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CAFE SUMMARY
FOR
Excellent coffees and teas.
Tasty and well-presented cakes.
Good service
AVERAGE
Decoration and surroundings.
AGAINST
Poor quality and missing ingredients of the food we tasted.
High prices. |
CAFE AT VAN HAGE GARDEN CENTRE
THE PRICES
Tea £1.75, coffee £1.85 for a cup or £2.05 for a very large mug
full. Paninis were from £7 to £8 and the main meals were from £7 to
£9.25. Ploughman's was £7.25
RANGE OF FOOD
Lots to choose from at this cafe. Three main meal specials are on
offer. Paninis, salad bar, ploughman's bar, sandwiches and baguettes
plus a very attractive selection of cakes. Speciality and normal
coffees and teas are also for sale as is a small range of alcoholic
drinks.
QUALITY OF FOOD
The coffee, tea and cakes are undeniably good, well-presented and
very tasty. Unfortunately the same can't be said of the bacon and
cheese panini we purchased at £7.00. When we ordered it we were
asked to choose from a selection of cheese. We are not quite clear
why they asked us because the panini came with almost no cheese in
it at all - see the pictures on the right (click to enlarge any
picture.
Not only was the cheese almost entirely missing but the bacon was
almost raw looking and the fat on the edges was white and limp. It
had the appearance of being micro-waved rather than grilled,
particularly unattractive looking. To top it off the bread was
soggy, so soggy that we couldn't pick it up to taste it, we needed
to collect a knife and for to eat it. We left almost all of the
panini and would not recommend it to anyone especially at a high
price of £7.
DECOR AND SEATING
The cafe at the Van Hage Garden Centre in Ware has three separate
seating areas. The main area is large and inside the garden centre,
there is then a glass covered area and finally an outside seating
area which looks out onto the outside garden centre. The overall
decor is Ok but nothing special and the plastic tables and chairs
are utilitarian rather than attractive.
The cafe was awarded a
five star Food Hygiene rating in March 2012 by East
Hertfordshire.
SERVICE
We visited on a Friday late morning in February and the cafe was
about 75% full showing how popular it is with locals for tea, coffee
and cakes. The service was quick and efficient with minimal queues.
If you order a hot meal it is served to your table after a short
wait.
CAFE OPENING HOURSMonday 9.30 to 5.30
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 9 to 5.30
Thursday 9 to 7.30
Sunday 9.30 to 4.30
We hope you have enjoyed and benefited from this independent review of
the cafe at Van Hage Garden Centre, Ware. Remember that it is our opinion and may be the result of one visit
only. If you are the owner of the Van Hage Garden Centre, Ware and
want to discuss this review with us
then please contact us by going to our "contact us" page which can be found
here.
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