Hathaway Tea Rooms & Bakery

Harrylee

A must to avoid 5th August 2009

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We brought our relatives to Stratford from Northern Ireland and they were so looking forward to a traditional english cream tea. Hathaway Tea Roms seemed the perfect place. It was a lovely traditional building and a nice up front display in the window, however the food was stale, the price was a complete rip off and the couldn't care less attitude of the staff was very dissapointing. The cream tea consisted of a scone and butter and a very stale piece of shortbread (which we had to go and ask for), lets down Stratford!!!

maviscruet

Not good at all 22nd March 2009

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A beautiful cozy tea room in appearance but that is where the appeal ends so BE WARNED steer very clear of this place.
As a frequent tea room visitor, this has got to be the worst place ever. I think every table was complaining about some aspect of the food or service whilst we were in there.
I have to agree with allison on everything.
We to ordered welsh rarebit at £5.10 for one slice of the thinnest bread with one limp lettuce leaf, a slice of cucumber and a slice of tomato.
And what about this then. A cheese and tomato sandwich, with the same disgustingly processed bread (being a bakery you would think they could do better!!!) as the welsh rarebit and the same side salad as above for £5.10 but if you wanted it toasted, it was an addtional....................wait for it..........90p making it £6 for a toasted sandwich.
Waited ages to have order taken. Waited ages to be told they had no diet pepsi. Asked "what diet pop do you have" response was a vacant expression and "I dunno". After saying "why don't you go any ask" it was another wait for the answer "none". So I asked "what fruit juice do you have" at which point we had a rerun of the diet pop conversation.
I saw no adults at all in the place and two of the boys serving looked no older than twelve.
This place probably gets by as it looks so nice and traditional and once in people think they may as well stay. Such a shame that the prices, food, and service are so dire as the place itself is full of chraracter and charm. It's a shame some of it hasn't rubbed off on the young kids working there!!

allison

Do not eat here! 2nd November 2008

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I love nothing better than a good tearoom, however this was nothing like a good tea room.
We we ignored by the teenage staff for the first ten minutes of sitting down and did consider walking out, a couple near us did actually make this very wise decision. The plates and left-over picked at cake (not a good sign)were left on our table for all this time and another table had the cups, plates and whatever else left for the whole half hour of our visit.
I ordered the welsh rarebit, expecting for £5.10 a couple of thick slices of bread with some nice melted cheese...not here though. After sometime the rude, sulky teenager delivered my rarebit which consisted of one thin slice of processed white bread with manky looking half melted cheese, on the side was a wilted salad.
I complained without touching the offering and was told that they didn't set the prices and that you should expect to pay premium prices as we were in Stratford-upon-Avon. As I pointed out I live in London, (which is the most expensive place in the country to eat I would suspect)and had eaten the previous day a toasted cheese sandwich with not one but two slices of bread, price £2.

To cut a long rant short, we sent it back and made them take it off the bill.

If you think, well I'll have a cake then, don't bother with those too, my husband had a shortbread which was mediocre to be kind. The left over bun on our table looked stale, and our next door table had a sad looking toasted tea cake.

If you don't want to be treated badly by stropy teenagers and don't want to encourage the "rip off Britain" mentality do not set foot inside this place. It looks lovely but is just a complete rip off. Go to the food market on a Saturday instead for some lovely cakes!

HELL0J0 at 10/11/08

I'm 16 and I had a sunday job at Hathaway Tearooms for a year and a half, so I feel I know the tearooms fairly well.
I think your review is a rather unfair account, for a start you have a stereotypical "all teenagers are moody etc" attitude which meant you thought negatively of the tearooms before you were even given your food. Yes the majority of weekend workers are teenagers, however I know most of them and they are not stroppy at all - I think I should know, I have worked with them. Also judging by when your review was posted, it was around the time when many new waitress' were hired so obviously they can't be expected to be able to be perfect since they don't have the experience.

You weren't ignored, I can assure you of that. Time was simply given for you to look at the menu. Had someone of gone up to you after a couple of minutes you would have asked them to come back in another few minutes because you were still looking. If you found that after 5 minutes you were ready you should have got the attention of a waitress to let them know you were ready. Unless you've been a waitress you wouldn't realise how hard it is to keep tables clear etc and I don't suppose you even thought of asking for it to be cleared. It may have been wrong of the waitress to leave the dirty plates there, but it wouldn't have hurt to have given them some guidance.

