M&s Cafe - Elmbridge

'joanna ' was working on her own on the desk. She was taking orders clearing tables making coffee by herself. One person doing the cooking. Long queues. People dumping their trays and walking out. Ridiculous was the word that was being used by customers. They need another three at least working there.

Very slow service and then I was given change for a £10 note not a £20 so watch/check your change if paying by cash, as soon as I said something she 'remembered '. Lots of empty tables with finished trays on them. Only positive was they had gluten free sandwiches.

My friend and I have tried, on three separate occasions, to try the toasted sourdough with smashed avocado and poached eggs advertised as try our new ........ one would expect that something being promoted so largely in their cafe would be available, except on rare occasions they run out. However, we have yet to be successful in trying this well advertised meal. The reasons provided have been: they 've run out of avocados; they are having problems with supply of avocados. The latter reason was used today with added information that they have tried to get the avocados from their store below but they are getting fed up with the cafe taking all their avocados. After finishing the alternative lunches and going around the store we observed a mass of avocados, which were very unlikely to be sold out. It is very disappointing to have failed to be served what is likely to be a popular choice when it has strong advertising within the store and cafe. The alternative lunches were satisfactory but nothing special. I wanted to make a direct query/complaint to Brooklands M&S cafe but there is nowhere on their website that allows this. They will never improve if there is no way of making them aware of the disappointments!!

The service at this restaurant is slow, even though there were few customers and four counter staff members. It took ages to get a pot of tea and a cafe latte. The staff seem to lack proper training and supervision, with many of them standing around in the background and only one attending to customers at the front. There is a lot of inefficiency here.

This is a great little cafe. It's a reasonable size with good service and was quiet when I visited. It's a nice spot for a relaxing cup of coffee and a snack.