Easily the worst treatment I've ever received in any estabishment I've visited. I don't normally write reviews but I'm so offended by this place, which does a roaring trade for some reason, that I feel compelled to warn others. I queued for about 20 minutes, and then after being seated I waited half an hour before realising that nobody was going to come and take an order. I went to the counter to try and order, but the waitress told me that I couldn't, because "it's table service after 5pm." I explained that I'd actually been sitting at a table for half an hour, and then she let me order a meal and a drink, which arrived a little while later and was nice enough. After I finished eating, I then waited a whole hour during which nobody came to clear my plate away or ask if I wanted anything else. Even though I'd brought it to their attention earlier that they'd been ignoring my table, they had made excuses instead of apologising, and now continued to ignore me. Eventually I got their attention and asked for the bill, which the surly waitress came and handed me without a word, before walking away. Taking out my card to pay, I then waited 15 minutes for her to return. When she did, she said rather impatiently 'Do you want to come to the counter to pay?' as if I was expected to know that I had to do so. I asked her quite innocently if that is what I was supposed to do. She then looked at me with disdain and disgust like I was a drooling imbecile placing an order for extra faeces on my baked potato, and said 'You have to pay at the counter!' I asked her quite calmly and reasonably how she had expected me to know that. She replied curtly 'Just come to the counter now, pay and leave.' I was shocked, but it got even worse. While paying at the counter, I again explained that I could not have been expected to know about paying at the counter. I explained that very often in restaurants after bringing the bill to a table, the waiter returns a few minutes later to collect money or process a card payment. She cut me off: "This isn't a restaurant, it's a cafe" - as if that justified everything. I then decided to remind her that over an hour had passed between my finishing my meal and her coming to take the plate away, even after I had already pointed out to them that I had been totally neglected for half an hour while waiting to order, and that this wasn't really 'table service' as I understood it. Again she didn't apologise, but just offered the excuse that they were really busy - even though they were no busier than they are every night during the festival in August, when I regularly notice people queuing up in the doorway at lunchtime and in the early evening. I said to her that when somebody points out a mistake, all you have to do is say sorry and put it right, instead of making an excuse for yourself and being really aggressive and resentful towards them. She then muttered "get out of my face you fucking idiot". And so I got out of her face, and out of The Elephant House, never to return. read more