After a long day of shopping, John Lewis customers can tuck into an array of drinks, breakfasts, lunches and snacks. However, many John Lewis shoppers at Cheadle Royal, Manchester, are less than impressed by the restaurant and have left shocking reviews on TripAdvisor.
Making a lunchtime visit to the John Lewis restaurant at Cheadle Royal, MEN’s Dianne Bourne understood why The Place To Eat has so many negative reviews.
When trying to find something for her three-year-old daughter to eat, she was told – “after several staff discussions” that the cheese and tomato pasta was “out of stock”, as were the chicken goujons.
It was hard to relax and her patience was “wearing thin” as she joined her third queue of the day.
The staff recommended that Dianne buy her daughter an Ella’s Kitchen Pouch or grab a child’s toasted sandwich.
This would mean she had to go back into the sandwich queue where she was previously told that her own choice of a salmon bagel was “out of stock” too.
Speaking of the experience, Dianne said: “Customers fed up with the queues and sub-standard products have witheringly called it ‘The Place NOT to eat’.
“And I’m afraid after my visit here, it’s hard to disagree with that assessment.”
Diana also revealed that the layout of the place is “weird” and discombobulating, and the coffee setup makes little sense.
She said: “The right wall is dominated by self-service coffee machines, but most people seem to avoid them and head to join the queue for the barista-made ones instead.
“It turns out this is a right old waste of time – when I ask at the till (after another queue) what the difference is, it turns out they both use the same coffee machines, just at the barista station they “froth the milk” for you.”
However when she sampled the £3.10 latte from said station, “it’s just so weak it’s barely worth drinking”.
There is a large table of fresh cakes in the cafe which some customers deemed unhygienic – one was repulsed after seeing a toddler with her nose just inches away from one of the cakes.
On Dianne’s visit, she was privy to a little one prodding a chocolate fudge cake before his mother dragged him away from it.
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Diane opted for the creamy lemon cake, priced at £3.85, and praising its freshness and “zing” said it was the “redeeming factor” of her visit to the John Lewis restaurant.
However, she was disappointed with her tuna sub roll. Although the cucumber slices were “crisp and fresh” and the “tuna mayo filling was fine – I mean how wrong can you go with tinned tuna and mayo?”, the bread had “seen better days” she argued.
As for the restaurant itself, while the layout was confusing Diane explained that it was “bright”, “stylish” and “chic”, not to mention very “clean”.
She was impressed by the efficiency of staff who cleared and cleaned tables very quickly to maintain the flow of guests through the restaurant.
Speaking to the staff she asked why so many things were out of stock as early as 12pm, and was told there was a delivery issue.
However, she couldn’t quite believe such a huge retailer “could not keep a decent supply of the very basic ingredients to create a child’s cheese and tomato pasta dish”.
Dianne spoke to John Lewis about her visit and the many one-star reviews of The Place To Eat at Cheadle Royal.
A spokesperson said: “We regret that we had an issue with our delivery, which limited the amount of hot food we were able to offer.
“We’re very sorry about this and are looking into what happened to make sure we can avoid this from happening again.”
Regarding the uncovered cake table, they assured Dianne that their Hospitality Partners at the restaurant have all received training on food standards and training.
“In accordance with our guidelines, they supervise the patisserie and bakery area to prevent any products being mishandled.”
She was told that they would look into measures to take regarding busy queues too.
Chris Southerton, deputy branch manager, commented: “We want every single customer to be delighted with the experience in our cafes and we are very sorry that some have been disappointed.
“We take all feedback seriously, and one bad review is one too many, so we’ll be reviewing these comments and looking at these urgently.”
There are a number of one-star reviews on TripAdvisor for The Place To Eat John Lewis in Cheadle.
One customer, who branded it a “c**p experience” said: “Shocking service!! Coffees were cold! The self service had no cups! Food selection is terrible and the scones are extremely dry!! This cafe use to be really good! Won’t be going again!”
Another one-star reviewer called it “grim”: “If you like super dry cakes (as the edges of the cakes are on display) then this is the place for you.
“Even using the free vouchers on the loyalty card I felt a bit let down. Not the level of quality you’d expect from John Lewis.”
However, some have some in defence of the Cheadle restaurant: “Lovely clean and pleasant environment. Staff were really nice and service was quick and efficient. No problems paying at the till.
“We didn’t use the self service machines but chose to have a barista coffee instead. We had toast and coconut, lime and passion fruit cake which was soft and light and delicious. We go to the Cheadle store often and have found it really nice.”
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