Synge & Byrne in Newtownabbey

Good coffee although cups a bit small. Food good.

Lovely place for lunch. Friendly staff, clean eating areas and lovely food

Never disappointed with the food or service, a must try.

Sitting in synge and burn and feel ripped off smaller cups and a half cup for £6 70 for two abbeycentre NOT BE BACK

Just been for breakfast, lovely food, great selection, staff lovely especially the guy on the till

Lovely place for bite to eat. Great service.

Ordered a cup of tea from the shop in abbey centre the tea was horrible and was basically just hot water in a cup with milk. It was extremely warm and customer service was disgusting. When I asked for a new drink they refused even though I showed them the condition of the supposed cup of tea. I will never be ordering from the establishment again .

I had a very upsetting experience, I took my 3 grandchildren to synge and byrne for a sweet treat, my granddaughter ordered me my tea and it was all milk no water i thought it was some kind of disgusting prank. I WILL NOT BE COMING BACK

Good food and service, nice breakfast menu

It gets a bit congested and noisy

Limited space, self ordering, & Payment before food was brought to the table. Good was tasty, and good drink selection

The staff are so knowledgeable about gluten free food and so friendly

We used to eat here weekly – it was simple, tasty food. The girlfriend prefers pastry concoctions, whereas I often had the chicken and bacon ciabatta or similar. Unfortunately, as with SO many places over the past few years, quality has plummeted, so it would be months between visits now. One of their best points was always the salads on offer as accompaniments – you get to choose three, and they were really quite imaginative (using ingredients like mange tout peas, various nuts, green beans, red cabbage, chillies, etc). Sadly, they’re now much less so – cold potato concoctions, pasta, coleslaw, sometimes salad leaves etc depending on the day. But the biggest disappointments are the main part of the meals. For example, they serve these truly shameful little “pies” – bits of puff pastry with virtually no filling other than a smear of gravy or whatever inside. The chicken and bacon ciabatta used to be a good example of the kind of simple unpretentious food they served – nice quality ciabatta, lightly toasted in the oven, with a decent amount of chicken, bacon and relish inside. I’ve attached a picture of the sad creation it’s become now – very little chicken, a strip of soggy, fatty bacon – and whatever you want to call the bread rolls they use now (slightly odd, almost cakey texture), ciabattas they are not. I've included a picture of half the ciabatta I was served last week - you can see that it contains very little chicken indeed, plus a bit of pretty unappetising bacon. I do have to mention the staff, as a previous reviewer found them rude – we’ve always found them lovely.

Terrible service paid 4.60 for a frappe sit in got it in a tiny plastic cup not even a proper frappe had better in McDonald’s

Was served by Coalan and had fantastic service. All staff are so lovely and helpful

Fast, tasty and efficient cafe. They have excellent coffee and tea and a delicious range of pies, salads and toasted sandwiches and wraps.

Could be cleaner as the soft seats were grubby with crumbs and one part had the leatherette ripped. Otherwise, a new employee was serving and he could not have been more warm and chatty. He was so nice. Wishing him well in his new job as he only started two weeks ago. Apart from that, the tea was lovely and brewed before it arrived - not everywhere does that.

One of the staff was especially rude. I had ordered a meal for myself and my 4 year old. I was having a chat with my 4 year old, and the girl rudely interrupted to say, ‘she doesn’t get pasta with that’, despite the fact it was my meal, and I planned to give her some of mine - and it was a personal conversation. Then when I was checking on my daughter in her seat, the girl rudely said ‘wait here for the coffee’. We won’t be returning until there is a change in the staff attitude.

Always good to call here. Staff friendly.Good choice of food. Coffee first class.

My partner and I were shocked to see a female colleague come round the front of the counter and open the glass display cabinet which housed all the plates of savoury food . She then started to move plates aside, one by one ,and using a bottle of some sort of surface cleaning spray and a grubby looking cloth wiped away crumbs etc from between each plate. At one stage she lifted a couple of wraps using her bare hand that had been holding the dirty cloth and moved them to another plate. Each time she sprayed some of it would have been landing on the food. At one stage she couldn’t reach a then climbed onto her knees inside the cabinet to reach and her lower body was touching some of the food products . Her hair was not tied back and was walloping about. There were a couple of guys at a table beside us and they couldn’t believe their eyes ! Plus on the other side a table of three adults who were suitably shocked also at her behaviour. Plus another young couple too. My partner went up to her and said about her actions being very unhygienic and she just muttered something about maybe throwing some stuff out. Then a man appeared and when asked by my partner, he said he was the manager/owner. He seemed unfazed by it all and offered no apology or opinion . I’m glad we only had a drink and a traybake as, if this is the type of hygiene displayed in front of paying customers goodness knows what goes on behind the scenes. I realise that places like the display to look inviting but this task is something that should be an end of day procedure and if it needs done halfway through the day then all food should be removed to the kitchen while cabinet gets properly cleaned. Will never be back.

