Marks and spencer kitchen in Gateshead

What has happened to M&S cafes? Doing away with the saucers and little biscuits was bad enough, but now the service is so poor and often chaotic, food unappetising and the tea transparent. Once my go to place for refreshment whilst shopping. No more.

Disgusted by service. Only went for coffee, pot of tea and scones. Paper cup supplied for the coffee (excuse was they had no cups left) and we were sitting in. The tea was plonked on the table with a tea bag hanging in the hot water. You would get better value and service on a motorway lay-by.

Over 10 minutes in relatively short queue then 15 minutes wait for luke warm soup and mediocre jacket potato . Won’t be back.

We ordered the Grazing platter which they didn't have, so opted for the Spanish tortilla with a rocket side salad for £8.95. When it arrived it was a small quarter portion of tortilla and a little few rocket leaves and 3 cherry tomatoes. The salad was dry and didn't even have a dressing on the side (even when asked for). The only option was Ketchup,or Mayo. Value for money was very poor

Visited on a rainy busy day. A few tables free but all had dirty dishes on. The table we nearly sat at also had a chipped top and was in need of a wipe. Member of staff passed saw we were looking for a seat but did not attempt to clear dishes or clean table just walked away. The over all look of the cafe was shabby, decided to go else where.

The tea and coffee were good, I particularly liked the "magic coffee" (actually a sort of cortado) in a glass. Nice clean environment too.

We pondered re where to go for brunch and then had a brainwave …… Marksie’s - can’t go wrong there surely? How wrong we were. I’d not been here since the cafe was over the other side of the building, so that must be 8-10 years ago. What a disappointment!! My daughter sat at a booth which had just been vacated and had leftovers on the table. I had to ask someone to clear it after 5-10 mins, which they did. I then had to ask someone else to wipe the table down after they failed to return to do so….. There was a slow moving queue - both ladies on the tills were very nice and pleasant, working as fast as they could have done given they were serving alone and making teas / coffees too - a really poor division of labour given other staff members were standing around. We ordered two breakfasts which came very quickly. Unfortunately the plates were cold, my bacon was cold (and I mean absolutely cold as if it had been picked from the fridge) - it was limp, like streaky continental bacon too - not good at all. I touched the beans which were just lukewarm, and promptly took it back and asked for a refund. In fairness the staff dealt with it really well and I received my refund promptly. My daughter did eat her brekkie and left her bacon, which was also cold. M&S really need to do better, really disappointing.

Sadly, a Day Not to Remember as the Rain Poured over Our Parking. The Metro Centre surprisingly busy for 10.30am : We Must've been BARKING! However our search for Furniture to match the the quality of that which we had already bought. Found us Floundering, as we discovered suitable items : For we were Fraught. The Door Handle in the photograph was loose, as you can see. Whilst the Drawer Front simply 'Came Away' in need of GLUE ; Plus a Screw or THREE!! A Representative was Unpreterbed stating 'It happens all the Time'! How Embarrassing for Staff dealing with Shoddy Displays of a SHOP Clearly: 'BELOW ITS PRIME'!

New coffee machines in the cafe, had a hot chocolate and coffee pretty awful. Cafe tables not cleared. Poor service, very slow. Will be our last time in M & S cafe, certainly not what it used to be.

The tea and coffee were good, but the engagement of the staff with customers was rather weak; they did their job, but without any "sparkle"

Purchased an all day big breakfast. Questionable hash brown cooked on one side only, bacon although tasty very fatty, sausage overcooked and dry, mushroom ok, beans and toast ok. Overall I wouldn't eat breakfast again total waste of £9

Ordered three breakfasts, 2 coffees and a tea . The coffees had a strange aftertaste, but could deal with that, the breakfasts were all cold , told one of the girls who was very polite apologised and said she would get new ones. They came back same breakfast’s had been in microwave which really wasn’t good enough , we only knew who’s breakfast’s they were as we had all tried a different part , the only nice part was the bread. It wasn’t good enough, used this cafe a lot but won’t return

If I could give 0 stars, I would. Almost every free table was full with empty plates and cups. Service was so slow, they didn't have enough not enough staff.

