The Watering Place in Babergh

Very ironic, The Watering Place, clue’s in the name, but it isn’t. We were told there was a 20 min wait, fine, went to a table but asked for a glass of water. It didn’t arrive. I went to the counter and asked for a glass of water, and picked up a menu, no water arrived. Young man arrived, awhile later and took our order. I asked for a jug of water, he wrote it down twice on his notebook. No water arrived. I asked a passing waitress ‘could I have a glass of water?’. No water arrived. We left and had a wonderful lunch, with water, (!) at The White Horse, in a short time. How sad, it’s a wonderful place, gorgeous garden. The staff need training or replacing, Unforch. Never had an experience like this.

Nice place but service truly appalling. If you don’t want to increase your blood pressure then avoid. There were 3 people serving. None of them had the first idea how to serve customers. They all looked completely lost - as though each was there against their will. I have no idea whether the food was good or not. It looked over priced for what I could see my fellow long suffering customers received. We got so fed up with their excuses as we pressed for food, we walked out. None of them appeared bothered. I suspect they were relieved. One less annoying customer to deal with.

Was a tad sceptical about coming seeing recent reviews. But wow! They must of been one in a million! Service, outstanding. Advised to take a seat and someone will look after our order. A lovely young lady came and spoke to us about their special of the day. Fishcake with Caviar! After a pleasant wait admiring the surroundings our drinks arrived shortly followed by our selection of food. Beautifully presented and tasted perfect. Can't wait to return and hope they manage to let everyone leave as happy as us.

This spot was good for a casual night out, the food was excellent as was the service. I would definitely go again and take my family.

When we arrived we were told that we had to look at the menu first and sit at a table, we couldn't order at the desk, even though we said we only wanted a coffee and a coke. After a few minutes the waiter came & took our order and explained that it gets too stressful if everyone orders at the desk! I asked for hot milk with my americano, it arrived with cold milk and only half a cup of coffee. I then asked for a dash of hot milk, which he then went away and came back with. My wife had a can of coke at £3.50 seems a little expensive. When i went to the till to pay i noticed that 20p had been added to my bill which was for the dash of hot milk! When i questioned it, he said it was time consuming to make the milk and the cost of the labour to make it. I have never ever been charged for milk on the side of my coffee! The staff were unfriendly and wern't particularly busy. I wont be returning.

It was a lovely sunny day and the cafe was, unsurprisingly, busy as it is a lovely garden location which in itself cannot be faulted. But unfortunately the service is terrible. I only ordered a cup of tea and a scone, which by any standards would take at the most 5 minutes to prepare and 5 minutes to serve, but to no avail. In the end I had to leave to get back to my car to avoid a ticket. Very disappointed. I will look for somewhere else to go the next time I am in Sudbury, which is a great shame.

I see from the other reviews that we were not the only victims! To make sure we could get a waiter's attention, we chose a table next to the kitchen. Didn't matter at all. We had to wait and wait and wait some more for SALADS. This at a time when the place was barely half full. I made a simple request for which the waiter had only to walk a few steps to the kitchen but instead just disappeared and there was more waiting and waiting and waiting. The crab was very nice, but the "salad" with it was a distinct rip-off. The menu said fennel and pomegranate and orange salad, which sounded heaven. What we got was a clump of leaves, atop which were about four pomegranate seeds with a like number of orange bits the size of my pinky nail and fennel scrapings the size of fingernail clippings. If you're fine paying £18 for this, plus a few chips, then you will be very happy. The garden (you can sit in it or inside) is absolutely gorgeous. But perhaps best just to come and look at it.

Lovely little place with good coffee. Unfortunately The service is terrible. I asked twice to be served then again twice to ask where our cakes were after receiving our coffee. It seems that the staff were mostly school girls/students who hadn’t received any training or customer service skills. Such a shame as it’s a lovely little place.

