Waitrose Cafe in Sefton

Often come here to grab a coffee and study. Staff are absolutely lovely and the coffee is great. Almond croissants are incredible!

This is a lovely friendly store, all the staff are so courteous and helpful. We have always found the restaurant to be a pleasant experience especially when the special offers are on

It’s a small coffee shop in a supermarket . Good seating and a slow moving cafe . It’s not fast moving but that’s the point . Some seating outside and some booths . Good for a coffee , WiFi and a light bite .

Excellent coffee and great alternative to the usual Costa and Nero, has its own entrance so you don’t need to go through the store. Handy for us so we visit at least twice a week

Shopping at Waitrose Formby a couple of weeks ago, was one of the best experiences I have had for over a year in any shop. Lovely friendly attentive knowledgeable staff who guided me around this store which was not familiar to me, not living in the area. Craig on Fresh Meat & Fish deserves special thanks for his recommendations. Thoroughly enjoyed our surf and turf meal that evening, all provided by Waitrose. Highly recommended store. Thank you.

Went for tea and scone and regretted it, when staff member eventually appeared I felt as if I was intruding on her day. To be fair not usually like this but I will give it a miss if this woman is on again.

Well...I don't know how much they spent on this place since my last review, but whomever was in charge should be demoted and if they paid consultants they should ask for some of the money back. This place has had a re vamp, the layout and styling is bland, but clean and an improvement on what was here before. However, its a case of style over substance and function. When you arrive, you are at a complete loss as to how the place works. If you've been before its ok as you know, if not your like a fish out of water and NOBODY helps you. The staff stare at you like your a complete pain. Getting past that, the servery/kitchen is an absolute joke. there is a chiller with packages of 'food' ...you pick it, take it to one part of the counter, they microwave it, you order drinks, move to the other end of the 150cm counter and wait for the stuff to be delivered. Now it gets a bit crowded at this point and rather covidly dodgy!!!...then you look for a seating place. I found the whole thing depressing. they revamped the place and gave it a new name Waite and Rose...how much did that bit of genius cost??? But the whole point of a café is food quality and service and here it does fall down ..and does not show Waitrose brand in a good light!! Bacon roll...Worst I have EVER had, coffee not a patch on McDonalds. For a premium store (the shopping experience is EXCELLENT) this is not a showcase for their produce or service. BTW...some of the money spent on this mistake should have been spent on the toilets...they are still a disgrace. At least have regular cleaning and maintenance. I dont know who is looking after JLP catering but they are well off the mark...John Lewis in Liverpool one is even worse.

We were big fans of the old café, until they did away with the free coffee. This place was revamped and given a pseudo upmarket name...Waite and Rose. The upgrade of the dining area is very nice, the servery/kitchen has been reduced to the overall detriment of the customer experience. I am aware that it has been shut throughout COVID restrictions, but this would have given them ample opportunity to re look at the design and do some staff training. Firstly, you walk in and (still under some COVID restrictions) and there is no guidance whatsoever of how the service system works. The management must remember in these times many eateries have their own variation on the restrictions. For example, wait to be seated, table service only, numbers allowed in etc etc. However this was not evident or considered. A customer walks up to the counter and there is a menu on the wall and a chiller unit with food in plastic wrappers. But your on your own...I asked the servery staff what is the system and was looked at like I was from outer space. Eventually we realised you took the plastic wrapped stuff to one end of the counter and they microwaved it, did your drinks, and you collect it from the other end. The counter is small so there was inevitable bunching of people waiting for their orders (unsafe). It wasn't cheap, but we expect that, but for the quality of the food and the coffee it was not worth the money. I had a bacon roll , the bacon was cooked to near extinction I could have soled my shoes with it and they would last for ever! My wife had some sort of cheese toasty which was acceptable. the coffee was not...Mc Donald's is much better (I know coffee is a personal taste thing but please!) I'm sorry but such a decent looking and well styled eating area is where all the thought and talent has gone, but a Café lives and dies by the quality of food and service. Both of these seem to have been de-vamped not re-vamped. Will certainly never return to eat unless things change. BTW the toilets needed a revamp as well and still do...regular cleaning and maintenance would help. Shopping experience still very good. Shame about the rest.

We went to get a few bits of shopping we decided to have a cup of tea and toast . The staff were very helpful and friendly we had a lovely cup of tea and toast was excellent well done to the staff will be back for more.

