Alma Café in Richmond upon Thames

Such a shame as this is the perfect spot for breakfast, brunch, lunch etc! The restaurant is nice, clean and atmospheric! However, it really lets itself down by the service! The staff are generally friendly but, oh my goodness, service is virtually non existent! Waiting waiting waiting for the menu, then again, waiting for the order to be taken and then, the unbearable wait for food, no matter how many times we asked for each!! We were not the only ones, with other customers going up to the counter to ask for menus and where their food was etc etc! The coffee js good and the food, when it comes is just about ok - generally tepid and the pancakes basically a plate of stodge! We have only ourselves to blame as this was the third time we had been to Alma as we hoped the previous time had been a glitch but no, we put ourselves through this another couple of times but, the third time is very very sadly the last!

The best part about our time in Alma was the look of the café, had to seat ourselves and then had to retrieve our menus even order something. Food was decent but my meal came out tepid at best, coffee was good but you do pay a bit more here than other local places. Overall, the food was solid but the service was poor, even when we asked for the service charge to be removed, head of staff just pouted and didn’t bother to ask why.

I was not happy with our experience at Alma on the 7th Jan and despite not finishing our food paid in full (again we had a word with the manager at the time, and all we were offered were cakes). 1st of all, we entered and waited for about 3-5 minutes to be seated and in this time, nobody said hello, or hi there, or asking if they could help etc. We got seated, and ordered promptly. However, about 10 minutes after we had ordered the lady had come over to us and we had heard on the table over that there may (for the new people that came in slightly after us) that they would have a 30-40 minute wait on food. I didn’t hear whether or not they in fact did end up ordering but within about 15 minutes they had drank their drinks and left. After this was said to the other table, our server said to us that there may be a significant wait for our food; which left us no option to wait regardless of the time as we had already ordered! But once again the food came in due course and wasn’t too much longer after her saying that it arrived. I did however ask my server for some butter for my toast, I waited 10 minutes for this, and she came back to other tables within this time several times, but not over to me! I had to then ask another server, but, in this time, my toast had gone cold, so I asked for my toast to be redone. The new server accommodated this, but everything else remaining on the plate had gone cold. Meaning a large element of the plate (the 2 poached eggs) were inedible and cold, and I was unable to eat them. Again we paid in full (38.30 - without the service charge) and received cakes as compensation. When I selected the cakes, I was told that in my cake (an apple cake) that there were no sultanas twice, and in fact there were - meaning for me, this cake that was given as compensation was unable to be eaten, as I do not like sultanas! I spent 27.50 on two ‘The Full Ones’ that I could have made at home of better quality. Looking forward to hearing back from you. To extend on this: Five weeks ago I travelled to your Barnes store to get a refund for my experience in January - but the refund has not been received yet by me or sent - the manager at the store took down my sort code and account no as well as my name but haven't received anything yet I went again last weekend leaving my phone number with the manager saying that they would ring and again I have had nothing. Avoid this place as even though ugh I have had one lovely meal, it seems that they are incompetent to treat you like a human being when dealing with a refund or any problems. No replies to emails, even though there is a 'phone number' it doesn't go through to this store. Waste of your time.

Visiting the Wetlands I decided to stop by for lunch. This was a mistake! The place is filthy and the staff miserable and rude. They claim to use Burford Brown eggs which is a lie. They have such a bad taste and the butter was like a cheap margarine! Nicer places to try in the village don’t waste your time and money here.

We've lived in Barnes for a few years, and have visited Alma on a number of occasions, and our experience is worse at Alma every time. It's not that the food is bad, because it really isn't. Their food is really good, and their smoothie and hot drink options are really great too. I'm really fond of their cacao nib smoothie. But sadly I've had to commit my love for it to memory. The service is absolutely, undeniably, unquestionably awful. The last couple of times I went with my family, we had really long waits between being seated and being served, and then receiving drinks, and after having table clearance/bills. This morning I went in with two of my children, and having stood there waiting for many minutes (with no one ahead of us), we saw a number of staff walk by who paid no attention to us, didn't ask if we're having take away or waiting to be seated, just not even looking in our direction, except for one staffer who looked at us and then walked on. Eventually someone came to ask, and then told us waiting time would be ANOTHER 10-15 minutes, despite there being an open table and another one leaving, all the while with absolutely loads of staff milling around. We decided to leave and go somewhere else. I've seen restaurants operate with half the staff, twice the efficiency and 10x the warmth. Sad as it is, because I really enjoy some of their food and smoothies, we've made a family decision to never consider going there again. With young, hungry kids, it's the worst experience being right in the middle of a busy restaurant and not being able to get service, and Barnes is a family community, so this is pretty terrible. The good food and drinks options just don't measure up enough to outbalance the awful customer experience of going to Alma, so I walked out today for the last time, really (sadly) missing out on a good smoothie and lunch.

Amazing place for brunches in Barnes/West London. Super cozy and spacious; good choices for food and juices. All products are fresh, food is delicious, well presented and has good portions. Juices and coffees are excellent too. One of my favorite places in London to dine in! Tasty salads to take away as well as pastries.

I really liked Alma but they have put my coffee price up to £5 from £4 unfortunately I won’t be coming back.