Oh woe is me. What has happened to the once quaint, friendly and great cafe that Cafe Fleur used to be.
It has been a while since I have been here and in that time Cafe Fluer has sky rocketed with amazing reviews, a make over, tons of event hosting and awards and exposure in many a news paper, blog and magazine. Based on that, I was whole heartedly expecting an amazing time and meal to eclipse the first time i tried it a couple of years ago.
Sadly, this was not the case.
The second I stepped in, something felt different. Me and my girlfriend helped ourselves to a seat and waited patiently for someone to notice us and greet us. Sadly, this wait went on as the staff and owner seemed more interested in taking funny pictures and videos to post on instagram.
Finally we were noticed. One of the young girls serving brought us a menu, dropped it on the table and said to order at the counter. No hello? Yes i'm fine to day thanks for asking. Woosah, lets ignore this and hope that things get better. Opening the menu, there really isn't much choice anymore. A couple of breakfast ideas, some sandwiches, tons of coffees and tons of booze options. Given that I fancied a full english, I went with this option (mainly also because I didn't want anything else on offer). So off my girlfriend goes to order.
First our drinks came (coffeess naturally). We reached for the sugar pot but needless to say we may as well have just had coffee with out any sugar seeing as you needed a jack hammer to try break up this solidified mass of brown sugar sitting in there. But after much sweating we managed to scrape enough to add to our drinks (would have helped if we were asked if everythign is ok seeing as the staff saw us struggle with this but ok then...)
Out comes the food. It looks damn fine and could well be the saving grace to this experience. Mine, overall, was pretty good. Great hashbrowns (the highlight) but there was a let down... When tucking into the bacon, just pools of oil and grease spread quickly over my plate. Considering it was the last thing I ate (save the best for last you know) I just got on with it. Fair enough, I feel a bit uneasy righting this now as I feel my cholesterole peaking but considering that my girlfriends meal was LITERALLY swimming in oil, I don't feel that bad overall.
Overall, it was a very sad experience and the fact that those who work and own the place were more concerned in instagramming, coming up with funny hashtags, taking pictures of each other on their phones and ignoring the service they should be providing just made it all that much worse. Given the amount over exposure they have been given across social media and magazines, I would expect a lot more in terms of service and food but I was sadly let down. Maybe the overall fame and exposure has gotten to the heads of those in charge leading them to think that they have done enough to make it and can now sit back. Who knows. What I do know is I won't be going there again anytime soon. read more