Riverside Cafe in Lewes

Sat down nice location menu on table staff acknowledged us and heard us discuss whst we would have for lunch. Went to order only to be told chef not in. So why menus on table and why not say something to us or the least have a note advising no food.

Cafe on 1st floor of "Riverside" building in centre of Lewes. Waiter served cafe with freshly prepared menu. Nothing fancy - but good, honest food. Great place for breakfast, lunch or tea!

Nice dog friendly cafe in the centre of Lewes. Thr staff was very nice and the food was amazing!

This is a gorgeous place to enjoy your drink and nibbles. Inside or out, just check it out and see for yourself. 😉

The new owners are good the food very good the cake r delicious lise&Paul very helpful the go out way help you I really recommend it to visitors there Michael

This place is absolutely beautiful. It's listed building. It's charming and the staff at Riverside cafe are welcoming with their beautiful smile all day long. My wifes jacket potato with sour cream,brie bacon and chives and my burger is to die for. It's lovely to hear that they're sourcing their burger patties, sausages , bacon, and steak is from the resident butcher. Thank you for the great food and brilliant service. We will be back. Great job and well done to the new management.

Tried again now it's under new ownership. Service much quicker and far more polite. Coffee mediocre though. Hoping to try food next time.

I visited this restaurant for lunch with a friend, choosing it after Bills was fully booked. Unfortunately, our experience was disappointing from the start. We ordered the 'classic cheeseburger, which was described as a locally sourced beef burger in a brioche bun with coleslaw and seasoned sautéed potatoes. After a 40-minute wait (with no staff checking in), we were shocked by what arrived. The bun was not brioche, but a flat, seedy version twice the width of the tiny burger patty inside. It lacked any of the usual toppings—no lettuce, tomatoes, or other accompaniments— just a slice of cheese. The 'coleslaw' turned out to be a pot of diced tomatoes and cucumbers soaked in salad cream, which was completely unexpected. Most disappointing was the so-called 'seasoned sautéed potatoes, which consisted of a single hash brown on the side. For £12, this was underwhelming and felt like poor value, especially when compared to something as simple as a McDonald's cheeseburger that costs a fraction of the price and at least has a balanced ratio of bun to burger. Also, the table next to us waited 30 minutes for 3 toasties. Overall, the slow service, misleading menu descriptions, and poor quality of food made this visit a huge letdown. I certainly won't be returning, and I wouldn't recommend it to others.

Went here for a Sunday brunch. I was told the wait was 20 minutes for food. It was the longest 20 minutes known to man , only half the order came out and we had to ask some 15 minutes later where the other half of the order was.

I was appalled when I took my children to the riverside cafe today. It used to be our favourite, but I no longer feel safe in that place. We used to go in for the milkshakes and eggs benedict, but today, we didn't even buy anything after we saw a staff member have their top pulled down by a customer while the management stood and laughed. It was disgusting and unprofessional, and I felt so sorry for the staff member who had served us in the past and had always been friendly and helpful. The management of that cafe is meant to have a duty of care for their staff, not openly mocking them for the customers' pleasure. it was uncomfortable to witness, and we, in turn, decided to go to Costa, which was very professional and friendly.

Best coffee cake I've had in ages. Staff were really friendly and smiled!! Glad we stopped in and next time we are in Lewes will be heading there for sure!

Recently taken over and now very much worse. Stale cakes and buns and few tasty savoury foods. Lots of white bread rolls and upf

Makes nice food, it's Lewes it's all nice.

Great ice cream and friendly staff

Lovely local Lewes cafe! Good food, great coffee and friendly and efficient staff! Definitely come here again! Nice to be able to sit outside!

Worst restaurant/cafe I’ve ever been to. Went to the till multiple times because we had tickets for something we couldn’t miss and kept being told it’s on its way/being plated up which was clearly a lie. Don’t know why they couldn’t just be honest with us. Whole queue of people trying to get a refund at the till and being refused(!!!) by the manager. Chef was yelling at customers ‘it’s a bank holiday, what do you expect?’ Finally food came out an hour and a quarter after ordering - Brie and fig jam jacket potato didn’t come out with the fig jam and the Full English was missing both the Cumberland sausage and bacon! The toast and mushrooms were cold, clearly just been sat out not even under a hot lamp. We had to scoff what was edible because we were so late and didn’t have time to queue up behind all the other punters demanding a refund so we just never got the food we ordered and ran off feeling completely scammed.

