Cafes are no longer pleasant experiences

It’s the hygiene for me 🥺 standards have slipped, likely due to rising costs

I think the clue is "small seaside town"? The city/larger town experience in especially the chain places is truly horrific now.

Then the flies come buzzing as you bite into your tiny cake that cost £4.75...and a toddler runs into you legs and starts screaming as the parents stare blankly into their screens while the counter staff stare into space and count the minutes until they can touch their phones again...all in all a very shit experience, the corporate doesn"t care they just want you through and out the door so they can get another credit card tap on their books.

A one off I think!

Sounds like a lovely cafe. No dogs and the kids are happy, safe & out the way.

I was in a small seaside town recently with a friend, stopped for a coffee by chance. The cafe was quiet, and the coffee was ok, not expensive. There was a big back room too, with tables and chairs and lots of toys. Children playing happily whilst not impacting on the more adult oriented front area. No dogs.

I hope YOU don't have kids with this attitude! If you do, they are probably the most miserable ones in the world.

Mine are grown up now, they never caused any accidents.

Elderly people have accidents all the time, you can't avoid it. It's nothing to do with kids.

Right it’s actually appalling to trivialise someone getting knocked over.

Elderly people are obviously more vulnerable but also anyone recovering from illness/surgery or people with mobility and movements issues like hypermobility and dyspraxia.

It’s everywhere though, not just cafes, and I mainly blame social media (ironically) as the downfall of humanity, as it seems to be slowly leeching our actual humanity from us.

This. It should be called unsocial media as it's become a useful tool to avoid actual social contact with actual real talking. Everyone glued to their screens. Kids left like it for hours. In fact is it ever going to be a reality to make social media illegal for under 16s? No chance. But that's a different thread.

We invested in a really awesome coffee machine and refuse to pay 8 quid for coffee ever again!! 😂😂 Its when your bare arms stick to the icky sticky tables that gets me!

@kvazzybe kind!

Wetherspoons were supposed to be enforcing it, what happened there? Lothian buses started enforcing the no loud phone music rule a while back, drivers will walk up the bus and tell people to stop, seems to be effective because it emboldens the public to enforce the rule themselves, obviously use discretion about who you are telling to STFU!

No, it is definitely other people, do you not see the decline in people, especially younger people attached to devices all day long? If someone is sitting in a cafe goggling at their phone all day like a drone no wonder their kids are bored and running amok?

I really think it needs to become socially unacceptable to have a conversation on speaker in a cafe or on a train etc. My local M and S is terrible for it! I just cannot believe the twit doing it can't see how inconsiderate it is. The staff need to proactively intervene imo. Perhaps some polite signs too. For a lot of cafe users that is their precious five minute's peace/ me time.

Or always being crammed in next to someone else in a cafe or restaurant that has loads of empty tables. Why do waiting staff do that, can someone explain?

Apparently expecting them to do that is dramatic bullshit. Who knew.

It isn't dramatic bullshit at all. How dare you write such offensive nonsense?

Last week my mum was pushed over by a boy with two big dogs who couldn't keep them under control. Fortunately she just has a big bruise.

A few years ago a child pushed a trolley into her back in a supermarket. That time she did end up in A&E.

And although it wasn't a child, a few months ago a relative was knocked over in a supermarket and spent time in hospital. She didn't come out in a coffin but she was very badly injured.

OK it wasn't in a cafe. But it was in a public space. And children can't just run around willy nilly.

So if you have children, make sure they don't make elderly people fall over. But I sincerely hope you don't have kids with that attitude because they're clearly not being brought up to have any consideration.

Or one that does that thing where they shake their fur/dander or shake their head so the slobber splatters everywhere.

OP I completely agree. What really gets me apart from the above are the sticky dirty tables.

I bought a milk foamer years ago for £20 and although I’ve replaced it once it still works out way cheaper and far more pleasant to make my own coffee.

I only buy coffee in the UK on the go now, like if I’m travelling to another city or at an airport/train station etc and I rarely eat out at cafes.

I find restaurants especially hotel restaurants are a bit cleaner. So even if I’m doing lunch I’ll go to a restaurant instead.

People need to learn to control their kids and not let them run amok causing chaos.

I was in an appointment at the bank and elderly lady on phone with speaker on,the whole bank could hear her conversation including me who was in a screened off bit for private business. I did say to bank clerk dealing with me how annoying she was and could you tell her to turn speaker off or go outside, she refused, I decided to leave and discuss ISA's at another bank !

Exactly, or one that smells so bad that it actually puts you off your food 🤢

Yep, Home Bargain is cheap (£3 for a bacon roll and a cup of tea), but maybe it is my local one but it is not a calm place. Kids running everywhere, shopping trolleys every where.
I stopped there once for a quick tea, and a man bought a coffee and sat down with his laptop. He lasted about 10 minutes then left 😆

Not everyone appreciates a yappy, barking or salivating dog sat next to them when eating

Oh, how perfect! I love meeting dogs in cafes. Mine always came to our local pub with us ❤️