Cafe Zest in Nottingham

We never usually come to this cafe but the kids were hungry whilst shopping and we stopped by. Oh my goodness what an amazing decision we made- the customer service we received, was unbelievable. Lian the assistant manager and her sister kirsty were amazing. They really looked after me, my sister and my kids, they were generous, inclusive and very thoughtful. I honestly can’t thank them enough you don’t get this kind of service anymore. If you are in Victoria centre looking for a cafe with fab food, good customer service and a relaxing vibe please please visit cafe zest and i’m sure you will not be dissapointed!

Had one of the best breakfast I've had in a long time. Thank you, Denise. Service with a smile and all the food was baking hot and the coffee was lovely.

Is this the worst eating place in Nottingham? Service has been declining for the past couple of years, and is at an all time low. The service is simply terrible. The food is left to dry out on the counter. The drinks take an eternity to be served and so not worth the very long wait anyway. The main young man who serves, chunky, dark haired is the rudest server I've seen. He's rude, he shouts at customers, clearly hates his job and should not be anywhere near a customer facing role! It must be obvious that takings have declined to the management so where is the Supervisor to oversee what's happening? On the plus side you can always get a table even at the busiest lunchtime. Locals know to go elsewhere. Oh, and be aware, the toilet facilities are often out of commission. The café is in a good location and has capacity. So. Please, House of Fraser, close this café down. Let a decent contractor who knows how to properly run an eating place with properly trained staff, open up instead.

First time .decided the soup and a roll was good for a quick lunch break with a nice pot of tea. Unfortunately my sister lifted the lid on the unattended soup terriane only to be embarrassingly shouted at by what looked like the chef.! Needless to say we didn't stay as the attitude was unacceptable! Being a retired catering assistant the days of shouting at customers are long gone. Hence we voted with our feet and took our custom elsewhere.

Came to Zest for Brunch and it was the worst brunch I’ve ever had. They seem to use the cheapest ingredients. Everything was overcooked. The scrambled egg was like rubber, the sausage had been cooked for so long that it was tough and felt like eating an empty shell with no meat inside. Chips were served too. I’d expect this low quality breakfast/brunch at a greasy spoon but not in a cafe in House of Fraser. The management and kitchen staff should visit some of the good high street cafes and take note of how it should be done

Was struggling to find a place to eat hot food before shopping... Some of the cafes in the Victoria centre having (temporary?) issues today. Just eaten a lovely plateful of sausage, ratatouille (I think) and veg, and a pot of tea, with extra hot water, all for £11.00. I really like the fact that they leave a jug of iced water next to the cutlery so you can help yourself. One satisfied (& full) customer... Might need to let the food go down before going shopping 😊

What has happened to your Scones? I started visiting Cafe Zest about 18 months ago purely on recommendation that the scones they served were so good. Indeed they were amazing, great taste, fabulous size and always enjoyable. A real treat. What has gone wrong? The scones are still edible but half the size they used to be. They used to be WOW and now they’re just ok. ;-(

Visited today (Tuesday April 9th) with two grandchildren, aged 13 years. Followed a guided tour with a very knowledgeable & approachable guide, at around 11.30am. Tour lasted around 40 minutes, with time to ask questions; all very informal & quite low-key. Came away very pleased that we had chosen to visit. As well as stories, told by our guide, of unexplained phenomena, (but don't expect to jump out of your skin or be scared out of your wits), the museum is well stocked with interesting items, & most atmospheric. Afterwards we stayed for a coffee & delicious chocolate cake. Do go & check it out in the Easter holidays!

We visited cafe zest yesterday afternoon and ordered 2 jacket potatoes, they came in about 5 minutes piping hot and full of filling with a lovely fresh side salad, they were delicious highly recommended. The staff who served us were very polite and efficient. We will definitely be calling again when we are in Nottingham.

