Cafe Waterside in Cheshire East

I have visited this café on a number of occasions & always had great food / service. However, I visited last Saturday morning & left feeling extremely disappointed. During this visit the food was lovely, but the quality of a certain staff member left a lot to be desired. The member of staff struggled to follow instructions. On two occasions I asked for certain things regarding our food order & on two occasions she either ignored or forgot both things. We also purchased some of the Victoria sponge cake to takeaway. When we went to eat the cake once we got home, we found the cake to extremely dry & there was also baking paper in the middle of the sponge. It is a massive disappointment to be writing this review as this was one of my favourite little cafes.

Arrived via the Middlewood Way and it's in an excellent position alongside the canal. Lovely ambience with the sun out. Service was pleasant. Flapjack was a bit dry and unexciting and the flat white was in the smallest cup. Definitely revisit, it's been years since I was last here. Popped into the Clarence Mill gallery afterwards. Some interesting works. Had a chat with the owner.

Visited here a few times now and love this little cafe. Really lovely spot and dog friendly too. Can recommend one of the ‘cooler’ drinks, really refreshing!

Really great breakfast spot. Had the Turkish eggs and smoothies which were delicious. Staff were really friendly and everything was served quickly!

It was OK just a little pricey.

Lovely setting right next to the Macclesfield canal. Peaceful, idyllic spot to enjoy an alfresco lunch. Food is excellent, great coffee and cake to die for. Staff are amazing. Highly recommended.

Excellent breakfast despite cold beans but the coffee is awful with skin of milk collecting on top.

Great café, does get busy but you can book a table. Nice seating outside too. Quality of food is great and a very friendly team. Definitely worth a visit if you're walking or cycling on the canal or Middlewood Way 👍

Lovely small cafe in mill on Macclesfield Canal. Not tried any of the hot food, but the breakfast looks great. Coffees aplenty, teas, soft drinks etc, and a range of homemade cakes and pastries. Service friendly but slightly disorganised (we were told to sit down and someone would come to take our order, but then served a walk-in at the counter before us). Definitely worth a visit if walking the canal to/from Bollington. Outside seating for fairer weather, but cafe is up stairs so awkward for less able people.

We called here while we were out & about photographing a couple of places in Bollington. We managed to sit outside because the weather was perfect and even though it was busy we got our breakfast quite quickly. The food was hot and tasty so no complaints from me

After a pleasant stroll along part of Middlewood Way, and back along the canal to Bollington, five of us were delighted to enjoy a most satisfying meal at this cosy little place in part of a re-purposed former cotton mill. Speedy service, pleasant staff, good food. What more can one ask :)

Lovely place quality food pricy but worth it

Lovely place & location. Good value menu & great service.

An enterprising licensed cafe with outside seating by the canal. Good honest food pleasantly served. What more can one desire?

Called in today for a cappuccino and cake (victoria sponge).both were lovely. The staff are great and we will come again to try food off the menu. The toilets were very clean .

Amazing Turkish eggs for brunch. And my grandson couldn't finish his pancakes it was so big! 2 adults had Turkish eggs, 1 granola and pancakes with drinks £45. Worth every penny!!!

What a fabulous cafe. Our food was delicious, the staff were so friendly and there was plenty of room for our group. The perfect spot and set up for a cafe. I would really recommend!

Lovely cafe and delicious food great stop while my car was having MOT 😄highly recommend 👍

Visited with friends and have been a few times. Great brunch and very friendly service. The breakfast buns are amazing. It can get busy when it's good weather. 😃

Worst avocado on toast I’ve ever had - needs to be a paste without hard chunks, furthermore it could do with seasoning. Also took over 50 mins to get a full English, and avocado on toast - they may say they were busy but the waitress admitted they had given mine to the wrong table.

Visited with my cycling friends Nice food and lovely place

One my favourite spots for a breakfast great looking cosy cafe with friendly staff. Green reviver smoothie is particularly good.