Go shopping the have a coffee an toast so lovely and staff so friendly would recommend going if your in the shop I will go again and again formby

I used to go in the café a long time ago after shopping, always had a toastie with a small salad and tea or coffee. The last time I went in the café I handed the toastie to the assistant who did the tea, and I asked if you still got the small salad with the toastie, no we are not allowed to do it, So, I said I didn't want the toastie, she said I've put it on now you will have to have it. No I won't and you can take the tea back as well. so I didn't have anything and havn't been back in the café since

This may look like a moan about a minor issue, but it actually reveals a lot about the attitude of management and some staff, who don't seem to know or understand their customers (also known as wage providers) or plan for them. If you say that you provide a complimentary coffee, then provide it. Having the coffee machine 'broken' nearly all the time, looks like a convenient way of discouraging perceived 'freeloaders' (remember, you still have to buy something to qualify), but is actually short term thinking and misguided. I quite often visit another branch in North Wales. The coffee machine there is always working. The Formby branch just happens to be in an affluent town with many older customers (many who are on secure pensions) who look forward to their occasional 'freebie'. For the want of a coffee, a customer was lost; For the want of a customer, a purchase was lost; For the want of a purchase, a machine was lost; For the want of a machine, a branch was lost; All for want of a coffee.

Always call in the Waitrose Cafe at Formby after shopping for a coffee. Coffee good and efficient service.

When you get the food it’s usualy ok, but there seems an uncurrent if staff resentment toward the customers.,almost like your an irritating inconvenience too them

Poor availability of food, overpriced for quality/taste. White tables with stains from drinks all over, struggled to find one that wasn’t left with previous customers plates on- talking at least 10 tables hadn’t been cleared. Filthy floors, dirty walls. Really need to do better -come on WAITROSE!!

Since the revamp? When the free drinks were removed and the coffee so called up graded..we have observed it is going down hill fast.We have been back for lunch and coffee a few times in the forlorn hope that the place will improve. However we have made a firm resolution not to use the cafe again ...until we observe a notable improvement.Why when there is such a fantastic choice of foods in the shop, is the selection in the cafe so mediocre? Local independents beat this place hands down.The coffee by the way is not noticeably different from the machine variety at customer service...so that smacks of fake news and even a bit of equivocation, or a conflict of rhetoric over a stark reality.We would dearly like to visit the Waitrose cafe for an enjoyable snacking experience ...like it used to be.Probably the 'innovations' where initiated by the same 'creatives' that installed Joe's juice bar in John Lewis Liverpool...another unmitigated disaster.By the way the gents W Cs are still below standard!

A friend offered to buy me coffee and a cake for a treat. We decided to try the Waitrose cafe, as we had made use of their carpark. As Waitrose prides itself on being at the top end of the supermarket league, I had expected the cafe and facilities to be of a similar standard. The surroundings were very basic, the table we occupied hadn’t been wiped and the white wall beside us was full of scuff marks. The atmosphere was depressing, apart from the unsmiling member of staff manning the till, there were very few customers. The coffee was adequate but the lemon drizzle cake had a very artificial flavour and was dry and uninteresting. My friend complained that her cherry pastry tasted like perfume. All in all a very disappointing experience, not to be repeated.

Cafe is quiet these days, due probably to the change from free tea or coffee to My Waitrose card holders to monthly special offers.But the food is still very good, especially the breakfast bacon or sausage sandwiches. Lunch offerings look appetising too though I've never tried them.Staff are always friendly too

I often visit here for a tea and scone early in the day. The service area is immaculately clean and the staff are polite and helpful. It is also value for money and a quiet place to eat whilst reading the morning paper.

Worth a quick visit to have your free coffee...but you must buy a food item in order to qualify. Friendly staff and usually enough seating available.

I have posted about this Waitrose previously. It still has plenty of crockery coving the dirty tables. Staff still don’t appear interested. Not sure it will ever improve.

I do not usually do reviews of in-store cafes as I feel that for the most part they will all follow a similar pattern. However there are occasions when expectations are exceeded; in which case praise is due. There are other occasions when the opposite occurs, as with this, my first visit to a Waitrose cafe after a chance meeting with a friend.

We travel all over the Country and shop in Waitrose and usually have food and on the whole we leave very satisfied. Not so at Formby sadly staff are indifferent to customers the coffee machine is out of action more than it's in working order. They often have not much variety of food left even early in the day which is not the case in other Waitrose store the surrounding area. I have got to the point where I ring the store to ask if the coffe machine and oven is working (it's been out of action for weeks all over Christmas so no fresh baked rolls or bread) and decide whether to go to Chester or Formby.