Ordered an eggs and hollandaise at around midday on a Monday and was told it may be up to 30 minutes wait time which is absolutely fine. After 50 minutes of waiting the waitress finally come out to say they have run out of poached eggs and see if we wanted anything else. We asked for a refund and decided to go elsewhere. Not sure why it took them 50 minutes to tell us they had no eggs. Such a shame as the location is lovely and the chai latte and smoothie were nice

It said 'order here'.I stood there,the waitress went away! Eventually she returned,I ordered coffee.only tp be told machine was broken-down you have cash?. Coffee was truly awful dish water.. Location is lovely BUT good products would be nice. ?£2.80 coffee. We will not go back

I would give a zero if I could. 1 hour wait for breakfast. Went to ask for a refund at the same time the food came out, decided to just let it go and eat it. Tragic food, not worth it, really disappointed.

Very slow, got the order wrong, delivered in dribs and drabs.

The customer service is non existent in this place (with the exception of some of the waitresses and the young lady making the drinks) The rest look unhappy, are abrupt and even somewhat rude and lack any customer service skills. The wait for anything is also extreme. Such a shame as the location and food is great.

This place is great for a get together with a friend or for people with only short time to collect food. Although one issue is their ability to listen to me, they only gave me 2 eggs when I had ordered 3, as I was on a rush I ignored this but I was still charged extra for the 3 eggs. The staff were friendly and the environment was chilled out and perfect for me. I would suggest this to lots of people as it’s a great experience.

Nice atmosphere and river views. Super English breakfast.

Very disappointing to see they are now closing earlier, which means we won't be able to get there very often at all now. Such a shame that we will have to change restaurants to Bill's over the Bridge, as we have been going to The Riverside for years. Will miss the previous owner, as he would often stay open till 8, which was great, especially through summer, and he was always very accommodating.

Lovely location. Friendly staff.

Tasty goat cheese salad 🥗 . Very attentive and hard-working waitress. 😀👍

The man working here should be behind bars.. atrocious behaviour (at least in my opinion)

Good selection, enjoyable food

Lovely & Friendly staff, cakes wonderful & most importantly dog friendly. Would recommend whole heartily

We arrived and asked for a "cream tea" , the waitress claimed that "she didn't know whether they offered it,as she doesnt "read the menu " ( really????). We then asked for a bacon roll and she claimed that "the chef wasnt in until 12" (by which time it was 12.30pm) and yet they offer "all day breakfast": Clueless. The cream tea arrived and I noticed that there was NO CREAM . I had to go back to the counter and request some . They seemed so shocked and thrown off track, not unlike rabbits in headlights . I did say that I thought that the service was awful . This place has the prime position and obviously the owners have no commitment to good service as visitors use it as one - off customers. It's full of under 25yo clueless, ill trained staff. It's not their fault actually: it's a training management issue. The front of house staff must get disgruntled customers all the time that they have to deal with .

Always been coming to this location as sort of inside and sort of outside seating for anything from coffee to bigger meals, much to have there and spend time here as well

Good location and some nice stuff here, however when busy it can be a little while before orders are bought out. However a great place with quick service when it is not too busy.

I am a regular customer and i find them very accommodating and friendly. Lovely atmosphere. Relaxing

Nice coffee, good service staff friendly and attentive offering me everything I wanted. Will be back and try the food!!

A little expensive on the food for what you get, but that is the case for most places these days. Still thought the food was nice and the service from the team was lovely.

It's a really useful spot to have some sort of something at the opening times of day, can be busy at some points in the day however there are plenty of tables to have sit in stuff there. A good place to come to for coffee and other things too.

A place to always come back to. Family friendly place, where we had a good time as a family.

Food was nice. Service was not great! Was wet and rainy outside but had my dog with me so had to be outside and they forgot about our food! Was left waiting for 30 minutes for some sandwiches then when I went inside to chase it up it took another 15 minutes !

We love coming here for lunch and sitting watching the river the staff are always friendly and the food is always great too.

What a shambles this place is run bon saturday by a few young kids who are totally useless and the service is something I have never seen before AVOID AT ALL COSTS AND RATHER USE THE FANTSTIC BAKERY NEXT DOOR

Had a lovely coffee and cake here though tables needed clearing quicker. Hopefully not the norm as it was a nice place to go to take the weight off.

Regularly visit here with family members for lunch. Good range of snacks both hot and cold. There is indoor and outside seating.

Waited a while for our coffee. Lovely place to sit . Staff friendly. We didn't have food, so can't comment on that.