Thought I’d treat myself to a cheeky slice of cake and a cup of tea. OMG, what has HAPPENED to M&S cafes? The tea was fine but the thimble of milk which came with it was utterly inadequate. I had a slice of Victoria sponge, which used to be a glorious cake; now it tastes of chemicals and you wouldn’t believe the jam had ever been near any fruit, it’s just horribly sweet goo. Honestly it was dreadful. Walk out of M&S front door and to your right there’s two independent cafes. Go there. Go anywhere but here. Dreadful. The only thing saving them from a one star review is that at least it was clean.

Service at the checkout was incredibly slow, with no apology for the wait. We had a cup of tea and a piece of cake each. The tea was ok, at least it was fresh, but the cake was straight out of the factory, full of chemicals and overly sweet. The only real positive I can vouch for was that someone was constantly clearing and wiping tables. Really not sure why M&S cafes are always full.

Currently 20/30 minuet wait to get a coffee, only one service station open. No longer gets saucers, then you have a choice of weak house coffee or Columbian aledgedly stronger.

I’m sure staff are all lovely but they’re more interested in talking to one another than paying attention to customers. Service dreadful. Coffee not very hot either.

We called in the metro cafe the other day and it’s very stark and not very comfortable,the food was ok but when the waitress asked me how many packets of pepper I wanted I thought this place needs making a bit more comfortable.I am a share holder so I want marks to make money .it’s to clinical and cold.

My mum and I ordered the smashed avocado with poached eggs on toast as it looked great on the advertised board.When it arrived it was so bland and unseasoned and looked nothing like it was on the picture. The avocado was that hard and practically frozen it was in huge lumps.It tasted of nothing due to it being unripe. Won’t be popping back soon for breakfast!

Came here for dinner. Quickly served and food was great. Little expensive for soft drinks. Member of staff very kindly gave children a chocolate lolly for Halloween which they loved and brightened up their day. Brilliant thought

Yesterday I took my elderly parents into the Marks and Spencer cafe in the Metrocentre, for lunch. Owing to the Eat Out To Help Out scheme and social distancing, the queue to get in was very long and I had grave concerns that my Mother (who recently had a hip replacement) and Father (who is prone to collapsing due to heart and blood pressure issues) would not be able to endure the queue. However, no sooner had we joined the queue both a lovely lady assistant from the cafe approached us and escorted my parents to comfortable seats in the cafe whilst I continued to wait in the queue. The food was great and an absolute bargain (3 lunches and 3 pots of tea for £10.71) but, what we valued more than anything else, was the caring nature of the staff in accommodating the needs of my parents (who are in their 80s). I can't thank them enough for their exemplary customer service.

at Metrocentre last week and the medium coffee was a really small cup i said i asked for medium to which i was informed that they had been informed by head office that the small are now medium and the medium are now the large !!!!!!!! i get that rather than increase prices a lot of food manufacturers reduce the size however with a cup of coffee where the excess will be either be water or milk its a disgrace a mouthful of coffee for £2.95 so many other places to get a coffee , with better service, and prices we wont be visiting again

While shopping in the Metrocentre we decided to pop into M & S cafe for a light lunch. We opted for the tomato soup and a toasted tea cake. We took our seat and put the electronic gadget on the tabletop so they could locate our table with our order.After 5/10 minutes a waitress came to tell, us the tomato soup was no longer on the menu and would we like an alternative. Unfortunately the other soups were not suitable so we opted for a chicken burger which was offered with fries but we declined.We were not asked to pay anymore money as the burger was more expensive. This is very good CustomerService and the food was very nice.

Visited M&S cafe at Metrocentre with a friend last Friday lunch time, we were given the wrong heated sandwich & when we told the assistant she wasn’t particularly interested & then our sandwich subsequently never arrived. However a member of staff named Georgia in the cafe saved the day. She went to check on our order then delivered it to our table then went to get us the sauce we required too, excellent customer service, if only her colleague had taken a leaf out of Georgia’s book. Well done & thank you.

Stopped by for a quick drink after a bit of shopping recently. Although my tea and cake were fine and the cafe itself is bright, airey and clean I did feel it lacks atmosphere. It was towards the end of the day and the staff seemed more interested in chatting than anything else which is not what I experience in M&S usually.

The days of quality produce and service have gradually been eroded and M/S are on that slippery slope. You never minded paying that bit extra for quality however a couple of Luke warm fish fingers sandwiches and a couple of normal size teas and coffees for around £15 in surroundings where you have to clear your own table is not the recipe for repeat business.The staff at counter and making beverages were working hard . The male member supposedly collecting meals and taking them to customers was enjoying his phone call and when returning to kitchen didn't bother clearing any of the tables . A very polite customer was making a complaint about the situation to some form of senior staff who gave every excuse eg. Not been here long from different deptment blah blah blah .There needs to be catering expertise in managerial position .Very alarming .