Very busy, lucky to have an empty table for 5 of us

Two small breakfasts. Great quality produce. My daughters fried egg was a little undercooked which she made a point of telling one of your staff. No problem she promptly brought a freshly cooked replacement. Lovely Coffee, and good service. We have been Three times now and enjoyed every visit.

Nice little cafe just off the canal in Bollington, food was delicious and a nice coffee, gets busy on weekends early

Great place to go after a good walk along the canal. Food always excellent served by friendly staff. Had a 5 bean chilli and crusty bread, ideal on a cold day. My wife had eggs Benedict which she also enjoyed. I can definitely recommend the berry smoothie.

Really nice little cafe set up on the side of the canal. Food delicious. And good price

Cold coffee cold milk even asked again for hot milk no cold again . Totally deverstated how hard is it to make a hot cup of coffee ☕️ 😐 Never going again mybe should not of asked for it to be hot 😒. Just seen a photo when I was there 2 years ago . Excellent hot coffe and loverly T cake . How times have changed

Amazing food and service! Lovely decor inside and bustling atmosphere. Perhaps could do with some more seating as it is very popular! Very nice stop after a walk on the canal.

Lovely visit. Great toasties and soup. Just what I needed after a dog walk.

I visited today with my children, partner and my parents. We ordered 7 drinks and 8 pieces of cake. The drinks in all honesty were very nice, however there was more of our drinks in the saucer than in the cup. The cakes were a variety of brownie, flapjack, caramel shortcake and tiffin and unfortunately they were all stale, overly stale. I did not take them back as I could see the staff were very busy and my son has additional needs so it just wasn't worth the faf. I have often visited this cafe and not had any issues so not really wanting to complain. However today's bill was 54 pounds. 54 pounds! Next time I'll probably take my own snacks if I'm honest. I will also say the amount of rude people in the cafe was unbelievable. The queue tends to obstruct the entrance of the cafe and after excuse me 3 times I found we had to just try and squeeze through. Not a nice experience at all, but I will end this with the staff as they were very polite and can't fault them except the cake.

Friendly quick service and nice breakfasts

Fabulous full breakfast in lovely atmospheric surroundings. The team looking after me were fabulous! Highly recommend a visit!

Great place for a snack and a cup of coffee

Lovely cafe, friendly staff good service, great coffee.

This is a great eating place to go with a lovely canal walk. Dog friendly, highly recommended

Friendly, helpful staff. Great food and atmosphere. Would definitely recommend

Really tasty breakfast, superior quality meats, honestly best breakfast I've had in a long time ! Your chef is a diamond.

Lovely cafe, great food, tasty, good price, great friendly staff, all well presented.

Great little cafe to visit when in the area,

Excellent food and service and great place to eat with friendly staff and reasonable prices with seating in and out, highly recommend.

Nice place, next to the canal :) Just had a coffee, so can’t comment too much.

Lovely place. Highly recommended... We'll be back soon for cake... We came back for a Full English. Superb. We'll come back for cake next time.Back again for Full English. Perfect.

Lovely food, fast service and dog friendly inside and out.

We were flagging at the end of a hot walk, and Cafe Riverside was like an Oasis in the desert....Had a refreshing smoothie, followed by probably the best prawn salad ever, and then more refreshment by means of a home made Lemonade....All perfect, as were the staff; The nice lady even offered to fill our water bottles for us! We intend to return to Bollington, and will most definitely visit again to try more of the great looking stuff on their menu!

Fabulous lunch here today, eggs benedict with smoked salmon on toasted soda bread, absolutely delicious, washed down with a bottle of chilled Jack Rabbit rose, lovely staff, could not recommend highly enough.

Friendly service, perfect stop after a walk along the canal. Good selection of food ( breakfast and sandwiches) with hot and cold drinks. The only drawback is that it is a small and popular place so it is often full.

I love this place next to the canal. Wish there was better parking but the food and location are excellent.