Definitely don't recommend going to this restaurant

As a microbiology graduate and having worked in the area of infection control advisory in the NHS throughout the UK I was appalled to witness the poor standard of cleaning around food in this establishment. Girl climbing into covered food display area to clean with a cloth which she was witnessed to have used on multiple surfaces and without wearing gloves. Then witnessed by quite a few customers, handling food within the display after handling soiled cloth. Then spraying disinfectant onto cloth within the display cabinet and excess spray going onto food. She was wearing no gloves nor head gear. All food should have been removed from said cabinet before any cleaning was instigated. I spoke to the manager who tried to tell me it was more hygienic not to wear gloves! In all my years in infection control I have never heard such nonsense. Disposable single use polythene gloves should be used in this situation not only to protect the food etc. but to protect the staff who should not be exposed to disinfectant on their hands or indeed in enclosed area like this display cabinet to their respiratory system. Very poor staff training here. If this is what happens in front of customers within the premises I can only imagine what goes on out of sight!

Just called in for quick restorative cuppa. Lovely server, friendly and helpful. Shared an apple and cinnamon square, heated and served with cream - delicious!

Quite taken aback to be told it is 50p to get an extra tea bag,.Not the staffs fault, never charged for this in any other establishment. Business must be bad.Staff and food great.

Synge & Byrne at Abbey Centre and Junction 1 Antrim are my go to as you are always greeted with a smile , courteous and attentive service. Gary in Abbeycentre branch is an asset to your company . Keep up the good work. Michael

Great wee place to stop and have a break from shopping.

Lovely sausage rolls and coffee is amazing

Requested Gluten Free. Option was either sandwich or toast. Went for sandwich. Very obvious that the bread had been frozen and defrosted potentially multiple times due to the bread becoming a crumbling mess with a freezing cold center. For price charged for a very plain sandwich I would have expected fresh tasty bread. With more and more companies producing gluten free breads there should be no excuse for poor quality.

Only a 2 on the food as it was still Stine cold when it arrived..fair play to the other girl she sorted it however the girl that served us looked like she was not having a good day

We don’t go anywhere else for our lunch in Abbeycentre!! 😊

Placed my order which was brought to my table quickly. Lovely friendly staff and quick. They could teach Kildare shopping village all about customer care. Pot of tea and traybake did the job. Thank you.

Always good choice of food and served with friendliness and professionalism.

This is by far the best place in Newtownabbey to grab a lite bite and a coffee. Fantastic spot

Great coffee and tray bakes That’s what I get when I Come here and they never fail to please me. Great staff and Matthew served me today and was a young gentleman who served customers very quickly in a very busy cafe .

An awful brunch, £37 for waffles and sauce (told they were ok) breakfast with soda that want toasted, bacon full of fat, vegetarian brunch with no vegetarian sausages as it said when asked where they were? I was told that they ran out and a bit of avacado you couldn't get your knife into. I mentioned this to the girl and she apologised, total waste of money. I had to give 1 star as it wouldn't let me submit it.

Synge & Byrne Abbeycentre Belfast welcoming excellent customer service clean, great tray bakes & beautiful deep roasted tasty coffee with an artistically crafted design by Mathew so worth a time out for a cuppa

The toasted marshmallow latte👌🏽👌🏽

Great service and happy works which makes the experience much much better

Not too many options in North Belfast on a Sunday afternoon but this did nicely. Tasty food. Thank you.

It might take a little time but their Apple Tart is worth waiting for. I use it quite often and find the staff very helpful. I would recommend it . It is a small area that gets a lot of customers.

Disappointing experience today at Synge & Byrne. Staff seemed to be working hard however 1 queued for over 20 mins for 2 lattes & 1 traybake. Watching other tables here waiting for food ordered 25 mins ago. Would not recommend

Perfect wee lunch spot. Staff are very friendly. Best place for coffee at the Abbey centre

Lovely strong pot of tea for two with pleasant, helpful staff.