Recently went to experience the all day breakfast. How disappointing. We spend a fortune in this shop and at least expect some decent food in the cafe.The whole thing was luke warm, and included a slab of rubbery scrambled egg (poached eggs not available although advertised) sausages and bacon dry and shrivelled. Only ate it because we were so hungry. Brass neck charging almost £8 for it. On the plus side coffee was okGave it another try a few days later but this time a sausage and caramelised onion toastie and a bacon sandwich again only warm.What's going on, get your act together M and S , we expect better from you!!

Hi recently received a voucher for my birthday from M&S; for 'afternoon tea for two ' which I used today in M&S; Wolstanton. It was divine! Staff were very helpful in choosing which sandwiches and scones etc we wanted and all served on a tiered stand with 2 lots of tea. It was lovely. Well done M& S and thank you.

Came here on Saturday afternoon, it was fairly quiet so there were plenty of tables vacant.However, every table had dirty crockery on it, we sat down at the dirty table, nobody came to clear it.The tables either side of us were never cleared while we sat there, it’s severely understaffed here.So, the food, yeah it was ok, nothing special, it fills the tummy.Cappuccinos are moderately priced.Now the toasties, one turkey and one sausage, £4.50 and £4.25 respectively, hmm not really worth that is it, like I say, it filled the gap.So altogether with a bag of crisps and a choc crisp bar and the two coffees, it came to £16.60, that’s quite a lot for what you get.It is a noisy place, even when it’s not a busy period and the staff need to put smiles on their faces, they look downtrodden and miserable, oh well, that’s my review.

As it was a Friday, my wife ans I decided to order 'beer batter fish and chips'. After waiting for over half an hour, when the food arrived, the fish was covered with by what, at the greatest stretch of imagination, could not be called 'batter, never mind 'beer batter', When we have had 'beer battered fish' at other restaurants is crispy and light. Here it was thin and soft (soggy), no crunch at all. The mushy peas looked like they'd been in the pot for days and had dried up too. Chips were 'ok' but the portion small, definitely not worth anywhere near the £8.50 charged! We have eaten at other M&S restaurants before and have never been disappointed, however we will not be visiting this one again! My wife has also contacted M&S to complain.

I am a regular early morning customer at M&S cafe. I appreciate some morning it can get quite busy. On my last visit there were only three customers waiting to be served, so can’t put the behaviour of the staff down to being under pressure. No eye contact from the staff, no acknowledgment I was even there apart from serving me the drink I requested and taking my money. Just carried on their conversation between themselves. Incredibly rude and unfortunately not the first time this has happened, when there are so many alternatives in the metro centre, you’d think there would be a little more effort or is it they’ve just become complacent? I won’t be going back.

This review refers to the M&S cafe - the self service on on a Saturday afternoon of the August Bank Holiday. We arrived wanting a drink and a cake to find the cafe was filthy and understaffed.There we're 4 members of pretty tired looking staff working the large space and nobody had time to clear tables too I would estimate that 50% or more of the tables had dirty crockery on them and the cafe was almost empty in terms of customers. We were pretty desperate for a drink so stayed and it didn't get much better - management were 'swanning' around but little or no action was taken til the very end of out visit.At a time when retail is under pressure and stores need to be 'destinations', for one of the UK's premium food retailers to showcase their offering in a flagship store in this fashion goes beyond words. The cafe needs to be staffed properly, hygiene standards need to be enforced and the place needs to be made welcoming. Sorry M&S you're my favourite food retailer but this goes beyond poor.

Well after popping in for sunday lunch my partner and I quickly regretted the decision after tasting the food we ordered, the Katsu chicken and rice which my girlfriend ordered was luke warm with hard rice and frozen chicken (destroyed the taste). I myself ordered the Beer Battered fish and chips with mushy peas.... ha! Peas were a size of a thimble that had been puried to death, again frozen fish with no taste and a hint of grey to it, chips were hard and unedible.... absolutely shocking for a price going on nearly to the £10 mark each... Will not be returning here, come on Marksy's your way better than this....