Lovely setting by the canal with great food and service. Only down side is lack of parking spaces. Highly recommend!

Enjoyed my brunch. The staff were pleasant as was the cafe. I'll be back.

Great place to eat, food very good, gets very busy.

Really enjoyed having a tasty lunch after a 4 hour walk along the canal, will be back

Brilliant place excellent service wonderful staff.

Most amazing full English I've ever had

Great food and very friendly staff

I've stopped here several times for a treat, mid hike, for tea and cake. The Baker makes the most fantastic cakes and scones. Unfortunately the owner is the most rude and arrogant man you could meet. Today I had to return my eagerly anticipated scone because it was clearly several days old and stale and served with rancid cream. The owner came over and told me he had tasted the scone and it was not stale, there was absolutely nothing wrong with it and that he would taste the cream for himself. He effectively called me a liar. He did not come back again to give his verdict on the cream. (enough said!) I have previously been served rancid cream here before but with a beautiful moist fresh scone. When I asked for fresh cream the waitress replaced the entire order much to my embarrassment as I hadn't complained about the scone, I had only wanted the cream replaced. On my next visit my friend and I were served with stale scones and we ate them and decided to hide our dissapointment and not comment. The following week we asked if the scones were freshly baked and were told they were not so I had a lovely piece of toffee and salted caramel cake instead. I won't be going back there after today's  experience. If you visit I would recommend you don't have the scone either. The Baker is wonderful, it's such a shame that the owner is Basil Fawlty personified.

Visited on a cold wet day, the food and atmosphere made for a wholesome and warm experience. The staff were amazing and the owner was very hands on and customer attentive. The best burger and chips ever. Can't wait to try more of their menu.

Lovely place for breakfast by the canal

They have got it just right. Price and quality plus variety. Home made cakes and scones and lots of lovely savoury dishes. Eat inside or outside with a good view of the canal

Would love THICK doorstop toast!

Nice food. Friendly staff. Nice location.

Fab location by the canal with indoor and outdoor seating. Excellent food with good quality ingredients. Good attentive customer service. Would heartily recommend.

Beautiful scenery and really good food. Improvements required on accessibility for those with disabilities and toilets unclean. Enjoyed lunch by the canal and would go again.

Amazing service, excellent food, well presented, great value for money & wonderful location. Efficient & well run & organised!

Very popular cafe.at the waterside..has great food and drinks..love the milkshakes they do...and monocha coffee.recormend to go.🙂👍

Takeaway food for £39 was very over priced... missed the foccatia, missed the hummus, 'garlic prawn' were the plain type from Aldi.. not impressed..

What is there not to like about Café Waterside? An extensive menu which caters for just about every tastebud. Lovely teas, coffees, smoothies and fruit juice on offer and the cakes are just gorgeous!If you fancy trying their burgers these are made by Filthy Mac's, the sister company of Café Waterside. Personally, I would recommend The Bolly Burger, pickled onion, cheddar cheese on salad. The meat is from a Bollington based butcher, which all together makes an amazing burger. If you haven't been yet please go

Filthy Mac’s is a pop-up take-away burger restaurant operating out of Cafe Waterside, owned by the same people. They don’t seem to have a listing on here so this seemed the most appropriate place to review.Our most recent visit there was very disappointing. A burger and chips is around £11 each - the same as you’d pay in any good restaurant or gastro-pub - yet the quality on this occasion was bland and burnt.The brioche bun was completely burnt on top, overpowering and ruining the taste of one of the burgers, whilst the burgers themselves had no real distinguishable flavour other than that they were beef. The meat comes from a local butcher, and you can tell by the burger, but it lacks any special flavour to make it stand out and be worth the prices you pay.Even the blue cheese was bland in taste and didn’t hit the palette like you would expect, and hope.The chips were dry and only saved by the seasoning. Those with little or no seasoning were nothing to speak of though and tasted like they were from a larger batch which had been kept warm and thus dried out before I got them.Really not worth the money.

