The Phoenix Braintree in Mendip

I don't like leaving bad reviews, but unfortunately I have to this time. I like to support small businesses. Popped in for lunch on Friday. We waited over 45 minutes for 2 coffees. Then the food came 5 mins later. We always say we don't mind waiting a while for the food if we have some drinks to sup on... I hoped the food would be worth waiting for, but sadly not! I chose the brie, bacon and cranberry panini. Each half had just HALF a slice of bacon and the tiniest slither of brie I couldn't even taste it!! The bread was very dry and tasteless. The coffees were tiny, but very nice. It was our first visit and I had high hopes, but was thoroughly disappointed, sadly.

1st visit awhile ago when 1st opened and not impressed with young bad attitude youngsters only in the building. Today following good reviews we gave the place a 2nd chance. Awful. 1pm on a Saturday and they stopped doing food. Advertise food til 2pm. Went for the Scone with Jam and cream. Came out stale or overcooked, no cream as they had none of that either. What I thought was butter was a crap margarine. Again youngsters for staff who clearly could not care. Never again,which is a shame as I believe in backing local business.

Just got back from a good friend's 90th birthday , Afternoon tea. The whole experience was amazing. The staff were fantastic and very attentive to our needs . The food was delicious and generous . The atmosphere was relaxed , fun, and comfortable. Everyone enjoyed themselves . I would highly recommend the Phoenix. Thank you again for making this special birthday remembarable.

Lovely little cafe, my son had a milkshake with a bacon bagel and I had poached eggs. Lovely food! I did have a slight issue where the food was placed on the napkin and it stuck to it, no big deal atall but couldn't eat some parts due to it :)

Great food and coffee . A real gem in the town . Would defiantly return , I’d imagine it’s great of an evening , bottle of wine and cheese board . Can’t recommend enough .

I came here with family for unlimite breakfast we were served by a youngest lad for our drinks which he came across very polite. Which arrived in 5 minutes which the whole family were pls off. Then my dad went upto the till to put our breakfast/brunch through and the young lad serves him again. But the food took 50 minutes to arrive when it got to 30 minutes of waiting I asked how long will it be till the food because I needed too take my medication. We got told it will be 5/10 minutes but it took 20 minutes to get our food. But the food tastes,looked and the food was about Luke warm which I ate some of the toast and that's it. I only ate that because I needed to take this medication for my epilepsy which led to me having a absence seizure where my hand was literally shaking. Pls look at the picture of the food which again was horrible. I don't normally complain but this is bad I wish the young girl was in because her breakfasts are arrive. The only good thing was the service from the young lad which he apologized for everything. I will only come back if the young lady is cooking sorry The picture of the food shows the bacon was horrible the mushroom where black and over cooked and cold. Beans were cold pretty everything was cold.

Well, I didn’t actually go here but I wanted treat my amazing friends to a drink. I literally rung and spoke to Phil, one of the owners and he made it possible with no problems, so much kindness,Thankyou

I have just used The Phoenix Braintree for an outside catering event and it was perfect. Nothing was too much trouble and the sandwich platters and crudités platters were amazing! Everyone commented on how lovely they were. I would definitely recommend using them. 5* all the way.

Excellent night out last night. We were a group of friends with young babies and the Phoenix accommodated us so well. We had wonderful cocktails and bottles of wine and Prosecco, as well as delicious meat and cheese platters with fresh French bread. They also have a wonderful deli section with locally sourced wines and beers. We will be back! Thank you!

Visited today with my husband just fir a Coffee, ended up having the localy made Sausage Rolls Oh My Word so delicious we went for the "fire" and traditional they were both so tasty as we shared half and half! The Ginger pig in London specialises in Sausage rolls and your are way up their with them! Thank you for bringing the live to Braintree In the Cafe they make tge best Almo d Latte in Braintree as they offer a wide range of non dairy milks. The Cafe is very modern and conformable, order at tge Till then it will be bright too you, staff very friendly

I was really looking forward to going here for the first time. I had heard great things about the food. However, when myself and my friend arrived, we sat down, no one paid attention to us at all and then we went up to order some lunch. It was 1:35pm and the boy behind the till said they stop serving lunch at 2pm on a Sunday and because he had already cleaned the kitchen he wasn't going to be making us anything. Quite frankly I thought this was poor customer service on so many levels. Firstly, who finishes serving lunch at 2pm? Youre a small business and people are ready to hand over their cash but they cant because of odd timings. Secondly, IT WASNT EVEN 2PM! I appreciate it wasn't far off but if you finish lunch at 2pm, a customer should be able to order up until that time. Clearly they didn't want the service. The excuse given about how the kitchen had been cleaned was poor. We left and won't be going back. Disappointed.

Such a shame. Our first visit to this new eatery and I was looking forward to going, having already seen the menu. Ordered 2 coffees a full breakfast and avocado on toast..Coffee was nice although this did take 15 mins to arrive and the breakfast arrived after 50 mins!!! Stone cold , hard fried eggs ( not poached) Untoasted Toast and no sauces. The Avocado 🥑 on toast was equally poor.. I was so disappointed after the long wait and poor food I sent it back for a refund. They explained to me the cook had not turned up but if that's the case don't serve food. Unfortunately the staff were poorly trained as we sat and watched wrong drinks turn up to various tables , clearly a broken ordering process. In the hour we were there several people came in and just left or ordered and then left due to the delays..Such a shame as it has potential but whoever owns this place needs to step up and be front of house and not silent

I am local and like to support local businesses. I have to say though I was disappointed , the breakfast was good value but not particularly tasty in my opinion. The whole place also felt not particularly welcoming, maybe it was the grey morning but the staff seemed rather glum and uninterested. They were unfailingly polite though. With stiff competition locally I likely wont be returning, I’m afraid. I’d recommend going to the Little Book cafe in Halstead instead.

What a breath of fresh air lovely food and the friendly staff we will definitely be regularly revisiting to try all there local quality food and super hospitality

Went here today for a drink and a cake and most importantly because I wanted to support a new local business. Wasn’t a great first impression unfortunately. The drink we wanted we couldn’t have because there were no strawberries so chose something else which was very nice. Ordered scones which the menu says comes with cream and jam for £3.50 however after ordering we were asked if we wanted jam… er…yes…. Then when it came there was no cream. I asked where it was to be told they didn’t know where it was. I had to ask if I could have butter on it instead. £3.50 is an awful lot for what looked like a shop bought scone and no cream. I’m not one to make a fuss but you might want to look into this. If we had been told there would be no cream when we ordered it, we would have had something else. All this being said I hope you do really well. Braintree needs places like this.

I was very excited to try this place. The decor is beautiful and the menu has lots to offer. I came for breakfast. I ordered a regular cappuccino and it was tiny. This cost £3. I also had the small breakfast with was a sausage,...

Went in for breakfast told to late . Been to lots of dinner’s in Braintree.only to helpful. the person on till said to late buy 10 minutes.so went to men has café got everything.told I couldn’t get wake up or your going to fail BiG...

When you walk in you are welcomed straight away by the staff. Which I was welcomed by a young lady called Elle who seems to really love her job and goes out her way to help customers. The food arrived within 30 minutes of ordering...