Can’t complain too much about the hot drinks and cake. However, the system for bringing hot food to customers tables is appauling. Every 5 mins a waitress was coming out of the kitchen walking around the cafe shouting the table number and expecting the customer with the corresponding number to respond. Surely you can come up with a better method than this?

Went for drinks while shopping. The cafe wasnt busy but had run out of trays. The tea and coffee were OK but the service was slow - it seemed a bit understaffed.

Unfortunately the service at Marks & Spencer's is not what it used to be and this is most apparent in the restaurants. It takes forever to get served, why does it take so long to make a coffee? The staff are not always pleasant, tables are not cleared quickly enough and are left dirty. There never seems enough staff and they always seem surprised by the number of customers even during the lunchtime period. That said, the food is decent if overpriced. You can do better M&S;!

Called in for meal deal everything is laid out in fridge or below where the crisps are. Surely all these items are on the meal deal

Visité este café, honestamente puedo decir que fue la mejor botella de Coca Cola que he bebido era perfectamente relajado y sabía justo, recomiendo completamente la Coca Cola de este café maravilloso. En cuanto a las otras críticas creo que es ridículo hay opiniones sobre el lugar que le da un mal nombre crezca.

Very disappointing, weak, tasteless coffee, disorganised at the till. Three people took turns to serve me and the coffee was still awful. Get your act together Marks and Spencer.

We had a set of mixed sandwiches which tasted good -brown and white bread and we felt they were well priced for what we had. Tea weak and coffee just OK. Friendly service and clean tables.

Called here for tea and coffee while shopping. The tea was fine - and the cakes VERY tempting. My coffee was like watered down mud. I shan't be having that again.

After shopping decided to stop for coffee and scones. I had cheese, hu by had fruit. Fresh and moist, coffee nice too. Staff friendly.

No tengo ni idea de por qué siempre aquí pero que hacemos. Normalmente entrara a un sándwich y una taza de té con los niños mientras compras. Pero de nuevo quedo insuficiente y decepcionados con la comida, el servicio y la relación calidad-precio.

Después de una sesión de Ikea (por qué siempre dos veces lo que esperas porque comprar más cosas de lo que fuimos, vinimos aquí para el brunch. Gestionado o conseguir una plaza de aparcamiento sin demasiado problema en la zona verde. No hay colas, incluso en el domingo a mediodía y el personal era amable. La comida llegó rápidamente y los bollos de salchicha eran excelentes. Vale la pena probar!

Decided to opt for a quick lunch. Fancied a salad. Three on the menu but they had run out of two and it was only one a clock! The tables were littered with used place - Hopeless

A visit to metro centre push me to this restaurant to have a taste of the meal in this restaurant and I did not regret going there . It was a remarkable experience, the food was delicious and sweet, the environment were clean and the staff were superb in their service. I hereby recommend them to all and sundry

We visit this cafe every Friday now as not only food is great but staff make us want to return time after time. The best marks and spencer cafe we have been to. This cafe is definitely worth a visit

Stopped mid shop for two drinks and a scone and cream. The place was almost empty at about 5pm on a Saturday so service was quick and efficient. The place was quiet, good to have a conversation and chill. Very nice hot chocolate, i had a small one which was pretty big, the large must be huge. All tables were cleaned and no dirty plates/cups left on tables.

Visited over a lunch time and it was indeed very busy, however the wait time to place an order and then an even longer wait for my sandwich to be toasted was added to by the total disorganisation of the staff. Tables needed clearing, food stood at the hatch waiting to go out and the order queue got longer, whilst staff just seemed to float about.

Called in for a coffee, as usual with M&S the coffee was very nice & as we arrived before 12, there were quite a lot of tables vacant, by 12.30 there wasn't one to spare! There were various bits of food on the floor that could've been a slip hazard especially with my dad walking with the aid of sticks, in general the cleanliness was questionable, appreciate this is down to customers not staff but more vigilance wouldn't go amiss, it's worth trying as the food looked nice & you know what you're getting when you order from M&S.

Not too bad for a coffee & sausage bap. I've had worse but also had better. Service was quick but could of been quicker if the 2 girls stopped talking amongst themselves about anything but work. I only got served when I told them for 2 coffee's. Never seen a head shoot round so fast to look at a customer. Sausage bap was ok, 4 sausage's, sliced in half in a warm toasted bun. It seemed to have butter on too, wasn't to sure though.