Excellent service by a very polite young man. Unfortunately the full english wasn't good The panini was OK Wouldn't return

They do such tasty lemon pies!!!❤️

Great food served by passionate people. Having been behind the scenes and knowing how they take care in preparing their customers meals. My brunch was cooked to perfection also, and the coffee hits the spot!

We’ve been here a couple of times now for lunch. The smoothies and shakes are very nice. Food pretty basic but alright, nothing special. Service very slow. On most recent visit we had to ask repeatedly for our table to be cleared and wiped and chase up our drinks more than once. Staff seemed to be rushing about unsure of what they were meant to be doing without taking the initiative to clear tables as they walked right past them. Service needs improvement.

Expensive beer, with a very long wait and was warm as hadn’t even been put in the fridge. Would not recommend

I waited 40 minutes for 2 coffees, an orange juice and a tea. I paid to sit inside the cafe but by the time our drinks were ready I didn’t have time to enjoy them in the cafe. I then asked for the drinks to be put into take away cups instead and the waitress / cashier abruptly handed them to my husband snapping at him to hurry up, we had actually waited 40 minutes for them to be served to us! She was extremely rude and made us all feel very unwelcome. Very bad service and I will be avoiding this cafe in the future. The wait and behaviour also caused my elderly father to soil himself. The whole experience was very unpleasant. Such a shame as we usually visit the cafe and as I said we will be avoiding it in the future and not recommending to friend and family.

Following an afternoon stroll along the river this afternoon, we popped into the Riverside Cafe for a hot drink, but quickly wished we had chosen another venue. We ordered 2 chai lattes and a coffee latte. Despite the cafe being relatively empty we waited 15 minutes for our drinks to arrive. Disappointingly the chai lattes were not hot, but as my husband was cold and thirsty he quickly drank it. I advised the waitress that the chai lattes, we're not very hot but she appeared to be disinterested. I advised her once again and she said "sorry about that, if you want another one we will make sure it is hot"!. My husband then ordered another chai latte and requested that it was hot. He was charged for the replacement chai latte, which once again took ages to arrive, but at least it was hot. We will not be returning due to the disinterested staff, delay in service and luke warm drinks. Disappointed from Brighton.

Failed to get served. Staff just walked past ignoring requests so went elsewhere.

It's been 25 minutes and I'm still waiting for a simple order.... unfortunately the place isn't set up to cope with simple orders. If you value your time...go elsewhere

Took -forever- to get a latte and a slice of cake. Wasn’t told there were a stack of meal orders in front of me.

We sat outside which was lovely however- the tables weren’t cleaned. Lady who took my order inside was lovely and sweet. The girl serving the food didn’t know what food was what. My drink arrived ed with bits in which weren’t supposed to be in there. I was then made to collect my own drink. No thought or care to their own hygiene, cutlery not wrapped up -presentation awful and sloppy. No napkins. Filthy cutlery! Food was dripping in grease. Overall the food wasn’t great and clearly slapped together. Low quality produce even though they have a butcher 2 counters away. Will not be going back anytime soon and would certainly recommend some hygiene lessons.

The lady sells ice-cream was very rude by telling us to wait until the payment has gone through. Ice-cream scoop was the smallest I have ever had plus tastes terrible. There is also a sign saying something like you can’t be seated if you are just having ice-cream. Not good experience and won’t go back there.

1 star review for the absolutely awful way the chef treated one of the young waitresses today, in front of the everyone. It was an extremely angry, threatening and demeaning way to speak to her. Creating a scene to try and belittle her. I felt extremely uncomfortable having to witness that and will not support a business that treats staff like that. It was busy and she may have made a mistake, but his reaction and lack of professionalism and demeanour towards the waitress speaks volumes. I am sorry she had to be treated this way. Very shocked to have seen this unacceptable management style.

Smashing place this! I recommend this for people passing through or shopping, followed by a nice walk along the ricer! Or a nice walk along the river followed by a nice snack!

I was really disappointed with this cafe. On a rare day off, i decided to visit. Worst decision EVER Firstly, I was encountered by very tired furnishings, and rancid cushions. These cushions, gracing the seats are only fit fo But, I persevered, and decided on a meal from the menu left on the table (despite a waitress flitting about, but she made no contact) I was especially keen to try a Hash, so I promptly went to the till and order. Only to be told... THERES NO CHEF!!!!!!!!... and that they aren't serving cooked meals I was kindly offered a small selection of filled baguettes After which I promptly walked out and went to a fabulous restaurant down the road (which will be getting a 5 star review) Riverside Cafe Bar really needs to pull up their socks

Quite nice food. Service can be a little slow sometimes but overall a very nice place to eat

Better than the fancy-dan across the bridge!! Been going to Lewes for years, and the little cafe has never let one down...go!!

