I have only given this two stars because I have been here many times and it is not normally as awful as it was today (although it's never great). If not for this, it would have been a zero star rating. (Is that even possible?)
The food we were served today was truly diabolical. My partner had a cheese burger and chips. I wish I had taken a photo. The burger looked like cardboard; it was about 1cm thick, dry like chipboard, solid and apparently tasted revolting. Ah, and there was no cheese. My partner actually said he would have been better off with a Wimpy burger....
I ordered the falafel with chips, expecting the falafel, pitta, humous and salad described on the menu, but got two pieces of falafel on a plate of chips with nothing else. No salad, not even a garnish. The falafel tasted ok and was homemade but had been microwaved so was spongy.
I dread to think what was inside the kid's sausages - they didn't smell good and the peas didn't really resemble peas either. And all of this for £30!
This is 'middle class family' territory and the Horniman positions itself as green, organic, environmentally friendly etc, so they really need to buck up the café food. On the plus side, the cakes did look good and on a previous visit I've had the homemade quiche, which was tasty. The mezze platter also looks like it might be ok. The conservatory is a lovely building - although sadly the heaters were not on despite the cold and rain. The main café area is indoors but was packed to the brim.
So in brief, during our visit at least, the food was poor quality and completely over priced. It really was quite shocking.
To top it off, the grounds of the Horniman are currently being dug up (Feb '11), the hands-on section in the music room is closed (temporarily) and you now have to pay to go into the aquarium.
I used to love visiting the Horniman but I think it will be a while before I muster the enthusiasm to head back there. read more