De Beker in Hertsmere

Visited here this weekend, for the first time. Cute place, with a cycle theme going on. As a vegan, I was excited to see a handful of breakfast / brunch items on the menu. I had the vegan breakfast and my friend had the avocado wrap - both were great. Friendly service and fair pricing. Definitely coming back.

I visited twice when passing through. Second time I spotted the old gentleman that works in the kitchen is doing everything from cooking to serving and taking payments. The younger guy is in fact the owner despite him denying this. He stands on his phone behind the counter and only makes coffee. The older gentelman does the rest. Hes touching, furniture, card machine, then food. I could see from where I were sitting. Even scratching. No washing of hands first. I decided to speak to food safety department at Hertsmere. I spoke with a man who knew De Beker very well. He was so disapointed and inform me both of them had recently undergone additional training and this was sad news. Real shocker is De Beker has a 1 star rating. Lowest possible. Their review of the buildings and handling food is in June 2020. How dare they disrespect their customers putting us at risk of ill health. Poor sloppy service. On a plus point their toilets are spotless and very clean. First time contacting the council, very helpful and from what I could tell the person I spoke too really cares.

Great range of options that span traditional cafe, vegan and Turkish options. The Dutch breakfast comes with a sup rose cheese wheel! Vegan pancakes are ace, along with a huge range of herbal teas and cakes. If you are riding out there are take away supplies - granola bars etc. Prices are pretty good!

I’ve had lunch, coffee and cake, and now breakfast. Each has been excellent. Friendly service. Every thing freshly made - my lunchtime salad was delicious and a v good portion. Today’s smoked salmon breakfast superb, v good scrambled eggs, avocado and salad. Decent pot of tea. Good, relaxing music playing. Lovely and clean. Highly recommended.

I’ve given four stars which is a tad generous for our visit but I believe there was a little issue on the day we came in and I think we were a little unlucky. We stopped here as a charity bike ride en route to a London hospital and found our pre-booked table had been given to another group. Not a huge issue as they moved a few tables together elsewhere for us. Service was slow and I think there was a slight language barrier as I asked for my sausage (as part of a full English) to be well cooked twice and still had to send it back twice.! The flat white only contained one shot of espresso and was really a cappuccino in disguise, I ordered another to top it up and it was ok. As I mentioned, service was incredibly slow considering we didn’t order a great deal and it held our ride up a bit but the people are nice and I did feel a little sorry for them and even left a tip so it can’t have been that bad. The food was decent enough, the omelette breakfast looked the best of the bunch but they do need to learn how to make French toast, my wife was told they had none left and when I explained how to make it fresh they didn’t really get it. We’d come back though, the cakes looked amazing but hardly ideal mid ride so we didn’t get to try them out. Maybe next time..

Have been to this restaurant/cafe approx 6 times and each time really lovely food. A little slow but staff helpful and polite, clean. Don't recognise it from some of the reviews posted. I have high standards too. Weird.

This is a great vintage style place serving lovely coffee and choice of 2 vegan cakes. We have been here a few times and had a different cake each time. Really nice place, good service and atmosphere.

The food, service and atmosphere is good. I was excited because I had never had a sausage roll before, since I am vegetarian. But this place has a good one. They also have good coffee.

Thanks So much very Nice cafe and best Coffee in town I had best lunch Special salad and fesh juice.

Don't even think about dining here. There were more staff in than customers, terrible atmosphere with African dance music playing too loud on a Thursday afternoon at 12 o/c. The management were all just huddling around glaring at us like we'd interupted a private chat in their lounge rather than trying to enjoy a lunch in their fake posh cafe. The food was tasteless and overpriced. Coffee was brown water. Menu had a poor choice and for a restaurant to call itself Vegan and Gluten Free and then have a menu that totally contradicts this makes me question the whole strategy and believe they've just put these trendy "Gluten Free" and "Vegan Cafe" signs up to appeal to more of the so-called fashionistas than really caring. Awful place I will never set foot in again and can't wait till they eventually go out of business and a better decent cafe opens instead.

We went to this friendly looking cafe for spot of breakfast. We ordered kids breakfast, veggie breakfast and an omelette. You really have to work hard to mess this up. Kids breakfast turned up with thermo nuclear milk and croissant that was so stale knife would not cut through it. 15 min later an omelette turned up which was probably the best bit. Further 15 min wait for veggie breakfast which rocked up with two raw egg whites on the plate. After returning it, our plate came back with ‘eggs to follow’ another 10 and no sign of eggs. That was it really, went to pay the bill and was asked if everything was ok, bit ironic I thought.

My wife and I wanted a quick snack for lunch. The menu was good and we ordered two straightforward dishes. Some 25 minutes later they arrived. The restaurant was not busy so this was unacceptable. The food wad tasty and portions ample.

At lunchtime we tried the vegetarian wraps and also a hummus and avocado platter. Fast food it aint so be prepared to wait for everything to be freshly made. Friendoly and attentive staff. Not open at night!

This bicycle themed daytime place offers an interesting selection of vegetarian and vegan wraps and meals. We tried the coffee shortly before closing time (5.30) and it was very good. will return to try the food as well