This place is a total mess, no management, dirty, staff sweet but clueless, no service, they literally got everything wrong during my first and last visit. To top it off they asked me to pay upfront inspite of table service and then didnt have wat I paid for and seemed to think refunding the difference was strange.

I've been coming here once every few weeks for years but getting fed up of poor service. Used to be great, but would echo that the mananger is a bit rude. Suffers from queue jumping and quite chaotic service even when not that busy.

The Manager of this cafe is an absolute disgrace. In the space of 10 mins, he'd shouted at all of his staff that were working flat out, it wasn't busy, but there seemed to be the Manager making everything hard work. He spoke to his staff like dirt. He also had go at 3 customers for no reason at all,and then as we were leaving he was outside having a really nasty go at a disabled lady outside and her husband for daring to sit on a seat outside to eat an ice-cream. It would have been understandable if the place was busy, but it was nearly 5.30, and had about 3 customers. I will never visit again. The Manager needs replacing!

Visited here on Saturday,Me and my mother both work full time and our time together is really valued. Unfortunately it was a very poor decision to spend our time here . We waited for our drinks for 30 minutes one black coffee and a cappuccino,asking the waitress politely assuming she may have been busy,however she was very rude and almost dismissed us and went over to clear 3 empty tables ignoring our request. When our food arrived late it was very greasy,the steak was very poor quality and overcooked,there was also oil covering the plate,I'm lactose intolerant so asked to substitute 2 main items of the dish and was simply offerd leafs as an alternative. I have worked in a restaurant and a Barista myself and understand the stressful aspect of the role however the service and quality of the food was terrible. In addition to the service and food I noticed the area we where sitting in was very dirty,lots of dead insects which where in webbs and dust all over the windowsill,where it appeared the cleaning of this area hadn't been done properly for quite some time.

Update- all still cool here, great for a quick stop off. Still does it for me! Great coffee, nice cakes and very reasonable too.

Nice environment but the chef is dreadful, rude and sweaty and unclean!. Understaffed and slow service. Asked for oat latte as lactose intolerant was given a cows milk latte. Not good!

Food was good though somebofbit was missing from my order

Great place to meet friends for coffee or lunch Good food and service Staff friendlly and good value

Outside was quite dirty. Decent Price but breakfast was nothing special and our eggs were undercooked and slimy

Unfortunately I got food poisoning from eating the full breakfast. A sausage did look a bit anemic, but after waiting 45 minutes for food, even though we were told 20, we just ate quickly as we had to leave. Tried to email to resolve but never heard anything back and I ended up loosing a whole day's wages because of the sickness. They were severely understaffed on a busy Sunday afternoon and it appeared only one person doing the food. It's a shame as I used to love going there but definitely avoiding the food.

Always remember coming this way for something right from when it was first a cafe zone in 1993. All good stuff with coffees and food items here. Now transformed each time and different and better things on the menu each season. Many times here for coffee and lunch stuff for most times of day.

TOTAL SCAM BREAKFAST THEY HIDE THE ONE TINY SAUSAGE AN MEASLY SLICE OF TASTELESS BACON AND CANT COOK EGGS AND TO TOP IT YOU WAIT FOR 45 MINUTES FOR THE PLEASURE AVOID AT ALL COSTS ! DISGUSTING!

We visited riverside cafe today. We ordered thee Hot drinks and two toasted tea cakes. It seemed There were only three staff. One taking orders One serving and one preparing food. We waited 30 minutes for our drinks to arrive and another 10 minutes for our food and that was only after Asking the waitress what had happened, she Was very apologetic. Not only that three tea cakes arrived and not two, also we had been charged for Three. The couple at the next table waited over 45 minutes for their food and their order was also Incorrect. We saw other customers asking where there Orders were. We visited here a few weeks ago during the week And service was extremely slow then as well in Fact our baguettes never arrived and we asked for A refund. We thought we we would give this cafe another Chance. But service was poor again! They definitely need more staff otherwise it Will never improve. We will not be visiting again. There are lots of Other cafes in Lewes.

How can it take 20+ minutes to make 2 Cappuccino’s and put a piece of cake on a plate when it’s not even busy?? Had to go to counter and ask twice, no apology, no eye contact, just rubbish can’t be bothered service! Find somewhere else to spend your money, this place doesn’t deserve any custom.

Nice position - but cooked breakfast was cold

Great coffee shop open until 7pm. Great for breakfast lunch or just for a coffee. Dogs welcome.

