the bakehouse in Dacorum

Over priced £4.50 for a croissant asked for a glass for mint tea said they only have cups. The cups were coffee cups . No care for the customer considering very overpriced cafe

Lovely setting, slooooow service. Told there was a 20 minute wait for a cappuccino 🤔. 3 people behind the counter but not much action!

Just left, as the apple and caramel cake I orded was dryer than sand and certainly no apple. The butter icing was solid and needed a hammer and chisel. Tasted like it had been sat there for several days. Staff at the till were rude. Try smiling instead of just staring rudly. Never again !!!!

Great sausage rolls, will go back for more next time.

One of the best places visually you will ever see. Unfortunately, the food has gone rapidly down hill. Maybe a new chef? Fried eggs barely cooked, still covered in ‘jelly’ Sausages cheap as they come, yet the prices are sky high. Hopefully they can sort things out soon, because it will be such a waste of an amazing venue.

Nice little cafe here. Service was quick and the food was good. Lots of tables too inside and out. The food selection was decent, they could do with more vegan options however. There is a section where you can bring dogs, and also a section where dogs aren’t allowed. Overall it was a good experience.

Friendly staff and tasty coffee. What more do you need?

Lovely little cafe in the school. A beautiful courtyard to enjoy a slice of cake or a cookie with a cup of chai latte when the weather is nice.

Absolutely awful food. We had the full English breakfast and there was not a grain of salt on the food. The sausage and hash brown looked and tasted like they came straight from a supermarket box. The beans were poured straight from a can. No flavour what so ever. And for £12.50 that is unacceptable. Never mind the food, the service was lacking any warmth and staff walk straight passed you as you enter the cafe. So sad because a place like this has so much potential. I definitely will not be returning

Great food and atmosphere. We come here often.

The service was really good! 4 coffees and 2 hot chocolates in a few minutes, meals 5 minutes later. Very accommodating with dietary wishes etc. fully recommend. Thanks

My wife and I used to come here every second weekend, and loved the food and atmosphere. It appears management or the chef has changed in the last year and a bit as the quality of the food and pastries have really gone down the drain (please, bring back the old prawn and salmon open sandwich - the new mayo drenched thing is just disgusting). This place has so much potential, and whilst I appreciate you need to raise prices, it shouldn't come as a double whammy by also dropping food standards...

Lovely place, but apart from a flapjack, nothing fully vegan on the menu. Extremely poor.

Food is OK, prices are sky high, for a few cakes, and a few teas and a Sausage roll, sausage was was oozing fat, which was off putting. All this was £26, after a long walk we needed refreshments, would we go back? probably not.

Very busy for a brunch visit this morning despite being busy service was prompt and food was delivered quickly

Caled in today not busy asked for extra hot coffee i got a warm coffee i do not know why it is so difficult to get what you want

Very busy. The designer who set this business out needs to be made to work in the shop. The staff are hampered in every way The main queue cuts across the coffee station for orders , the small prep areas seem unworkable for the staff as do all prep areas.The work flow is needs re designing. The food offer and coffee were good

Nice place . Food and drink pricey as you expect in these places. Wasps! Were a nuisance when eating at outside tables.

A ‘pot of tea for one’ comes in a paper cup, no spoon! Don’t touch the ‘protein doughnuts’, they are rank. No fork to eat the lemon cake. And, having paid £12.30 for two drinks and said cake, we were asked “to make sure to bring our plates back”!! What a dismal experience :(

Very limited choice of rather unappealing cakes. No spoons. Poor environment for a cafe. It needs a lot of work to bring up to a reasonable standard. Very pleasant staff

The food and environment are great but the queues, even at non-peak times, are inexcusable and entirely due to poor processes. Poorly trained staff don't know how to operate the till. The person taking orders should never be serving up counter food. There's a complete disregard for keeping customers queueing for over 20 minutes. Management need to realise how much this is costing in lost sales. Such a shame.

The place looks lively, however on two separate occasions I ordered pastries and they were rock hard and not edible. I had to give them back. For me is a no for this reason

Set in a pretty courtyard within the beautiful Ashridge House the Bakehouse could be fabulous. Unfortunately, it misses the mark on several counts and it appears management pay more attention to the planting (which is lovely) than to the cafe or its customers. 45+ minutes wait for 3 coffees followed by nearly an hour for a warmed sausage roll, which arrived after prompting with only a vague apology, seemed totally unacceptable - it wasn't even busy. Food is tasty and looks attractive but the menu is limited, portions are small and prices high. With such a lovely setting, the Bakehouse has everything going for it but it is in need of far better management and is currently let down by seriously inefficient staffing and a menu which doesn't quite work.

