Cafe Théâtre in Cherwell

Hugely overpriced, self service ordering and payment. The little interaction we had with staff showed them to be curt bordering rude, and half the menu is no longer available (no alcoholic drinks, no milkshakes etc). Some of crockery was dirty, and cleaning spray and grubby cloth left at customer cutlery area

Food is good, both cooked stuff and cakes, no complaints here & the chefs are clearly using decent ingredients. My sourdough toast was lovely & poached eggs perfect, the chunky chips with our panini fluffy & yummy and the millionaires shortbread indulgent. The salad on the side of the panini was limp and pretty inedible, unsurprising when the chefs have lazily pre prepared about 25 deli plates to dump sandwiches on, just unnecessary, like the watercress/green crap put on my plate of poached eggs on toast, it just adds cost to my dish and zero value as it doesn't go with a breakfast at all! But the service system is a shambles. 2 screens for ordering your own food (the 3rd was out of order) for a restaurant of 100-odd tables is not good enough, you need at least 6-8 screens. Also, prices should be cheaper if you're going to make customers do half your job for you! What next?! You expect us to do collect our own food from the kitchen or do the washing up?! Kind of defeats the object of paying to be served! And if you're going to be all 21st century tech at least do it better and make your staffs lives easier, allow options such as ketchup to be added to the chips like at McDonald's and make sure you actually put butter on the breakfast plate with toast, kind of fundamental item to miss off! Wouldn't return here. It's kind of chaotic and while the food is good, it feels like a conveyor belt system and it's not calm at all, especially when you have a newborn baby. And frankly for the same cost I can eat in a very nice pub environment and have better service and way better experience 😀 and not be expected to do half a waiters job but still pay the prices of somewhere like a full service restaurant!

Went to get our yearly Christmas tree and decorations from the garden centre, but before hand went for a full English in the main restaurant, got there around 10am which is before the crowds arrive, ordering was easy, pick your table, then pick your food from the menu, go to the till and pay and wait for it to arrive and then om nom nom.

The garden centre is brilliant! But the food is awful🤣 service was absolutely fine and pretty quick. We paid £9.95 for a jacket potato with prawn Marie Rose. The jacket potato was honestly the most powdery dry potato I’ve ever eaten in my life. I actually left most of it. The prawns were disappointing too. According to their menu this comes in at 740 calories for the meal. There’s no way it’s that high. The dryest most unseasoned jacket potato on earth with a spoonful of prawns on top? Not a chance🤣 The tea rooms is lovely, but please avoid the restraunt 🫣

So much choice. Food great, service great and such a pleasant place to enjoy a lunch with family and friends.

My son's fully allergic to anything dairy, (not intolerant, actual allergic) so it's dangerous for him to eat anything dairy. So I advised about the allergy menu, they provided a large folder of their menu with all the allergens, great. However, I saw a page of sausage rolls on offer and none showed any 'dairy' (butter) which I thought was odd. So I asked and then they advised their allergen menu was wrong and the sausage rolls did have dairy in them. . . . . So I cannot trust your allergen menu? I then asked if the coronation chicken had any dairy in it as there was no point looking at your menu. They went away to ask and advised there was no dairy in it. 24hrs later, my son has been up much of the night with rashes and hives because of this I competent neglectful cafe that doesn't seem to care if someone gets ill because of their incorrect menus. Do not go if you value a family members health. Also, we asked for a plate so we could give our 2 year old some extra bits that were apparently 'safe', they then gave us a dirty plate and walked away.

Very disappointing and wont be going back. Of all the great garden centre restaurants this in not one of them. They should be embarrassed. The ordering system is useless. You take a menu, find a table, get the table number, que up for 25 minutes to order, by which time you have lost the table. Tables not being cleared, eventually saw one girl cleaning a table, for some unknown reason she cleared an empty table and totally ignored the many tables of people waiting for food who were having to sit at tables with old filthy plates, cups etc. Its not rocket science. Stood in line for 25 minutes waiting to place order only to get to till to be told food was a 45 minute wait. We visited the restaurant for lunch not evening meal! my advice, turn around and go somewhere else this place is not worth it.

We waited 50 minutes for the food which we ordered. The mugs are smelling of egg, they have changed them but the new ones are the same. It was a waste of time and money. Never come back again.

Hot chocolate could be a little stronger. It had no flavor, very weak. I loved the atmosphere and the service provided by one of the girls. Very good latte coffee. Scrambled eggs and bread were also good.

Brilliant service and chocolate

Lovely food and served beautifully as well as very quick. Cakes etc displayed well and lots of choice.

Good coffee but crockery was filthy !

I've taken my elderly parents here for lunch a few times and its really poor for the prices charged. To explain - if you're going to charge at a high price point, 1) properly staff your restaurant (a 30 minute wait when busy isn't acceptable) and 2) ensure a good standard of service (on both visits some of your staff seemed a bit clueless, maybe not their fault as they looked run off their feet). The ordering process is chaotic - it requires you to find a table and note a number before going back go the till to order your food. This place is probably worth avoiding unless its really quiet.

A loud and confusing place. Table service prices, but the ordering system is complex and you spend a lot of your time hovering around trying to figure out where to order. Lots of dirty tables full of trays and waste food.

The pie is really salty and the fish don’t got flavour

Nice cafe but having only 2 tills for that many tables is a serious design flaw that should be addressed as the first priority

Absolute mess of a place. Came in today at 3pm and every table was covered in dirty plates and left over food. I'm taking about 20 tables covered in previous people's mess. Not one or two. No staff cleaning up. No staff caring about the place all stood around doing nothing. Walked in and walked out.

Have been several times. Food good but not up to usual standard. Fish & Chips 'overcooked' which was disappointing as I had been telling friends that you get the best F & C here!! I totally agree with other comments, the noise level is a major issue, needs some 'soft furnishings' to soak up the din.

Great garden center with plenty of plant related items. Cafe had a large selection of food at reasonable prices

Someone needs to sort out the factory-like sound design. Felt like having lunch in an aircraft hanger!!!!! Not a pleasant experience & couldn't hear the person sitting next to me 😒

Excellent atmosphere, excellent food and excellent service, my wife and I will be going back.

Meet some friends from away , had coffee lunch and tea and scones, and lunch was very nice, but scones were not the best . Staff all very nice x

Visited this restaurant today for brunch while at our local garden centre and it was brilliant. The full english was the best in Bicester with the black pudding being the star of the dish. The staff were nice and helped with the order as my better half has allergies that needs some help with. The food was perfect and the atmosphere was also amazing as it always is at the garden centre.