Me and a friend came here for brunch, and it was... a mixed bag! Our waitress made us feel like a bit of a nuisance for ordering food and drinks off the menu, which was odd. I had avocado and poached eggs on multiseed toast (fresh, tasty, and the eggs had the brightest yolks I've ever seen and were poached to perfection!) with a homemade lemonade (basically fresh lemon juice and a bit of sugar in water, with a LOT of ice - overpriced in my opinion). My friend had salmon and scrambled eggs with homemade brioche toast - the salmon was fresh and tasty and the eggs were cooked just as my friend likes them, which is potentially a bit more well done than most people prefer but she was happy! She also said the brioche toast was delicious - like a lighter version of normal toast. She had an orange, pineapple and apple juice which was nice and fresh, but came in a very small glass (overpriced!) and unfortunately with no ice. My friend had also ordered a side of spinach, which was unluckily forgotten and then hastily brought over in a soggy mound on a side plate. The spinach was gritty, which was most unusual and not very enjoyable at all! I originally thought perhaps it was just seasalt, but I also tried it and it was more like sand - there were little brown dots in the spinachy water on the plate, and the grit stayed in the teeth for an uncomfortable amount of time! We told our server and they did remove it from the bill, but we felt judged and were looked at like we just didn't know what spinach was supposed to be like.
Once our plates were cleared we waited a silly amount of time without acknowledgement, so I headed over to the pastry display to signal our interest in ordering more. One of the servers asked if I was alright and I replied that I was just looking so that we could decide what we wanted to order, but even then once I returned to my seat we waited another silly length of time before having to draw the attention of a waitress, who explained that we were "actually a bit hidden" behind all of the people that they had for some reason sat directly in all of the tables surrounding us, even though the restaurant had plenty of available tables and could probably have spread us all out a bit more! I ordered a latte (frothy, strong and delicious - I don't normally add sugar to my coffee but a tiny brown sugar lump elevated this to perfection) and a (giant!) almond croissant (baked on the premises that day, flaky, beautifully layered and filled with a delightful almond paste), and my friend ordered a hot chocolate (deliciously rich!) and a plain croissant (it was good). Then FINALLY the bill and we were out of there. It's unfortunate that we were sat right up against an outside wall when, had we been at the next table, we could have enjoyed a lovely view of the river. The decor is nice and there is a nice atmosphere, but the service was just odd and we didn't feel overly welcome. The food and drinks are very good, most of them local or even created on the premises, but I do think it is a bit on the pricey side. I have a Taste card that gets 50% off the a la carte menu on weekdays so I probably will be back to give that a try, but I think for a weekend brunch there may be better options not too far away. read more