The Grand Café Reviews Summary

Service

Pros:

• "The service was very good; all the variations were exactly correct!"
• "What a lovely place, be prepared for a bit of a queue but the staff are sweet and attentive, so it's well worth that wait."
• "Service was great with smiles and helpful."
• "Service was friendly and at a pace that was leisurely without being slow."
• "The staff was wonderful and served us a small pastry sampling in apology."
• "Service was quick and very courteous."
• "The staff were very friendly and the service was excellent."

Cons:

• "But the service was poor, we waited for at least 30 minutes for our tea."
• "The worst part was that the waitress washing the dishes kept coughing in her bare hands and putting dishes away at the same time."
• "The waiter who welcomed us was utterly uninformative and unsmiling."
• "Service was mediocre, watching our food go cold on the counter was not ideal."
• "Appalling service with very rude and inattentive staff."
• "The service is friendly but ordinary, staff not really trained or immaculate as you'd expect in a nice looking afternoon-tea house."
• "Underwhelming and slow service!"

Atmosphere

Pros:

• "Atmosphere: Refined, relaxed and charming."
• "Fantastic atmosphere."
• "This place has great style and atmosphere, there should be more places like it!"
• "Lovely ambience with chandeliers and gold framed mirrors."
• "Delicious pastries and comforting hot chocolate on a cool afternoon!"
• "Such a lovely place to have afternoon tea."
• "A lovely atmosphere full of quiet talking and music."

Cons:

• "Very unwelcoming atmosphere."
• "The food, atmosphere, and service are sub par."
• "The atmosphere was quite nice although the price is not worth the mediocre tea and cake."
• "Poorly implemented 'upper-class' atmosphere and inattentive staff destroys the experience."
• "It's cramped and noisy inside - not conducive to a relaxed sit down!"
• "The ambiance of the cafe was far from pleasant solely due to one waitress with the beige jumper, long beige nails and awful attitude."
• "The decor and atmosphere is cramped, forcibly quirky."

Food Quality

Pros:

• "The food was good and the coffee was great."
• "The scones were decent, made me a scone addict after the visit."
• "Can certainly recommend the cake topped with raspberries which were the most delicious I have tasted in a very long while."
• "The scones are baked on site in their bakery and are the best and lightest I have ever tasted."
• "Excellent cream tea to be had here."
• "Food is great, tea is great, cakes are delicious."
• "The desserts and coffee were very good. I thought that the best thing was the Belgian waffle with ice cream and syrup."

Cons:

• "Shockingly overpriced with poor quality food and slow service."
• "The tea pot was not clean at all."
• "The food itself was okay, but somewhat lacking in quality."
• "Egg sandwich was below average, though fish sandwich was just about okay. Scones were below average too."
• "The “fresh” orange juice was extremely sour."
• "The scones were tasteless and bland."
• "Horrible food. I asked for scrambled egg whites and I was told they couldn't do that."

Value for Money

Pros:

• "I was absolutely happy for the price."
• "It is in the expensive side for a cafe, but you get what you pay for."
• "I didn't think it was expensive considering the quality of the food and décor - I've had to spend more elsewhere in places far inferior to this."
• "A little pricy but good value for money."
• "Prices were reasonable for the quality and toilets were kept clean highly recommend!"
• "The price is expected for Oxford, in fact I've worked in places in Yorkshire that charge similar or more."
• "Excellent food, top notch service and luxuriant decor - all while being relatively friendly on the pocket."

Cons:

• "Now a total tourist trap for people getting off the coach on High St."
• "Paid £30 for few bites of cake and sandwiches."
• "The place is all very reliant on its olde world charm, but... bad value."
• "It is fairly pricey so be expected to pay more than usual for desserts."
• "Prices are about double of what you'd expect to pay."
• "The expensive £12.5 coffee tastes like 50p filter coffee too."
• "Very overpriced at 27 pounds for a scone, a cake, a lemonade and a hot chocolate."