Tables are getting cleaned faster, staff attitude is still lacking, gents toilets are still disgusting. Why cannot men in formby hit the urinal? Leave a mop and bucket in there so us cleanies can wipe up after the dirty crowd

We are fans of Waitrose and on our adventures in our motorhome we always seek out Waitrose. What this has shown is is that they are very variable. Cirencester and Preston are excellent--reviews coming!.

I have been here on a number of occasions. It gets very busy at times so you may have to wait for a table - a time to get your shopping if busy. Unfortunately quite often the tables are not kept cleaned - maybe they should allocate more staff.

A great place for a free tea or coffee after shopping if you have a Waitrose card! The almond croissants are delicious!

Called in here mid afternoon on a Saturday, I wouldn't normally bother to write a review for something as mundane as a supermarket cafe but feel I must mention the exceptional service we received whist there, served by a very charming and pleasant young lady whose name I believe was Catherine, couldn't do enough for us and even brought our beverages to our table for us, charming young lady who just by doing her job made us feel special, quite made our day! If ever in the area again will definitely revisit.

stopped here several times for a cuppa, nice cafe area, but does get busy at peak times, so try to get there early

After Shopping always look forward to a relaxing Drink and pastry partners are always happy friendly Nothing to much trouble excellent food

Tenía patatas, pollo coronación y chaqueta de atún mayonesa. Bueno y a un precio razonable. Esponja victoria en oferta especial. El personal era muy agradable. Prensa si estás lo suficientemente temprano para tomar uno.

Staff always seem harassed and the cafe seems often in disarray dirty tables, we often find coffee machine not working.Don't whatever you do ask for decaffeinated coffee if you have an allergy to it, I have been nearly poisoned on two occasions.On bring this to the attention of Waitrose Formby I was thanked for bringing it to their attention and informed their staff thought when customers asked for decaffeinated items they thought it was just a choice and were not aware that customers could have allergies and that it could cause them to have unpleasant side effects. I was thanked and told as a result of my highlighting the problem the staff had been trained.No offer of a goodwill gesture for the experience or trouble it caused me. So beware

Me encanta la tienda, pero decepcionado con el café. Yo compre en la tienda y sólo te dan café gratis con mi tarjeta en esas ocasiones, pagando por un segundo para mi marido y normalmente comprar un tentempié. La semana pasada asistí con mi suegra y mi marido para hacer algunas compras de navidad. Pensamos tomar un café antes de salir de compras, y también quería un aperitivo. Por desgracia, me dijeron que no había café. Me decepcionó, pero pensamos que aún estancia y pedí un chocolate caliente. No hay chocolate o! Waitrose su pérdida - fuimos a Nero por la carretera y luego a las marcas y Spencer. Esta no es la primera vez que ha sucedido, si tienen una tienda de café que realmente no debería salir de las cosas, no fue hasta tarde. Puede que tengas que repensar mi rutina de compras e ir a otra tienda.

A good selection of cakes, teas and coffees. You can also purchase a good selection of sandwiches and a choice of light hot food.

Quality staff and quality food and drink. What more do you need. Always pleasant and reliable - need say no more, that's John Lewis!

Seemed to have been a good few staff in this café but you were in the queue for over ten minutes waiting for a coffee.

Good Coffee Shop, excellent scones. Nice range of cakes, sandwiches, panini is etc. Excellent sausage or bacon Baps and good hot lunch eg Curry.A really excellent cafe, I love it.

This is a typical basic supermarket canteen style restaurant and is OK for a quick cuppa and a sit down after shopping.

Cutlery is always dirty and tables often left cluttered with other people's leftovers.Trays look old and tatty.Often toaster or coffee machine not working.

Nice cafe with a variety of drinks and cakes on offer. Good service and friendly staff however not a great atmosphere

Excellent coffee and other drinks. Good range of cake and pastries. Bacon barns and sausage barns excellent. Toast, tea cakes etc. I regularly visit, meet my friends and enjoy their company.

We've been coming here for several years now and like the fact that it's busy. Generally OK for what you want in a supermarket but occasionally frustrated by things not being available (strange given the amount of shelf space all well stocked in the shop itself!)

First they asked us to buy a cake or something similar (even just an apple or banana) to qualify for our free coffees. Now they have devised a really great idea to keep us at bay - they have had the hot milk machine broken for over a week. Really, Waitrose, a store of your standing can't get its coffee machine mended! Will you go to any lengths to get rid of us loyalty card bearing seniors coming for a coffee after we have done the week's shopping. Went to your Chipping Sodbury store in the summer, lots of tables, spotless and no queuing for coffee. Know we are a lot of free loading seniors in Formby so why introduce the coffee offer in the first place if you don't want us to have a coffee or tea. You are happy for us to shop there so why begrudge us our coffee. As for the men in suits standing about, why don't they get those jackets off and roll up their sleeves and have a go at fixing the coffee machine.

