that I could show him on his card machine how to issue a refund. After a long back and forth he finally called the credit card company that manages his account to issue a refund.
I mentioned to Rodney that if an EHO visits and finds there's no hand washing while food's prepared as well as him wearing many rings where bacteria easily hides and then preps food etc, he also didn't know what an EHO is! There has never been a hygiene rating sign as far as I can tell, and there isn't even any allergy advise like restaurants/cafes do now since the whole Pret a Manger allergy deaths and injuries.
Rodney is great guy, lovely vibe, art and music, the bagels are delicious, but when it comes to food hygiene, I don't close my eyes! And his responses were very dissapointing. We also just came out of a pandemic, and when a food place doesn't take hygiene serious, it should not deal with food. The way he patronised me and simply did not understand anything, neither with hygiene, nor allergies, nor data protection, not even how to issue a refund ... how did you get into this business Rodney?!
I don't care how expensive food is, I don't care how long it takes, even go to the supermarket to buy ingredients while I wait, but do NOT muck around when it comes to hygiene! read more