On to the food. Firstly, before you order you should check out the price. If you're not willing to spend the money on the food then quite simply you don't order it. Pretty obvious really. As you know we are in the middle of a credit crunch at the moment, so clearly the food will be more expensive. Also it wasn't cheese on the toast, it was rarebit which is made from cheese, flour, milk, pepper and mustard. I know because I've seen them make it many times. The cakes are made freshly, and they're not going to be made to perfection everytime. That is just a physical impossibility. Perhaps if you had visited during the week then the cakes would have a bit fresher.

To you it may be a rip off, but there are many customers who are happy to be served by teenagers, who are happy with the pricing and ultimately who are happy with the food.

allison at 11/11/08

Thanks for your response, but I feel I need to address a few of your points.

Firstly I do not have a "stereotypical" view on teenagers, I was merely making an observation based on what we experienced at Hathaways. The girl in question had a terrible attitude, from the moment we walked in and sat down. I was a waitress too when I was 16 and we never treated customers in such a disrepectful manner, after all, smile nicely and you may receive a tip.

I can categorically state that we were ignored, you were not there and so you can not possibly comment on this. I have eaten at enough restaurants and tea shops to know the difference between being ignored and being given time to peruse the menu, so please do not patronise me.

Onto your comments about the food, of course I checked the price, I am not a fool, however for over £5 I was expecting something more than the sad piece of bread with cheese, possibly two doorstep pieces of bread with cheese, (oh and sorry I didn't list the ingredients, I thought that might have got a bit long winded but I'll remember your comment and if ever I review a dish of spag bol for example I will be sure to mention all of the ingredients).

The cakes are fresh you say, well how is it that I would have needed to be there earlier in the week to have sampled the "fresh" ones then? You own comment has implied stale cakes on a Saturday!

In summary I am quite happy to be served by anyone who is polite be they 15 or 95, what I really object to is being ripped off. The trouble with us Brits is that we are scared to complain, prefering to eat the miserable offerings in silence. I have to say though we were not alone in thinking Hathaways was a terrible place to eat as people did walk out before ordering...they were the sensible ones.

HELL0J0 at 11/11/08

Firstly can I state that I don't need to be patronised either. I may be young, but I have a brain and shouldn't be spoken to like I'm stupid.
The comment about ingredients was rather rude, I was simply saying that what you were given was more than cheese on toast. There was no need for such a silly response to that.
The cakes are made freshly daily, however obviously they would want to sell the remainder of the cakes from the day otherwise they'd just go in the bin, which would be a waste of the bakers time and a waste of money. So perhaps you had a shortbread from the day before, which wouldn't be "stale" as you put it, just a day young.

You'll get people who complain wherever you go, whether its Hathaways or The Ritz, you may not have had a good experience but there are many others who have had a more enjoyable time.

Gemna at 11/11/08

No she may not of worked there the day in question. but i still do work there. Which day in question are you on about Saturday or Sunday? As i can tell you that Saturdays are very busy so not everyone can get round to people, where as i work on the Sunday which tends to be a little quieter. And if you sit at a dirty table then we arent going to know if the stuff is yours or not, if you had passed a waitress and told them you was going to sit at a dirty table then i can assure you they would of cleaned it. Perhaps you could of found a clean table? As for the cake being stale they are fresh and maybe it was stale as it was out in the open for it to become stale.

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jennipenni

Hathaway Tea Rooms & Bakery 12th February 2008

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I would imagine that this little tea room is extremely hard to get into during peak season!

We were here in spring and literally got the last little table under the eaves upstairs. There is a seating area downstairs, as well as upstairs... with a choice of sitting under the eaves at the back of the tea room, or in front of the tea room... overlooking the bustling High Street. We chose the intimate eaves!

Some of the staff were quite new you could tell, they weren't sure what was what, and to be honest... it was a tad higgledy-piggedly! BUT that aside, it was a lovely experience... the food was divine, the atmosphere old world and character-filled.

Everywhere you look there are little antiques... eg: eye out the gorgeous grandfather clock on the staircase... a waste to be sitting on a stairwell in a tea room if you ask me!

All these little things add to the charm of this tea room.

We had a cream tea, the scones were warm, the cream fresh and the strawberry jam really delicious!

As part of their cream tea price, they give you an extra dessert for free too... as if you haven't had enough sweet things!

We had a couple of sweets, shown in the photos.. they were delicious... far too delicious! Highly recommended little tea room!