Can be very busy - I usually visit around 9.00am when it is quieter. Decent coffee, free with a My Waitrose card, when you purchase an item of food. Good choice of cakes and buns, and also a couple of warm items, bacon roll, etc. Self-service, but rarely very long to wait.

So many people visit this cafe, it seems to be always busy, great coffee and the bacon barm cakes are amazing.

Nice cafe. Bad of Waitrose to offer free tea/coffee then change to only if you buy something to eat. Usual high calorific choice. Poor marketing to offer goods then take away.

like water..used to be good, but hey its for nothing so looks like waitrose have decided to cut costs?

Me and my husband visit most if not every Saturday after doing our shopping. Staff worked off their feet and it is questionable whether there is enough of them which is no fault of their own, unlike other reviews suggest. Young girls working there always have a smile on their face and are very pleasant - nothing is too much of an ask and always have a friendly chat. They're often seen voluntarily carrying elder customers trays to tables which is nice.Drinks are just as good as Costa or Caffe Nero and their cakes can't go a-miss.

Lovely staff, lovely coffee but couldn't find a table without mess on. We had to clear our own tables and wipe them ourselves. Wont be going back, waste of time. other cafes are much cleaner and busier.

The cafe is back to normal now after John Lewis decided there were too many free loaders clogging up the cafe incorporating large queues and over busyness to ordinary customers, It is now a pleasure to look in again and feel it is not now a no go area. So thank you.

I love the toasties here, also the soup. the coffees are excellent, especially the cappucino. The staff are always friendly and very accommodating to disabled people. The menu isn't large, but the food is well cooked and the place is very clean.

This cafe has had a problem for a long time and I cannot understand whymangement do not sort it out. The tables are not cleared often enough and onquite a few occasions I have seen customers clearing up so they can use the table.One or two of the staff are unpleasant particularly the supervisor. They frequentlycannot offer basics such as scones and teacakes and are loath to replenish fromthe shelves. It is a shame because the cafe is convenient when shopping but if theydon't care about it then neither will I.

We were out shopping in Waitrose (John Lewis) and popped into the café for a cuppa and cake and it was complete mistake. Firstly we had to clear a table because there was only one member of staff working and secondly we had to wait 20 minutes to be served. When I asked why they were short staffed I was greeted with , that's the way it is !! Women with prams taking up a full table and not eating or drinking and kids running round. Never again filthy and lack of supervision where was the Manager.

One of the few places to have a nice snack and most times tea and coffee after your shopping ,Good prices and well kept dinning room

This waitrose cafe used to be lovely a few years ago, perfect for a coffee after shopping. Oh how it has changed! Understaffed and hectic environment, not relaxing in the least. Teas and coffees are nice if you can deal with filthy tables and often dirty, stained cups. Everytime I have been all empty tables are filled with dirty images and uncleared trays of leftovers etc. Very off putting.Avoid this cafe at all costs.

Popped in for lunch at around 13:00 today before going to do my shopping. There were free tables but they were all dirty and full of used crockery and left over soup. My husband had the Thai Red Chicken Curry, which was not very mild as the staff had said and he left a load as it was not nice. The tables hadn't been cleaned for a long time, numerous sets of different crockery marks. I only had a cup of tea as I couldn't face eating on a mucky table. We were there about 25 minutes and no tables were cleared or cleaned in that time. I reported the state of the cafe to customer services and I shopped elsewhere. If the public face of the shop is so filthy what are the back of shop condiions like?

If you're looking for a varied menu, this is not the best place to go. Local shoppers enjoy it for the free beverage, read of newspaper & chance to meet friends in a clean, friendly and well run cafeteria.

Just spent £117 in Waitrose Formby, which we do spend regularly. Took our time browsing the shelves then having a coffee and reading the paper, which Waitrose encourage i.e. free coffee and paper, and very good service. Only to find that you are only allowed 90 minutes parking - did not see the signs as only concerned with getting the trolley and shopping and therefore did not look. Got back to the car and had a £40 fine for being less than an hour over. Even when we provided proof of shopping the manager was not interested. Waitrose just lost a customer who spends £100 to £150 a week with them. Wonder how many other people will be offended by this.Cannot have it both ways Waitrose!!!