I go to this cafe every week as I have hot drinks vouchers. The coffee and food is always nice but the service is terrible. There is never a clean table to sit at on a Saturday . I usually have to clean it away myself before we can sit down. There is never any cutlery. I usually have to wait in a long queue to be served,and then have a longer wait because they have no clean cups or milk jugs.

Had a voucher as a Birthday treat from m&s bank. Was told to pick a pre wrapped sandwich and scone, no cake or tiered platter as advertised. The cafe was very untidy no clean tables. Very disappointed not a treat at all. Glad I did not invite a friend would have been embarrassing.

When in store today we decided to stop for coffee as my 8 month old son needed feeding so we decided to join the long afternoon queue (in the larger cafe to the right).My mam said that she would wait in the queue while me and my dad when to feed my son. Whilst on the way to the several vacant seats I heard a shout in my direction of "EXCUSE ME! THE QUEUE IS HERE!!" I turned my head (passed several shocked and silent onlookers) to see a member of staff, who could see my son in my arms and had seen me talking to my mam who was in the queue, glaring at me. I started to reply that I was just finding a seat when she shook her head and turned away ignoring me then saying that I needed to feed my son (she had stopped listening at this point and was talking to a customer in the queue, presumably about me). Needless to say there haven't many times where I have felt so embarrassed or humiliated, I then had to endure the duration of my time there being stared at by customers around me thinking I had jumped the queue! I find this a bit of a kick in the teeth having just spent £50 in store and a further £5-£10 in the cafe.Is there any particular reason as to why she needed to shout this the entire width of the cafe as opposed to coming over to me and politely asking me if I was looking for the queue or is this how you train all your staff to speak to customers?!

After a wander around the Metro Centre we were in need of some light refreshment. We decided to try the Afternoon Tea and were not disappointed. 4 small sandwiches, 2 small cakes and a scone with jam and cream (each) with coffee for two at only £12.95!

Had a lovely afternoon tea with sandwiches scones and cakes with a very nice cup of tea, was a good price for two and very well presented

Service was good and pretty quick considering how busy the place was. Polite and helpful staff. Best of all was a really good strong pot of tea. There was no need to spend time squeezing the tea bags to get some strength into the brew!

I went to this place with a friend for a chat and relaxation. It was a lovely and quiet place to be for some awesome time. The staff were fantastic, the food was nice, although quite expensive but you will get value for your moneyI will definitely go back for some food.

Came here with my Gran had a delicious lunch chicken, salad and potatoes.not too expensive but really tasty food and good portion

food was under cooked staff were bad manered and place was dirty will never use marks and spencers again

After reading some of the awful reviews of this cafe I feel the need to give an accurate review. I frequently visit this cafe and continue to return, not only for the quality food and drinks but for the great service. It is a very popular cafe, and is often very busy! Despite this, the staff still find the time to provide a personal service, asking me about my day and helping me carry my tray to the table. If you are patient and respect the staff then I highly recommend you visit.

I always go to the m&s cafe after shopping at the metro centre. Service is always efficient. I'd recommend the breakfast items and soup. Can be quite pricey though - there's definitely a discrepancy between the store and cafe prices!

Week gone Saturday I went to this café with my husband, son, daughter in law and grandson - 5 people not 50. We stood in a que and eventually gave our order being three scrambled egg, two without tomato, one bacon sandwich and a round of toast with tea and coffee - simple ! for 5 people - not a hope in Hell. The drinks came spasmodically it took so long to get one coffee the rest of the drinks were cold. we found a table and waited about 10 minutes. A lady, I now know as Karen, was wondering around looking for the table to serve the food, we had put the disc on the allotted spot. Karen brought us 1 scambled egg and toast, five minutes later she was wandering around the restaurant looking for someone to claim the food she had on the tray, it was 1 more scrambled egg with tomato!!!, we waited and the first lot of food had been eaten and eventually we got the bacon roll and the final scrambled egg with tomato!!! I spoke to Karen and told her I thought the service appalling and I would be complaining, Karen informed me it was her first week, I said I thought somewhere like M and S would not have let her on the floor first week without supervision, Karen then told me she was in charge!!! I reiterated my displeasure and all she could do was to apologise for the totally inadequate service. Those of us who had just received our food ate it while the others watched on. The staff were totally disinterested, unmotivated and fed up of their lives by the look of them. Karen eventually came back to our table to apologise again and said she would refund the cost of the hot food. Our bill had come to almost £30. Come on M and S give your staff some motivation, reason for being there or at the very least some training. Appalling service, expensive meal, although I don't mind paying if the quality and service are good, and a miserable time had by all - and that was not just my party. so totally disappointed in you. won't be going back and have made sure everyone I know is aware of this shoddy appalling service

