True to the Bean

lovely place, food great with gluten free toasties available. great coffee, thankyou!!!

A mix between Karen’s Diner and Fawlty Towers…I can’t make this up. First orange flag was the multiple posters out the front, different ones, written at different times (probs need to be carbon dated to know how long they’ve been there) asking for staff urgently. While ordering at the counter the woman taking my order stroked her bare belly. I never thought I’d have to write that sentence. The order was confirmed a few times, always with almond milk even though I said the word “oat” enough times to summon some kind of Oat God. Perhaps they have some kind of almond based kickback. We ordered one of the items vegan, and the other with GF toast. We sat down and our coffees came out. The waiter apologised before we’d had time to touch the cups, saying that they weren’t doing a good job today, and if we wanted, they could make us another. Why they thought I’d want another sub-par coffee from a belly-rubbing waiter, I’ll never know. The coffees were fine. While waiting for our food, we overheard multiple conversations worthy each of a Gordon Ramsay Kitchen Nightmares episode. One group of 6 customers were joking how none of them had gotten the correct thing the first time they ordered. Another table, who had asked for gluten free toast, ended up with regular bread. The waiter tried to remove the bread in-situ until the customer said they are allergic. The staff said they’d toast some for them and that it was the chefs fault because he speaks limited English. While English is luckily my first language, and my partner and English teacher, we thought it inappropriate to setup an English school in the kitchen. It’s a bit dangerous, too many things to touch accidentally. We finally got our food, it was not vegan, however did contain the somewhat elusive GF bread. The food was okay, it had potential. To their credit, the beans were damn good, albeit a bit liquid-y. By the time the staff returned to the other customer with GF bread, the food was cold. Customer asked if could be heated up, the staff member asked the customer if they could use the microwave. The customer advised not to use it for “too long, it will get rubbery”. Seems even Chef Mike needs so help here. I could write more but I’ve died of starvation waiting here for my meal.