I love the supermarket. Selections you won't get anywhere else. The cafe was very mediocre. Poor choice of food. Hot beverages very average. Cafe seems overfilled with people claiming their free drink and spending hours reading papers. Service was as excellent as Waitrose service always is. Until they up the choice of food, I don't think I'll bother.

Very poor selection for breakfast. Only option was a sausage bun or bacon bun. Both sausage and bacon were cremated and bun was served dry without butter. Coffee was not great either.

Waitrose. Never been in one before. So thinking while I am here may as well treat my mother in law and my self to the cafe there. The bill came to £10.10. Rather expensive and not for very much either. It's a lot more expensive than Costa and Nero And Starbucks and Pret a Manger. Service was pretty fast though but the price and the limited table space knocked me back a bit. Reminded me a lot of Costa or Cafe Nero. Same style of set up.

What a glittering assemblage there was in Waitrose today, the egregious, the ignoble, the unemployed and then there was the rabble and the intellectual dirt. In summary so very 'infra dignitatem' that it made merry for the most horrendous grocery shopping experience one could have on a Saturday afternoon!

It's an excellent place to read the newspapers, meet friends, have a chat and rest after shopping, even to look at the snow through the windows in Winter.

Don’t like the fact that the shoppers are all walking past the café as you are eating/drinking but then I guess it is a supermarket café!Food and drinks are the top quality that you associate with John Lewis and Waitrose. Love the toasted paninnis. Staff are very cheerful, friendly and helpful. Well worth a visit – I like mid week, mid morning.

Service, food and coffee always excellent. Can get quite busy at times but also do takeaway option. My daughter loves kids lunch bag...at £3.75 great value

It's really convenient and staff are friendly but what has happened to Ricardo. My kids loved him and it's not the same without him

Use this cafe few times a week .Staff are unfailingly polite and helpful even if you turn up just before closing.Ideal place to thaw out after a blast on Formby beach,enjoy good coffee and read a paper ,unless some old curmudgeon is hogging them all-hahaha!

I have been in this coffee shop several times, and the service is fine.the only problem there is the customers,never seen such a moaning lot.and the majority are not even spending money in the store, they are just there for a FREE coffee and biscuit and god help the poor staff if they run out of FREE biscuits, i have watched dome of them come in and get the coffees and go straight back out to their cars,probably going up the road to tesco's good staff keep up the good work.

Not only was I ignored in the restaurant I had to stand and wait at a till whilst two members of staff carried on a private conversation. Shop was freezing cold, maybe it explains the frosty customer service!

This is a cold, small cafe which offers a few hot & cold food items at quite steep prices. Staff seem friendly enough though, but it's regularly full of loud snobby people... just remember folks, you're only in a cafe and you don't own the place!

Second visit and will be the last. Toast barely done and staff very inexperienced, seem to all be students.Of six knives in the container five of them were dirty a couple of them disgustingly so. My daughter gave them to one of the staff who took them in the kitchen and then informed her that all the rest of the knives were in the dishwasher so there was none.As my daughter had just given five back she asked for them to be taken out of the dishwasher and washed by hand. This was reluctantly done.How are people supposed to eat without cutlery.Our visit was on a Saturday afternoon.

Staff always friendly and efficient, will cook extra bacon/sausage if the last portion has just been served, lattes are delicious. Love Sunday morning here!

Soup vege is always good but a bit cramped sandwiches nice it's ok as let's face it the cafe is in a supermarket

Only John Lewis can make you feel like its a restaurant. Great paninis, sandwiches and hot meals as well. A cracking cafe certainly a cut above.

Totally disagree with the previous post. The staff and quality are excellent of a weekend however, they do seem to be understaffed, which is not the fault of the poor, hardworking, polite individuals who work in the coffee shop. I go there regularly, and I agree sometimes you have to ask for things such as tea spoons but they are always happy to provide these for you. One thing the previous post needs to remember is it is a supermarket cafe and not a gourmet restaurant or a Starbucks! Please don't let one poor judgement put you off going to this wonderful cafe!

On 2 occasions I have tried this cafe on a Saturday, I may be wrong but I believe that the Saturday staff are school/college students earning some extra cash. This does not excuse the poor service, poor hygiene, dirty tables, dirty service counter and an 'I don't care' attitude.On both occasions it was exactly the same. They completely ran out of tea spoons and when I requested one the response was just a shrug of the shoulders - this is a coffee house!!I have been there midweek and it is completely different. and is probably worth a much higher score - steer clear on saturdays.