They used to have a puy lentil and goats cheese salad that was lovely, but that is no longer on the menu. They had a mediterranean vegetable lasagne and macaroni cheese, but with both over 1000 calories per dish (AAGGGHHHH!!) I thought better of it.
I decided on mushroom soup and a poppy seed bread roll and a large latte.
I sat down and started drinking my latte and having a chat with my Mum. 30 minutes later (and about 20 minutes after finishing my latte), my soup turned up! They actually have a sign in there to say 'We don't serve fast food, just great tasting food as fast as we can.' Fair enough, I expect to wait a bit longer for decent food, but 30 minutes for a soup?!?! Are you having a laugh? Thats a bit ridiculous if you ask me.
The soup itself was actually quite nice, it had a hint of garlic in it and was quite peppery and creamy. I reminded me of the New Covent Garden Wild Mushroom Soup (not that I buy those soups anymore, after finding meat in them!)
It wasn't until I started to get to the bottom of the bowl that I realised that there were small bits of sliced mushrooms in the soup. They tasted quite watery and tasteless unfortunately. The roll was nice and crusty (and I love poppy seeds) However it was warm on the outside and ice cold in the centre! The roll was also served with a portion of butter straight out of the fridge.
The latte wasn't great in all honesty. Served in a cappuccino cup, it got cold very quickly and although it wasn't the weakest latte I've had, it was a bit blah :-/ quite weak and the milk tasted like it was skimmed as it had no creaminess to it.
My Mum had a childs portion of pasta with a cheesy tomato sauce with broccoli. I didn't taste it, but she said it was ok. It looked like sick on a plate to me (sorry Sainsbury's, but look at it!)
Anyway, the food filled a hole, it wasnt awful, but it didn't impress and neither did the service particularly.
I do have to say that at least Sainsburys do seem to try to offer more vegetarian options than alot of other places. I'll never forget the time I asked at the Tesco's food counter cafe in Havant if they had vegetarian sausages as an option and I was looked at like I was a Martian!
My overall experience (out of 10):
Food: **** (4)
Drink: *** (3)
Atmosphere: ***** (5)
Friendliness of Staff: ***** (5)
Cleanliness: ****** (6)
I work at sainsbury's cafe as a part-timer inbetween my studies and to be fair to us, we are only left with about two staff on cook side and one person on the front a lot of the time.
ReplyDeleteIt's really, really difficult to manage about 20 orders that come through in the space of 10 minutes. Along with managing the dozens of tables that need cleaning, and the little old lady that wants a tea-spoon or insists on getting some salad cream. You also have the customers that say "you're a supermarket go down and get some more!"
Sometimes you honestly just feel like turning around and telling the customers to come and help and see how they find it!
I agree, 30 minutes is a long time to wait for any food, let alone soup!
But if you worked there, you really would understand! If you ordered soup after the family that had just ordered 5 mega brunches and a BBQ chicken meal, you would unfortunately have to wait for that order to be made first. The main reason for this (even though I do disagree) is that if this family see YOUR food being brought out first, they will come to us and complain! "We ordered our food first, why are you serving this person theirs?!" And yes, it has happened on many occasions. There really isn't any way that would work to keep both happy. The place I work at holds a LOT of people, so it's very difficult to manage everything at once.
Just thought i'd share this! I've only been working there a few months and sometimes I think people need to just take a step back and look at it from all perspectives. :) xx
Also, another thing is the drinks. Why oh why they chose the staff to make the drinks ON TOP of everything else is beyond me!! xx
Hi, thank you for your comment :-) I completely appreciate what you're saying. I've worked in many customer facing jobs before myself so I know how hard it can be especially when you're all overworked.
ReplyDeleteSaying that though, I do have to write about my experience as a customer :-/ Hopefully, if Sainsburys management themselves were to see this post, or from other customer feedback, they may consider putting more staff on to help existing staff? That is what I would hope anyway :-) But I know thats not always the case :-(
Since I reviewed Sainsburys Cafe in Farlington, I have gone Vegan, and unfortunately, they don't do any Vegan options (that I'm aware of), other than a soya latte and a pack of Kettle crisps, which is what I have whenever I go in there. The soya lattes they do, are absolutely gorgeous though!!
As with alot of places of work, it seems to be the people on the 'front line' that have to deal with the customers, etc that take all the flack, which I think is unfair, they are only doing what they can with the tools and guidelines that management have set out for them :-) xx