I went for coffee and cake with friends I have had bad anxiety about covid .so going out was hard for .however this place was fine staff all pleasant and friendly wearing mask tables cleaned after customers left I felt happy to have has my 1st coffee out here well recommend !

Called for lunch today. Waited 20 mins for order to be taken then a further 30 mins for it to arrive. I had to ask for the drinks we had ordered after the food arrived which came without condiments and no sugar etc for drinks. I think the menu is overly complicated for for a small local cafe. I will have to think about going again, there are other places with much better service.

Good value, good food and good service

Super food and excellent menu but very poor covid care. Tables were not wiped down well ( they were not too busy) menus were put in a pile and re used, staff masks were on/off, kitchen area was over crowded with no distancing, chairs etc were moved for no reason with no washing of hands etc. We may returen, cos the food is good but we will definitely eat ourtside and take own covid care

Nice setting, excellent food. Great staff. Nice place to stop whilst having a walk up the canal.

After a 7 months’ break from eating there due to COVID, we returned there for Sunday brunch. The food is better than we can remember! The ingredients were all very good quality and our meal was superb.

Very friendly cafe with great cakes. Good for a short (or long) walk by the canal before it after.

We visited this cafe on a whim and were glad we did. It was in a great location next to the canal, with tables outside and more seating inside. Coffee's were made using a proper machine and both the choice and quality of the cakes were excellent. one person in our group had one of their huge sausage and egg muffins which he thought was the best he'd eaten.

Have been going here for lunch for years. Menu is different ,but still good. Service good. Can't give 5 stars, because the Covid precautions were not being followed compared to other places we have eaten recently.Outside tables were not cleaned. No contact details were taken. The paper menus were being reused instaed of being disposed of. Sadly won't feel comfortable going back for a while.

Very good cafe with great snacks and meals at Clarence mill right on the canal. Great bacon rolls if you’re a fan. Good service and friendly staff.

Walk up the Middlewood Way for a bit, back via the Canal and over the bridge. Outside was full (well, it was lunchtime on a sunny day!) but went inside - dog allowed!!! Great coffee, along with an egg and bacon balm for me and poached eggs on sourdough toast for the other party member. We followed up with coffee and walnut cake - one slice for two was enough and went down well! Absolutely scrumptious and the coffee was great too! Attentive service under difficult present circumstances - everyone did well in the Covid standards stakes! Thank you for a lovely lunch

This is really for the Waterside cafe - you have a lovely spot and serve good coffee and nice cakes but please try and make your customers feel welcome . I’m a cyclist and stop for a drink and cake regularly but your welcome never fails to be underwhelming. It’s best described as functional but charmless . You take the order you deliver and none of you from boss to girls looks like they enjoy being there. How then can you expect your customers to enjoy being there. ?The difference of course is that we have a choice. So come on make your customers feel welcome and valued .Your business will benefit and so will we . We have hard times let’s make some effort to make what we have the best it can be .Thanks

Fantastic Lunch - everything about Cafe Waterside is great, the staff are lovely, it’s spotlessly clean and the food is gorgeous. I had the best mushroom soup ever last Wednesday and as someone who prides herself on making homemade soup that is a real complement to the chef!

As we do, picked out a cafe/restaurant for Saturday lunch at random from TripAdvisor and happened upon Cafe Waterside at Macclesfield. It was easy to find in a lovely spot next to the Macclesfield canal and sat outside under the umbrellas. For lunch we chose the lemon chicken Caesar and breakfast brunch bap and both were very good, as were the cappuccinos and cake afterwards. The homemade lemonade was light and refreshing. The cake was so good we had two pieces to takeout for tea at night. What I liked was the fact that it was cooked with good ingredients and care - service was quick too. This one is now on our list and will definitely visit again and it's worth noting that its dog friendly.

lovely lunch,well organised clearly signed,served by efficient young girls. The food was very well cooked and all round tasty. Waterside cafe now added to our saturday lunch list.

