Oh dear. Things did not go well on Saturday morning at Jam in a Jar. It's quite hard to know how to rate them for it! Maybe after I tell the story, it will become clear.
So, Jam in a Jar is sort of a cafe-bar hybrid. We came during the day, so no live music or anything, but they have a small breakfast menu and a few tables. It's a very chill, hipster-looking place. They do fill up, and we had to cram into quite a small table (four of us) because the staff had allowed one man dining alone to sit at a 4-top. I think they should be a little more careful about that. Eventually, we managed to move and get more elbow room. We ordered some coffee/tea and then settled in to wait for our lunches. We waited a very long time. I enjoyed my pot of peppermint tea, finished the whole thing, and we started realizing that other people who came in after us had been served first. At least 30 minutes had passed since we'd ordered. Around this time, the lights in the kitchen went out. A server came round and said that they'd had a power outage, and we'd have to wait even longer for our food. We were starving, and complained a bit - they quite kindly brought us out two muffins and two brownies! Too much really, but I must admit - they were delicious. We shared the muffins and nibbled the brownies while we waited. It was at least an hour, if not more, before our breakfasts arrived. We were also given more complimentary drinks during our long wait - another coffee, a juice, etc. In the end, the sweets were free (as they were offered to us to tide us over) and so were the second round of coffees.
The breakfasts themselves were quite good - my scrambled eggs were soft and placed on yummy grainy toast. Since I don't like mushrooms, they gave me an extra piece of halloumi instead which is an upgrade if I ever saw one! Sauteed spinach, juicy grilled tomatoes, tasty new potatoes and beans. It was actually a great vegetarian breakfast, and I think it was only £6 or £7. Great price for London. As we finished eating, one of the cooks came by and apologized, saying that before the power had gone out, he'd just realized that our ticket had fallen onto the floor, so we'd been forgotten first and then the electricity issue happened on top of that. I know that the power outage can't be helped (or can it - overloaded circuits maybe? It's not like the power went out in the whole neighborhood), but we were really unhappy with the long wait. An hour is pretty unacceptable all round to wait after you order! The sweets were nice, but we really could've done better with just the muffins for us to share, and then our breakfast should probably have been comped. An hour's wait, to be forgotten then inconvenienced by the power....it was pretty bad.
We really enjoyed our meals in the end, but our friends were embarrassed and apologetic and I'm not sure we could justify returning again! I appreciate how they tried to rectify the situation, which has certainly salvaged them from a worse review. Sounds like they have some problems with consistency here, so don't go if you're starving, and if they are having an "on" day you are in for a treat! But I don't think we'll be giving it another go - couldn't handle another starving hour waiting for brunch! Maybe 3 stars is too generous, but the food was good and they were kind to us and gave us lots of free things....2 stars seems too mean? They would've had 4 for the food and atmosphere, down to 2 with the waiting issue, and back up to 3 because of their apologies and comps. read more