If you like your food lukewarm this is the place for you. I have had breakfast here a few times and each time it has been barely warm. The coffee is like brown dishwater. This is not rocket science. If the chef and manager can’t manage hot food there is something very wrong with this place.

Very busy. Had signs of food but then says that food was sold out! Had to wait 15 mins for a jacket potato. Cutlery and trays are really dirty too.

Called in for morning coffee. Most of the trays were dirty. Didn't put me off so ordered two coffees. The coffee was really nice, however, the outside of the cups had a gritty sticky feel to them - Yes blame the dishwasher, but its human hands that put the cups back out for use. We sat wondering what the inside of the cups were like, so we did not enjoy our coffees. The café itself is very cramped, especially while trying to manoeuvre in between tables with a tray of hot drinks. We decided not to return for lunch. Went to John Lewis for lunch and stayed there shopping all afternoon. House of Fraser take note! Its your reputation and profits on the line. Its a shame as the Meadowhall Café Zest is very nice.

The attitude of the staff appears to be that customers do not matter! It is far more important to continue to gossip than serve a waiting customer. I went into the café which is located in House of Fraser at around 1.30 pm. Very few people were in it and the first thing that I noticed was that the tray was dirty. I ordered the food and waited while a management type and an operative gossiped away so ultimately I called out "Tea, please!" and without looking at me or ceasing gossiping the tea was delivered to me. The food arrived OK but it is not surprising that there are so few people in the café - most of the tables were unoccupied. House of Fraser needs to improve its customer care. It is not an honour for customers to be served because, after all, the staff and management need the customers more than the customers need them.

Went in for breakfast and should have walked away when we seen every single tray they had was dirty but carried on. They had one server who was doing everything, serving food (breakfasts etc), making drinks, taking payment, there were other people behind the till, think one was on toast duty but not sure any of them were actually willing to do much at all. Needless to say with the one server doing everything the wait to be served was over 20 minutes. Eventually got served and went to pick up cutlery , had to search through the forks as most of the them had some sort of white hard crust on them , what it was I do not know, they had no butter asked for some and was given some that was rock hard and I mean rock hard! Had a further ten minute wait for our toast to be bought to the table and it was stone cold! Seen 2 other people complaining, one had been waiting for their toast which they had ordered alone with a drink but they got told it had been forgotten, the other said they had no teabag in their teapot,obviously that had been forgotten too. Food was actually ok not what I would say great but passable, tables and seats all looked liked they could do with a good scrub. Needless to say we won't be returning.

We've been here a few times. There are always tables available, it is relatively clean and tidy and the food always looks appetising. Prices are average for this type of cafe within a department store in the centre of town. Overall the service has always been friendly and attentive and the food of good quality and enjoyable. If you fancy something sweet and filling I would recommend the fruit scones which are freshly baked and of a good size. The baguettes are also tasty and some can be toasted which is great if you prefer a hot lunch and I also recommend the soup and toastie. The tea is served in smallish sized pots so I always ask for a separate pot of water as it can get strong. In my opinion this cafe it better than some and certainly on par with the other cafes within this shopping centre.

I visited the Nottingham store cafe zest on Sunday 4th December as part of a Christmas city break and popped in for a spot of lunch. A Turkey Panini & chips was advertised and I ordered this and a jacket potato for my wife. Both were really inedible. The Panini was obviously the previous days offering or it had been microwaved multiple times. My wife's jacket potato was very dry. The only reason for the two stars was the pots of tea ordered at the same time were ok except most was spilt whilst I was trying (unsuccessfully) to saw the Panini up. I would have complained in store but was on a tight schedule so didn't have the time. Really disappointing as this was our first visit to a House of Fraser cafe.

The cakes here are amazing, recommend the victoria sponge, staff really pleasant, nice clean premises, the only negative is the price, we pay these in London so did think would be slightly less so in Nottingham, but maybe prices are standardised, as it appears house of Fraser are putting cafe zest in all of their stores.