Went for a trail walk a around Ashridge which was beautiful. At the information centre, the employee there recommended this cafe. we would walk past it anyways so thought why not give it a go. It was a Sunday afternoon so it was fairly busy. We ordered an Eggs Benedict (£11), a Scotch egg (£5), a lemon drizzle cake (£4) and a cappuccino (£3) - so all in all it was not cheap. Ordering was smooth. The cake for some reason, they put it on a warm / might as well be hot plate - therefore the icing proceeded to become watery, which is not appetising. The scotch egg was ok, nothing special, meat was a bit bland and not worth the money for sure. We waited for around 15 minutes for the eggs Benedict ( the staff member took 5 minutes more to find us, even though our table number was in clear view). It did not taste like how one should, for one who uses a thick piece of gammon as "ham"? The sauce was bland, like it had come out of a jar. The icing on the cake had to be the hair i found within the sauce! Did not taste good, this gave me the runs and a sore belly. The cappuccino however wasn't too bad! I do not recommend this cafe at all. Overpriced, had it been decent food i wouldn't even mind paying that much! Ruined the part of trekking through Ashridge.

Queued up for an hour for some very overpriced, undercooked food. The service was non-existent, overall awful experience and will not be returning.

The cakes/pastries and drinks we got were good however improvement is needed with wait times and cleaning. There was a huge queue today at the open garden day and obviously they would have anticipated more visitors than usual. However basically all of the tables outside were not cleaned up and most people were sitting amongst the previous persons mess whilst eating their own food/drink. The queue was extremely long and took nearly half an hour to get to the front and order and then we had to wait additional time for the other half of our order to come out. As the queue was so long also, we had planned to get proper food but the second we got to the front it turned 3:30 EXACTLY and they told us they had just that moment stopped serving food so a bit of a waste of queueing. The place is beautiful to sit at and has potential but considering the prices here, an improvement is needed with the cleaning and wait times. Maybe it is not always like this but on a busy day like today it feels there should have been more preparation beforehand to make sure they could cope.

Absolutely awful experience here today. Stopped off for some tea after long walk. Waited over 30 mins to be served. Only 2 servers taking orders, sorting cakes, making drinks and serving tables! Multiple staff members clocked off as we arrived about 3.50pm. Obvious there needed to be more serving staff. Suggest you invest in some training and increase staffing during busy times. No sign of a manager front of house, clearly struggling. Finally asked for a refund as now 45 mins waiting with 6/7 orders in front and only 1 person making and delivering drinks. Server suggested I leave my contact details as clearly didn't know how to do a refund. Finally 2 additional members of staff appeared and sorted refund efficiently. Such a shame could be a lovely spot but you need to sort out staffing and have a supervisor present to direct staff some seemed oblivious to customers waiting or weren't trained! Also a smile from staff members would be nice!

Great breakfast 😋 👌 Always get a decent sausage too

We ordered, and were directed to a table. We were told that someone would be along to clear the dirty crockery Our tea was bought up, and she struggled to fit it on the dirty table, between dirty crockery. She left with an empty tray, but did not take the dirty crockery. Another table was vacated, and cleared, so we moved there.Another group sat at our vacated, dirty table. Again, their drinks were bought up, and squeezed between dirty crockery. They asked for it to be cleared, but nothing happened. When we left, we put their dirty crockery on our table. I am sure this is not managed by someone who has catering and hygiene qualifications. The food was not good, as my eggs Benedict had salt added. It was also expensive for what we had. We will not return or recommend this place

Have a walk then go Have a coffee recommended

Went for a local walk and wanted a coffee. Found The Bakehouse on Google Maps. Set within the historic Ashridge House complex . Lovely setting with good car parking and clean toilets. There are dog friendly and dog free parts to eat in. Had a lovely hot coffee and a very tasty large sausage roll but there are more substantial meals if you want. Liked it so much my wife and I went back again the following day after another lovely walk.

Second time to post ! First one must have got lost in the cloud . Funny how a photograph I posted managed to get on here . Cake was nice but the coffee and hot chocolate we ordered was very slow in arriving. We had eaten cake but to be fair the cafe was getting busy .

