What are the worst cafe crimes?

[TheLastSherbetLemonInTheJar]

Yes I know that running is a cafe is incredibly hard and many are struggling but I wondered what your cafe/restaurant pet peeves are?

Mine include having only white sugar for coffee and no brown. It’s amazing how often this happens even in very nice cafes so I bought some brown sugar sachets to keep in my bag.

Margarine instead of butter. Of course they should offer margarine but I expect to be able to have butter(Unless I’m in a vegan cafe)

Teapots that drip everywhere.

This doesn’t really affect me but I always feel sorry for people who have coeliac disease when the only cake option is a brownie.

And a particularly petty one. When they remove my favourite item from a menu. I know that they have to change it sometimes but it’s so annoying when you can no longer get something that you’ve been ordering and enjoying regularly.

What are your little cafe/restaurant annoyances?

Inadequately chilled soft drinks. For £3.50, it can go in the fridge for a few hours, pal.
Cakes that don't taste half as good as they look. Either way too sweet or way too dry.
My DH repeatedly insisting we go into a particular establishment (You love that one, Theodora) when it changed hands two years ago and is now the kind of place where a cheese toastie costs £13 because it comes with an elaborate menu description and tiny ramekin of fancy chutney on the side. No.

Eh? What else would it be?

@imsotiredohsotired panino being the singular panini being multiple - that’s quite a specific gripe !! 🤣

Well I never 🤯😂

Lettuce, tomato, cucumber etc all have a much shorter shelf life than a potato, and can't be pulled out of the freezer the night before, like some rolls or loaves of bread.

Menus only available through a QR code.

No decaffeinated tea and in a cafe 2 days ago I asked for a mango iced tea and the person serving and cleaning tables ect scooped the ice and mango chunks out with her hand 😬

If they were all gluten free it would serve a wider customer base. As someone who doesn't eat gluten it is annoying when you might only have one cake to choose from.whist the gluten eating folk might have 8

Yes I've noticed this for gluten free menu in some chains 😏

Serving you a clearly substandard cake from a pile of much better scones/unbroken cakes to get rid of it. FFS, give the customer the best one, because later customers won't realise what they've missed out on but I definitely do realise that I got a scone nearly half the size of the others.

I definitely think there should be more options for gluten free people but if a cafe’s cakes are all gluten free I’m highly unlikely to buy any because most gluten free cakes are not nearly so nice as regular cake.

totally agree there should be adequate selection for both

I always specify the one I want!!

Just to say if the last paragraph was referring to a certain chain of shops...

They literally do HAVE to ask you whether it's eat in or takeaway before you order as the till doesn't let you actually start putting the order in UNTIL you've first selected eat in or takeaway away (due to having to charge VAT for eating in). So whilst it may be annoying it's not exactly the staffs fault....

Sticky tables and menus. I don’t just mean a bit dirty from the previous customers, it’s more like the wood on the table has a permanent sticky film on it.

Dirty floors, especially under the table

Cafes that squeeze as many tables and chairs in as possible, not caring about the customer experience.

Crap coffee - some cafes don’t know the difference between a flat white/latte/cappuccino etc. If you’re charging your customers £3.65 for a flat white. Learn how to make a proper flat white!

I understand the reason but instead their opening gambit should be " Are you eating in or out today?"

Presses appropriate button and when they are no longer distracted by trying to find the correct button asks

"What can I get you?"

The above questions are often in reverse order which results in having to repeat your order multiple time, which is EXACTLY the fault of the staff, making it a serious cafe crime, I'm afraid.

Sticky tables and menus. I don’t just mean a bit dirty from the previous customers, it’s more like the wood on the table has a permanent sticky film on it.

I hate this. My dp used to be obsessed with a noodle place many years ago and the tables were always sticky. The edges had a sort of groove running around them which had attracted a layer of sticky crumby grime that the shop either couldn’t or wouldn’t clean. I have a Thing about unidentified crumbs (hate other people’s cars for this reason) and found it utterly disgusting.

No toasted teacakes.

This is quite a lot of cafes but in particular, M&S. They take ages to clear tables so if it's busy, you generally end up having to clear the previous tray of stuff and finding a tray stack to put it in, invariably that's full and you end up trying to take it to the nearest counter to hand over.

There is a lovely cafe near where I live in the town, I think the people who run it are Turkish but they could teach M&S and many other cafes about cleanliness and fabulous customer service. They are very polite, friendly, not surprisingly they are very popular and it's so easy to see why.

The place is spotless, you could eat off the floor, soon as you leave the table, someone clears the table and wipes it down - properly - they are always sweeping the floor and wipe down the coffee machine every time they finish making a coffee.

I might be in town tomorrow so that will be where we will go I expect.

Happened the other day in a cafe we use. Only one large table for families. One person using a laptop, how annoying!
People shouting into a mobile on speakerphone.
Parents taking no notice of children misbehaving.
Using the toilet and not buying anything.
Cheap tea bags
Toilets either filthy or with little to move

A bit like Roy's rolls, coronation street, sorry bit of a fan here and always said that cafe is the grimmest place ever, your post describes it perfectly (yes, I know it's not real)

I see your point but to people lucky enough to tolerate gluten and be used to gluten flour, gluten free versions often aren’t as nice.

I have thought of another- I hate it when the vegetarian option doubles up as the vegan option. Vegetarians very often want dairy butter and real cheese! Vegan and veggie cuisine are very different.
Pubs and restaurants are quite guilty of this too.

Restaurants have become an absolute bugger for this recently. I might not eat meat but I still want my cheese 😩 I questioned a restaurant on this the other day as they’d changed ALL the veggie options to vegan. The waitress said ‘well it means both vegans and vegetarians have more choice’ no it bloody doesn’t!!

@MsMiniver I love a lot of good vegetarian food even though not veggie, but a fair bit of vegan food to me is revolting - not cakes and such but anything needing cheese or butter or eggs particularly