Ok, needs to be cleaner and more variety of salads.

Went on Monday thinking it would be a nice healthy treat.. boy was I wrong, asked for sandwiches to which the woman finished what she was doing then turned her back on us.. she was in and out of the microwave and it took us a bit to realise what she was doing.. the woman on the counter was defrosting our bread in the microwave in-front of us, and to make it worse she didn’t even put it on a plate it was just threw into the microwave, stopping to touch it and to flip it and put it back in… we didn’t even wait to see how the bread would have turned out.. horrified to see that. I understand most places freeze bread but to have it microwaved and poked to see if it was defrosted is not appealing in anyway.

Very good service. We only ordered coffee and 1 meal and nothing was too much trouble for the staff.

Such a friendly place and the staff are lovely and couldn’t do enough for you! My caramel oat latte was lovely and the gentleman at the till was so friendly and polite. I was able to get gluten free bread which was really quite nice with my scrambled eggs and bacon. I would definitely come back again.

Was there two days ago my husband got the so called big fry which was terrible the soda was hard as was the bacon which he choked on a tomatoe andmushroom not cooked tons of spinach who puts spinach on a fry coffee wasn't much better won't be back!!

Ordered veggie breakfast and it was a plate of spinach, 1 mushroom, 2 veg sausages, half a tomato which were literally stuck in the express oven for 2 minutes. No taste no oil just half raw food with poached eggs and toast. Had pancakes and they were stodgy and not fluffy at all. Hot chocolate was also mediocre. 2 stars for the eye pleasing tableware. Staff were ok could be friendlier. Will we go again... nope...

Great food selection always good coffee. Can be busy at lunch times but then thats a good sign.

Great service and nice food. Good place to stop and eat something

Having eaten here several times I was disappointed by my last two visits. Bland salads, limited taste/dressings, ciabatta contents miniscule to say the least - if it wasn't for the umpteen satchets of salt and pepper added I may as well have been eating cardboard. Disappointed. One good thing was the cappuccino - no issues there. Please go back to original recipes.

Fantastic gluten free toasties. Hard to find sandwich shops with this sort of gluten free selection. 10/10

For the prices charged the experience was disappointing, over a fiver for a takeaway tea & a milky coffee that doesn't cost a lot to make presented in a flimsy cups which leaked from the bottom and from the thin plastic lid staining a t-shirt & burning fingers. The set-up was nice, clean shop front and cute vintage furniture led us to believe we'd made a good choice out of all the places to grab a drink. Not the case.

I had tea and scone yesterday in food Hall at abbey centre.worst scone I have ever had,couldn't eat it. It was pale in colour and very heavy and strange taste,absolutely terrible

My husband and I were in here today, Sunday 12/12/21 and we both ordered an all day breakfast with tea. £15.90 total All I can say is well done! 2 perfectly cooked poached eggs, 2 pieces of bacon, 4 baby tomatoes, sausage, mushrooms, proper thick toast and a pot of tea between us, I had 3 cups, hubby had 1. Excellent breakfast. Would definitely go again and I would definitely recommend.

Went in near closing time and the guys were nice enough to make me a Vanilla Latte. Absolutely stunning, was exactly what you need after a long day out in the cold!

So, so disappointed! Got tuna and onion sandwich but couldn’t eat it…onions must have been cut with a plastic knife! They were large! Totally ruined the sandwich, I love onions but dear lord! O’Briens…where are you? Please come back!

Terrible food husband had soup and sandwich soup horrible too salty bread was stale in sandwich was ham salad no egg available was cress instead of lettuce no salad cream it’s was horrible I got quesadilla it was like a piece of cardboard hardly any filling I ended up dipping it in my husbands salty soup so I could eat it not really staffs fault the girls were pleasant that’s what the one star is for will never be back it used to be O’Briens which was far superior

I ordered a sough dough bread sandwich from the new delicatessen. I was so hungry and looking forward to eating it. The bread was so stale and dry. It crumbled into a million pieces before I could take a bite! I've enjoyed good meals before from Synge and Byrne at other branches but was so disappointed at this experience. Will not be going back!!