I have been here over 20 times for little coffee dates over the years and honestly enjoy the coffee and the fresh scones. The cheese scones are simply delightful! Chai tea lattes are the best I have ever had! Shame they only come in one size! M and s have a loyalty card which is an added bonus! On occasions I use to take the salmon and scramble eggs. They are good however on occasions I have to remind them to butter the bagels and to add a lemon to sprinkle on the salmon! Overall, delightful set up, nice and clean! With a great selection of beverages and food :)

Having had lunch at M&S restaurant, I was bitterly disappointed. Not only the minute portions but the quality, I had a chicken curry and rice which was overpowered by the taste of lime, my mum had the so called "turkey and stuffing pie, mash and gravy" the pie consisted of 4 pieces of gristle , an egg cup size portion of gravy and sloppy mash. To add insult to injury the food was luke warm. Very disappointed, will not be visiting there again. Pull your socks up M&S

Come on M & S - you manage to train your staff on the shop floor, how come your cafe staff are witless!! I notice there isn't a photo available. How I wish I had taken one of the dirty tables & four members of staff gathered around in the corner. M & S you have a brand name to live up to. This is shocking & not the first time I have experienced this in one of your eating establishments.. Bad lay out too. Won't bother another time.

You expect a certain level of customer quality from M&S? The kitchen lets its brand down somewhat. Have been twice to see if was a fluke but unfortunately the service and quality of food on both occasions were very poor!Dry sandwiches and rather bland cakes - plus a long wait for service.

Ended up popping in for lunch as was changing currency at the time. They had ran out of beans and tuna, the two main options I wanted for my jacket and they'd ran out...at peak time on a Saturday I think this is shocking, considering there's an in store supermarket a few yards away why couldn't they replenish stock from there?£14 for 2 jackets and 2 drinks.Won't be back here in a hurry...

Ordered the chicken & leek pie with mash. Was warned twice by staff there was no gravy. Hold on a minute! We're in a Marks and Spencer store with a food hall right next door to the cafe! My husband had cod and chips and I would guess the poor fish hadn't reached adulthood by the size of it. Very poor. The cafe itself is very noisy and it was made worse by plates being scraped and crockery being stacked in the little "clearing station" slap bang in the middle of dining area. Why couldn't dirty dishes be dealt with in the kitchen? Never again!

I came here with my friend for some cake. There were a variety of cakes which all looked nice enough. My friend chose the carrot cake and I opted for the salmon salad. I really wanted a salad but the only option seemed to be salmon, salmon or salmon. Either salmon is a very popular choice, or a very unpopular choice! The piece of fish was very small but that was to be expected. The salad itself was okay, nothing special. The water I got was over priced but so were all the drinks. I would have got a cake but the £3 offer of cake and drink was limited to hot drinks. I don't like hot drinks so thought this was unfair. I would have liked the offer if I could have had a cold drink instead. My salad and water was quite expensive so probably won't go there again. My friend's cake looked dry and she said it was okay. All the all, it was just okay.

Went on a monday afternoon for lunch. Looked like a school canteen. The staff all looked miserable and not interested. I asked for a jacket potato and the lady shouted at me for asking because they had none left. The rest of the staff looked as if they were smelling a bad fart. Very unhelpful. They were walking around like zombies whilst taking cheques out for customers. Tea pots were chipped. Staff very unhelpful. Who recommend that you do not go there.

Visited the smaller cafe in this store at lunchtime on 10 August. Greeted with a lady who asks that we form an orderly queque so as not to overwhelm the tills....fair enough. What irked me hence my post was that once you have paid for your food you then look around for a table. Truth is there were so few staff clearing tables there were at least 15 tables cluttered with the aftermath of previous customers. I am not posh and would be happy for M & S to have clearing racks strategically placed for customers to use. Better still get the lady controlling customers approaching the cafe to get her hands dirty and something useful! There is a complete lack of management control in this cafe and judging by the comments on the M &S kitchen the store manager needs to knock some heads together!