I have to review this as 1 star as the cost of a small bottle of wine at £16 is absolutely extortionate. I hadn’t realised that somewhere could charge ridiculous prices. Thought it would be a nice treat but I will think again before going there next time.

Very good selection of food. Very popular with dog owners - thankfully a large 'dog free' area for the rest of us.

We loved having a coffee and a cake after visiting the gardens. Francesco was very polite and made sure we were happy, including our dog! I’ll certainly be back

Welcome stop for lunch during a cycle ride around Ashridge forest. There was a long queue in front of us waiting to collect their takeaway orders but that was quickly dealt with and we did not wait long to place our order at the counter, with our food being served at our table 10 minutes later. We both chose Spicy Moroccan Stew with couscous and flatbread which was delicious. Would recommend for an informal lunch in a unique setting.

Nice place.... courtyard lovely.... bit expensive to eat

Lovely place to visit. Breakfast was good quality, coffee excellent. Breakfast was a little underwhelming in portion and on a cold plate

great food, however heard a girl got told off for her piercings which is disgusting i won’t be coming back after this discrimination.

From the Google maps directions, it isn't obvious that this is part of Ashridge House until you get there, but it's perfectly accessible without going into the house, parking is free, it's a little difficult to find, as it's tucked away in the right hand corner of a courtyard. But cheese scones are delicious, as we're the cakes. I wasn't sure about the taste of the coffee, but I'm still getting over a cold so just as likely to be my problem. Hot chocolate was apparemtly good. Service friendly. Not overly expensive, £25 for 3 drinks 2 enormous warm scones, and 2 cakes. Will visit again.

Great new find at Ashridge House. Food great, with some awesome looking pastries. Definitely a worthy successor to Brownlow Cafe now that NT have taken over and scaled that offering back. Dog friendly too inside the cafe!

Fabulous food and fast and efficient service. Dog friendly, walking boots and wet cags not a problem . Always outstanding!

We have stopped off twice now in recent months post a Friday run. Great service, coffee is very good, the almond croissants are delicious. Love the conversion of the building, lots of space. It’s very soggy friendly. Walkers, runners, bike riders. All welcome.

First visit sonce they relocated and will be back!

We go at least once a week for a walk with my dog in Ashridge and then have coffee/lunch at The Bakehouse. It is so nice to have such a fabulous place to go with the dog and know that I can take her inside when the weather is bad.

Just visited the Bakehouse for the first time and was looking forward to it. The menu and cakes look great however the staff were very unfriendly. I found a menu and asked one lady if it was table service or counter to which she said counter. When I then went to order 5 mins later the lady then told me they’ve stopped serving hot food at 3.32pm. Another waitress watched me clear a table to sit down at. Throughly unimpressed and won’t be recommending.

Encouraged by the reviews. But it surpassed expectations. We're fussy about our coffee which was superb as was the food. Added to this the welcoming and efficient service and wonderful setting made the visit special.

Visited 3 times now and although lovely, they have a serious wasp problem which they clearly aren’t getting under control. This will start to put people off visiting - the courtyard is wasted because of this, and even when moving inside the wasps remain a problem. Such a shame for such a beautiful place with great food & coffee

Lovely food and it would have been great to sit outside but they have a very serious wasp problem which made it impossible to enjoy the beautiful courtyard

Definitely my favourite place for pancakes now.

Pretty location in Ashridge House but loads of wasps so watch out. Great place to stop mid walk.

Have visited several times now and all excellent, great coffee, superb service, lovely food, had a burger today and it was scrumptious, great find. Always pick up a loaf of sourdough to take home, the best I have found so far. Obviously looking forward to our next visit. Many thanks to all the staff.

Lovely day, lovely coffee and cakes !! ❤️ And friendly staffs🫰😇

Fresh Bread, Tea, Sandwiches, Good

Fantastic cakes and lovely cafe

Lovely tea, food and service from Sarah and Zorainnar (apologies for incorrect spelling)

As good as an English breakfast gets! Great ingredients also the bread and pastries are top class!

great coffee and breakfast to kick start my day!

Amazing food, with fantastic pastries and breads. But the pancakes are simply amazing!! Lovely location. Super-fried ltd staff and great coffee too. Highly recommended (and a MASSIVE improvement to the previous coffee shop).