A good cafe, well located with quite a lot of space for diners both inside and out. It was busy when we visited, but we managed to find seats, and the food - a burger and a full English arrived reasonably quickly, given how busy the kitchen must have been. Good value!

Chef was rude, untasteful and my pet dog of 10 years who can hardly walk had more vibrance than any of the members of staff here. An absolute cesspit. This establishment needs to go on the Gordon Ramsey show to turn it around.

Delicious food, great atmosphere very poor service

Good service and great value vegetarian breakfast.

My go to place in lewes. Always have a round 2 lol. Friendly staff . Great food great coffee

Staff are overworked and stressed. Chef is rude and ignores dietary requirements, even when stated clearly - on multiple visits. Chef is angry when asked to cook.

Absolutely disgusting manager, heard him shouting at a young girl for no reason. Honestly horrible!!!

Awful, just awful! Me and my colleague had a rare day off (we are NHS heroes!!). Weak tea, weak food. The halloumi ciabatta stack tasted like my ex husband Graham’s foot and was as bland as our intimacy. Prefer the cafe at Royal Berkshire Hospital. Xx

We visited here as a party of four on our way home from Sheffield Park. We had hot drinks and baguettes. The food and drinks were served to our table and the baguettes came with salad and very nice coleslaw. The baguettes we had were warm - Brie and bacon and pulled pork and onion. Very tasty. It was a bit chilly as although we were effectively inside the cafe is very open at the front. Recommended when in the area.

WONDERFUL place to have discovered by accident :) delicious vegan Cornish pasty! MMMM wonderful seating options and brilliant eclectic surround of little Shops juts next to it… They also offer a vegan breakfast which sounds delicious decent pricing fresh and tasty 🫶🏻

It wasn’t very busy but it took 45 minutes to warm up a melt I am not exaggerating

Came for Sunday lunch, was quite busy but not overloaded. We ordered a wrap and a sandwich - these took over 1 hour to arrive (this is not an exaggeration, we checked the time on our receipt). Food was good when it finally came but this really is unacceptable service for two simple items - they need to employ more kitchen staff or simplify the menu to allow items to be made more quickly. Staff tried their best and were friendly, but there were many other people asking ‘will it be much longer’ so clearly not just us. Unfortunately I wouldn’t order food there again.

Ordered at the counter as requested - 2 breakfasts and 2 teas. Took 30 minutes for the teas to be given to us, there were only 4 tables occupied when we got there, and a further 20 minutes for the breakfast to arrive. When the breakfast did arrive the quality of the items was good, but half of it was cold and inevitably we’d finished our teas already. Heard the waitress talking to the chef saying she just wanted to hide in there with him for 10 minutes. No manage in sight, just a group of teenagers running the place. Needs a leader and organisation. Much better options elsewhere for you to spend you hard earned.

Great location, staff and menu choices.

Disorganised, poor staff are run off their feet and shouted at by the manager. Staff turnover must be horrendous. Come on Riverside Cafe, business is tough enough as it is! The manager bullies the staff and clearly needs to go on a 'people' management course. You're not getting our money again thank you!

I visited your cafe Sunday morning with my other half and the baby as we sometimes do. One of your outside tables on the corner was sticking out and when I went to pick my babys toy up from the floor it tore open my dress!! Upon talking to a member of staff he apologised and walked off. Couldn't even offer me a refund for our coffee at the very least. And on top of that his attitude was disgraceful to me when I asked him what to do next. Another customer mentioned that this is an ongoing issue to the same member of staff. This is clearly a problem you don't care about, so I will now NEVER be returning for any reason. Which is a shame.

20 minutes per person to place an order! And that was on a slow day

Easily the worst breakfast we've had. Menu items weren't as described, scrambled eggs tasteless.

Rude, unpleasant manager who bullies his young staff. Don’t be tempted by the attractive location. No stars.

Food, coffee, cakes are lovely, in an ideal setting.

If I could put zero I would, came in on Sunday for a causal breakfast with my partner.. (not even busy) drinks took 25 minutes, but had to keep asking and food an hour and 10 minutes, before we walked out. Absolutely shocking. Been here...

Had coffees and really delicious homemade blueberry buttercream sponge !!

This is a nice spot for lunch beside the River Ouse. It is well used by locals and visitors. Nice sandwiches.

Great place to enjoy a breakfast /lunch or scone with jam and cream . lovely selection of drinks too !Inside or outside seating and dogs welcome .Staff very friendly and service good .