My husband and I plus our 3 year old grand-daughter visited the M & S cafe Saturday 2 August for lunch. There are 2 cafes in this store, this particular cafe use to be a waitress service restaurant. Such a pity because the restaurant use to be exceptionally nice, good service, good food and a very pleasant dining experience but now it has been converted into a cafe I think the motto is get them in and get them out.Standing in the queue waiting to place an order was a nightmare I had difficulty in hearing the girl as she had difficulty in hearing me due to the noise of the coffee machines behind her. The staff were obviously under pressure to push the sale of cakes when anyone ordered a drink, I have never come across the hard sell in M & S just shows how bad sales are!My husband and I both ordered chicken caesar salad this consisted of a meagre serving of chicken and plenty of green leaves. The noise from the clearing stations for the staff to sort dirty dishes and trays was unbearable. Background music amid the noise of clattering dishes and customers conversations do not mix.M & S need to sort themselves out once and for all, not only for the range of clothes (that's another gripe) but they need to go back to the drawing board and reinvent a pleasing dining experience.Will I be returning to this cafe I think you know my answer - NO!

Visited The Kitchen. Relatively quiet (12.45) seated fairly quickly and given menu - about 5 items were not available. Eventually waitress came and took order. Staff seemed to place priority on finding tables for customers waiting at the door. Meals piling up on kitchen hatch waiting to be served and customers waiting to pay. We began to wonder why customers who came in after us were being served cooked meals. We waited longer and eventually (35 minutes later) called one of the other waitresses over. They couldn't locate the original waitress or our order in the kitchen. The ? Supervisor who spoke to us was very apologetic and offered to quickly cook a meal for us (more wait). We left and went to Costa - quick service, good coffee and promptly produced hot sandwiches.M&S's loss as we will never attempt to eat there again.Only regret is having to give the minimum * for quality of the food we never received.

visited here for a quick snack, as the larger main cafe was full in marks and spencers. Plenty of tables to choose from, we knew exactly what we wanted, a cup of tea each and to share a scone, so we declined the menu and sat down. The couple after us got a menu and were served straight away, however we waited, and waited for someone to come over. We finally put our order in, there looked to be plenty of staff, but they were concentrating on taking orders, clearing tables, and doing everything except going to the area where the hot meals were standing to give to the waiting customers. Hubby and i noticed that some hot food was waiting for a long time, and waitresses were oblivious to it all. We could hear customers asking where their food was. We were sitting at the front of the cafe, and we both wanted to dish the meals out ourselves. We feel the staff need to be shuffled around in both cafes, using a mixture of older and younger waitresses, someone with good organisation skills and get the waitresses to move in the right direction and take notice

we visited this restaurant about 4 weeks ago the member of staff that served us had a dirty apron on no name badge and got our order wrong when we did get the right food it was cold and knives and forkes we dirty and there was food all over the floor under our table and all staff were misserible and moaning not one of them smiled when we asked to see the manager to complain we were told she would see us in a moment 15 minutes later haylie arrived and did not seem very intrested in what we had to say and just offered us a coffee on the house we also waited 45 minutes for our desert i can safely say we got the worst service we have ever recived anywhere and will never go back again and we were not the the only customers to complain about the service that day most of staff were just stood around talking and ignoring the customers and it was not busy so i would never advise any one to go there

After going here on a number of occasion we have finally given up poor service unhelpful staff.You are kept waiting when empty tables are clearly visible the attitude seems to be cant care less if you use or not.

I visited this restaurant on a Monday late lunchtime.The place looked nice brightly lit, modern decor.There were about 10 tables taken and approx 6 staff visible.There is a board telling you to wait to be seated... I waited a few minutes..a female member of staff ambled over..no greeting, flat soft shoes, trousers trailing... I was given a table and a menu.I quickly chose ( there isn't that much to choose from)...and I looked up hopefully and waited ..and waited.. Studiously ignored by all staff..I gave up after 10 minutes and left! Come on M&S- all the money you pour into staff training and design concepts..?! Could do better!!

Visited this cafe twice on the same day, first visit about 3pm. Its safe to say there were more tables full of dirty plates etc than tables with customers, despite there being a continuous queue. Tables cleared very slowly and customers cleared more tables than staff! Visited again afew hours later and what a difference. Particularly impressed with female assistants who were particularly helpful.

This in my opinion is the best m and s kitchen I have visited. Staff seem to go the extra mile and are very courteous. I regularly eat here with my mother who enjoys the dine for £10 menu, which is two courses with a glass of wine. Not hugh portions but sufficient to fortify and enable you to continue your shopping trip.