Delicious brunch, poached eggs on sourdough and delicious mushroom and tomatoes

Excellent cake. And a great place by the canal to stop for a drink.

Myself and my friends along with little boy went along for lunch. Although the food was good we did end up waiting nearly an hour for a jacket potato, I know 2 other groups left because of this. Yes it was busy, but nobody informed us of how long we’d be waiting especially with a child getting bored. The food was tasty, and reasonably priced! I’d defiantly go back but hoping next time things are abit more speedy. Also, I’m not sure but £2.50 for a brownie was pretty pricey considering it’s cheaper at Starbucks.

It's half-term and I ended up managing to get some individual time with my two daughters - 1:1 on different days. Tuesday, daughter 1 - Where would you like to go for lunch? 'Waterside cafe.' Thursday: daughter 2 - where would you like to go for lunch? 'Waterside cafe.' It's both their top choice and I don't at all mind going twice in one week! We usually go for breakfast at a weekend and the veggie one is simply delicious but this week we went for lunches and had paninis which were yummy and followed up with a brownie. Well.... the brownie was SO good. I'm not that bothered about cakes but do have a weakness for brownies and these are AMAZING! The best I've tasted. I stuck with the plain chocolate one but there were other choices. The cakes looked equally good and now I fear I will always want a brownie whenever we go! Always pleasant service even when busy too.

Dog friendly, lovely staff, lovely location. Def one of my favourites for afternoon tea with my daughter 😁👍

Cajun marinated chicken strips with a poached on top off the special board. Bit of a kick and very very nice indeed. Lovely friendly service too.

We went for breakfast on New Years Day. The full English was made with quality ingredients and cooked well. We were made to feel very welcome by the owners Steve & Lou and their staff even though they were busy. The cafe has a very relaxing feel to it. A bonus is that they are very dog friendly. Our Molly was one of several well behaved dogs in the cafe and managed to get a couple of the dog biscuits that were handed out. Breakfast was followed by a great walk in the lovely Cheshire countryside. We will be back.

Just sampled the new menu or should i say the special board. Vegetable stir fry with chicken. Absolutely lovely.

The Waterside is a nice friendly relaxed place for lunch or just a coffee. Food is good, tasty and plentiful. I would return.

Lovely venue beside the canal. Excellent food, can recommend.

We’ve visited the Cafe Waterside few times. This place has always been warm, welcoming and friendly place hence we visit quite regularly. The food is freshly made to order and the service is friendly and efficient.

Cosy place by the canal. Good food and drink. Pleasant staff &service. Parking a nightmare!

We have been regulars at Cafe Waterside for a number of years and always loved it here.However, since Steve and Lou have taken over what can I say?We absolutely LOVE it! Great service, a great team and a great location.Now, let's talk about the food. It is amazing! Probably the best chips I have ever had and that is just the side order. The burgers are beautifully prepared with tons of flavour. The cakes just wow. Everything on the menu is just fabulous. And keep an eye on the specials board, just had an amazing cajun chicken burger.Top marks from us. If I had to come up with a negative, it would be that I forgot to take a before picture.

Working close by it was handy and served good food but recent changes to take away pricing are not a great way to keep the loyal local businesses from using,

Great location if you want to chill out with a view over the canal and passing boats. Only had the soup and it was really nice. Didn't wait long to be served by the the smiling friendly staff.

Lovely friendly helpful staff. Nice flat white coffee, delicious mozzarella, tomato and basil salad. Also purchased a couple of huge cherry scones to take home.

We called in here on a hot day and wanted a salad. There were two on offer. We ordered the Tomato and Mozzarella with basil - it was tasteless, hardly any oil and no vinaigrette, the tastiest part was the 4 small leaves of basil on top. Very disappointing. Not even a piece of crusty bread to add excitement. Inside was hot and stuffy and full of cooking smells. Claustrophobic. We sat outside by the canal which was much better.