Así que en un mini-lunes festivos Toh y yo tenía que ir a la ciudad para recoger algunas cosas. Como llegamos al lado de la parada del autobús que me dijo que le permite desayunar en aquí. He tenido un té y tarta de comida aquí pero no preparada. Tengo que decir que el servicio y la comida eran realmente agradable. Me gustaría poder darle a este lugar 3 1/2 estrellas y no de 4. Para poner las cosas en contexto no saldría mi camino para comer aquí hay mejores lugares para disfrutar de un desayuno en Nottingham sin embargo Si yo estaba en House of Fraser y daba a una taza de té me encantaría ir a Café Zest. Creo que es mucho mejor que en el lugar para comer en John Lewis. Así que probarlo.

Taza de té es prácticamente lo suficiente por una taza. Apenas una taza de té.

Mi amigo y yo reunirse regularmente aquí, pero esta mañana estaba un poco de sorpresa. Como me senté hablando con mi amigo me di cuenta de que el saliente en la pared detrás de ella, unos 7" de ancho, fue denso recubiertos de polvo. No es un sitio agradable para venir al otro lado mientras disfruta de su café con leche. Los dos nos quedamos muy sorprendidos al ver esto en lo que, en general, parece ser un buen ambiente para tomar bebidas y comida. No es algo para estar orgullosos de Zest Cafe. que os dejéis por esta mañana. Yo no mencionarlo a un hombre y mujer que trabajaba allí. Tuve que rápidamente prevenir la señorita de limpiar, mientras que todavía nos estábamos sentados en frente. Polvo con nuestros Lattes, no gracias.

oh I hate mornings..... but a treat before busy day a head is a nice way to go ahead.I been coming here for a few months. Food always fresh and really top quality.Good jacket potatoes too. Its not the cheapest in town I agree but I love the contemporary space and display of food is always interests me.I guess if you are after flat white London style this is not the place but for a treat of good quality food especially jacket potato go here.Service is lovely and they remember their regulars.

Expensive for what you get (£6-8 for a every simple sandwich/hot sandwich) and everything seemed to be in a rush. Would return for coffee but not food. Also had no mustard :(

We visited Cafe Zest in House of Fraser, Victoria Centre, Nottingham recently (February 2013). I was intrigued by the recent makeover of the cafe to the Cafe Zest format, having been to the Cafe Zest in House of Fraser in Leeds a few times. The Leeds version is excellent and popular, with waitress service, and I wondered if the Nottingham one could be similarly good. In Nottingham it's still self service, and why not? However this does make it difficult to recreate the atmosphere and success of the Leeds version.The decor has been redone and is pleasant and attractive, with a wide choice of sandwiches, cakes and pastries plus now a more adventurous choice of main dishes. We had one of these, the beer battered fish and chips with choice of vegetables. The fish (not named, and I didn't remember to ask!) was excellent in a very tasty batter and we had chosen a mixture of vegetables which seemed fresh -- if frozen, they had been well prepared.The meal was slightly let down by the chips, which were a bit soft, though the taste was reasonable.There were two or three alternatives for the main dish -- the others when we were there were sausage and mash and Hong Kong chicken and rice. The chicken pieces in sauce with rice looked very good -- the description of Hong Kong I would guess indicating quite a mild flavour rather than the very sharp and strong versions coming out of Singapore or mainland China.On a previous visit we both had the sausage and mash with the sausage in red onion gravy, partly caramelised, which was very good and if anything probably better than the fish meal (on account of the chips!).However please do not be put off by the slight criticism of the chips -- this is good food from a chain who must be working to a tight budget. I think when Cafe Zest gets into its stride here -- as it has in Leeds -- it will be a really interesting and attractive addition to the food options in the Victoria Centre.So two main dishes and two teas came to almost exactly £20 -- fairly good value in the centre of Nottingham when you are looking at a cooked meal rather than snacks or sandwiches.