On arrival we approached the counter where we stood and waited for three minutes before. Eventually the person making coffee (who had clearly noticed us) decided we should be graced with his presence. We were very rudely told that it was table service and that someone would be with us. Being a lovely sunny day, we decided to sit outside. We sat. And we sat. And we sat. No one bothered to serve us, despite one of the waitresses watching us sit down whilst she was fulfilling another order. We waited 10 minutes in the blistering sunshine without so much as a glass of water before we gave up. There were three other tables, all of whom had received service. On the way out I approached the counter again where the aforementioned waitress seemed to be having a lovely conversation with a colleague. Sadly this was at the expense of, you know, doing her job. I made my feelings known and left. This seems to be a new trend, particularly with those of a certain age. If there is service at all, it is surly and rude. It feels like we should be privileged to be gracing their establishment and that they will dictate what the service will be and when it will be made. Snobbery of the highest order. The management could do a lot to improve the attitude of their staff but, sadly, I doubt that they will. After paying £15 each for the Gainsborough House - this sum tells you all you need to know about the venue in general and the gate keeping of its exhibits - it leaves a bitter taste to be treated with such disrespect.

The Watering Place is good to spend some time in while visiting Gainsborough's House. Good coffee and snacks are available as well as light lunches. There are tables in with a good view of the gorgeous garden and a few outside for the proper English Country Garden effect.

Pot of tea for two extremely weak, discovered only a small amount of tea leaves in the pot, when I went back to say the tea was extremely weak and I mean just a tad coloured, I was shown the empty tea leaf canister and told they’d run out of leaves but he’d look in the store room to check … more was found and another pot was delivered to our table. A pot of tea for two only contains enough for two cups and it’s then empty, so no topping up your cup.

Lovely food ,wonderful surroundings , amazing gardens the only thing that lets this place down is firstly dirty tables they were not too busy , no welcome or please or Thank you , not clear if it is table service (it was not ) glasses and cutlery dirty when fetched to the table it really needs improvement sorry to say although we would visit the gallery we would not return to the cafe .

A very bright and lovely café with a beautiful garden. Staff are exceptionally friendly and welcoming and my carrot cake was out of this world. I can't wait for my next visit to Sudbury. Will definitely be back!

This is the cafe at Gainsborough's House museum. There are two rooms and it overlooks the garden. There is a good selection on the menu including vegetarian options. Lovely jacket potatoes with dressed salad.

Was looking for a place in town to take my Nan for nice lunch & thought we’d try here as new & looked very nice for the town. It’s a beautiful place and very modern, light and can look out into the garden. However, we waited half an hour for our food. We both had a tuna sandwich & I literally couldn’t finish it. There was so much mayo thats all could taste it made me feel sick & the filling wasn’t even mixed in properly. We also were charged wrong price for the sandwich compared to what the menu said. The staff too weren’t very welcoming & happy. Shame as was a lovely place.

Lovely relaxing place, which smells divine as you walk in. The food looks wonderful, and the staff were very welcoming.

Very clean and new - lovely outlook onto the garden of Gainsboroughs House despite the rain. Food was rather pricey for what you had. Smoked salmon cut into squares, avocado rather hard and it looked very 'flat' - there was no bread. Had to pay for that separately. Husband had the smoked chicken salad - again no bread or carbs. Next time think the visit will just be for coffee and cake.

Enjoyed an oat flat white at this new café in Sudbury, lovely spot, friendly staff and looking forward to going again.

Lovely cafe which can be accessed without going to Gainsborough’s House. Very clean snd good, quality food. A cheese scone was priced at almost £5 and a local cafe this week had one equally as good, priced at £2.99. This means I probs lt won’t pop in as I otherwise would have The staff were efficient but showed no interest in customers - purely a transaction I waited overly long for my jacket potato and herb queried where it was just told it was coming, no explanation and no apology. When it did arrive it was substantial. The cheese came in slices rather than the expected and usual grated cheeses