My partner and I visit Newtownabbey Synge & Bryne regularly. Coffee is always nice, decent variety of tasty salads and sandwiches seldom disappoint. Yesterday I encountered staff filling the counter without the use of gloves whilst handling cash. Additionally, the girl was checking her mobile phone whilst handling food. As my stomach was turning, I had enough as these people were obviously lacking health & safety concerns before I too ordered my food. Sadly, I shall never be back :(

Just witnessed tonight's staff handle money and food repeatedly without using gloves. Felt physically ill and left the remainder of my food behind.

I love this cafe. Eaten here several times and the food is always delicious although a bit pricey it is worth it. Friendly and helpful staff.

Friendly, helpful staff reasonable prices and good quality food and drink give these guys a try. You will not regret it. And they do appreciate your business.

Got a latte and sausage roll and whilst it was a tad on the expensive side for the sausage roll it was well worth it, thoroughly enjoyed it, it tastes home made was the perfect temp and the place was clean warm and staff pleasant. Will be back !

Always nice for wee cuppa and light snack in abbey centre

Terrific, service and product excede expectations. A favourite.

Nice cafe nice staff. Good food.

Nice little coffee shop with a good variety of sandwiches, scones, salads etc. Good service and pleasant staff

Best Cappuccino ive had for a long time.

Very good selection of food types.. well priced too..

First time there quick and friendly staff food good and reasonable price

It's not your standard coffee shop, although coffee is good. Their blend is slightly on the darker roast side, so a little more bitter , but very nice. Food is extremely good .

I think it's fine My only choice is a scone although it's busy so others like the rest

Love a wee treat Friday dinner here.

Not the place it used to be, all the regular staff gone and is reflected especially in the coffee gone from excellent to terrible, sad as we loved going there.

Generally I love this place and love to support local companies instead of chains. By far the best scones and buns in abbey centre. Good food choices and lovely salads....although come on guys start thinking of a decent vegan option. My concern related to staff hygiene- on several occasions now I’ve watched the staff with their gloved hands handle meat then not change gloves. One staff got down on hands and knees on floor to search in a cabinet and with same gloved hands that had been on floor then get up and handle food. Same gloved hands were placed flat in top of plates for some reason. I’ve seen this so many times in so many places with basic food hygiene being ignored. It’s enough to put me off buying food and it’s a shame as this is usually one of the better places

Good ambiance, but the young man serving was rude. Maybe I caught him on a bad day.

Great coffee at a good price but tray bakes and sausage roll are way too expensive. They should knock a pound off everything. The food is nice though in general.

Good value, coffee is really nice. Has a nice atmosphere. :)

So lovely had coffee and few bits with my mum.

1food was 1st class service excelent friendly atmosphere

Great atmosphere great food great coffee

Good place for a proper cup of tea.

It's the only coffee shop I go to in the Abbey Centre , it excellent coffee with good food and great staff.

Staff friendly food excellent clean

Had the chicken, potato and sweetcorn soup , it basically water with some lumps of chicken and potato in it . Would not go back or recommend it.

The 2 girls serving were very attentive and fun to deal with.

Speedy service and lovely fresh food

Unreal spot, great sanwhiches , salads, great coffee and service.

Lovely breakfast friendly staff

Not great food unfortunately, had scrambled eggs and toast. Eggs were done in the microwave and were rubbery and there was not enough butter for the toast. Remember it being better than that!!!

Best place to eat in Abbeycentre

Great variety of meals n teas n coffee n great atmosphere

Brilliant coffee and food. I'm always happy to order whatever is on their board as it's always so good! The salads are always beautifully fresh and delicious (I'm really not much of a salad person so need all the encouragement I can get!). The decor is tasteful and subtle... Seats are comfy and the tables big enough for your food (unlike some big chain coffee shop whose tables are barely big enough for your mugs!) Pricing is excellent value for money and quality and sometimes they have deals on e.g. Food/meal +drink =free slice of cake 😋 but staff always advise you what's on

Can't have a coffee just said no skimmed milk just full fat won't be back

No vegetarian options. Terrible doorstop for sandwiches and staff have their ponytail hanging over the food. Not good.

Love this wee place. Where you want a meal or just a really good coffee this is great. Very friendly and helpful staff.

Good food, Comfortable surroundings, friendly staff, reasonable prices. The perfect place to refuel before heading back into the shops. Win win!!

Very good for a quick snack or lunch. Good choice and very friendly staff. Worth a visit.