Root One Cafe - South Oxfordshire

The cafe was short staffed so the wait to be served was very long. Thats ok, these things happen. The food took a little longer to arrive. Thats ok, the wait had been explained. However... what I received in return for my £9.99, patience and good natured waiting was truely appauling. It was advertised as ' Chunky Vegetable Soup '. It was indeed chunky. Lumps of potato, dark long over cooked peas, some slivers of carrot and a lot of button mushrooms (both whole and chopped) sitting murkily at the bottom of a bowl of dish water thin, grey liquid with bits of brown leaves floating listlessly amongst droplets of red tinged oil and a cheese toasty. As the queue was now very long and the waitresses clearly doing their over worked best and not responsible for the ineptitude of the chef I elected to make the best of a very bad job and doctored it with the sauces and spices available to the best of my ability. It was much improved by a sachet of ketchup, 2 salts and a little pepper (incase anyone else finds themselves in similar peril). The others in my party faired much better thankfully. We stayed for a hot pudding which had clearly been hurridly microwaved. The pudding in the center being volcano hot and the pool of custard around it tepid at best. They at least balanced each other out. Soup should be a delicious, comforting and filling meal. sometimes thick and robust . sometimes light and delicate. It should never, resemble a bowl of washing up water with plate scrappings at the bottom. Ever. Highly recommend the book : Great British Soups 120 tempting recipes from Britain 's master soup makers (New Covent Garden Soup Company).

Went for a morning breakfast I have an egg allergy So asked if they leave off the two eggs and give me mushrooms instead This cafe point blank refused Didn’t care or have any understanding to allergies So I then ordered a bacon bap The bap was very dry sausages are rock hard at the end and you can’t bite or cut through them The bacon is was ok but not a lot of it for the price I wouldn’t eat here again

We like this garden centre and have eaten in the cafe before. This time unfortunately service was extremely slow. We only ordered two ciabattas and coffee. We took our coffee to the table ourselves and waited and waited for our food. We sat there for over 30 minutes and thought that the order must have been lost. We had long finished our coffee. My husband went to ask and the lady just said “the ciabattas will be out in a minute”. We must have waited at least another ten minutes before they were brought out with no apology for the wait. The food was just OK so we won’t bother to eat next time we visit.

We love this cafe which is joined to the beautiful garden centre and we have eaten there often. The food is always hot and well cooked and the staff are friendly and helpful. I don’t know the young man’s name, but he is I think a waiter. Very cheerful and friendly. I asked if we could move outside with our food. He immediately helped move us and our food to another table whilst making witty chat and making us laugh. Absolute star.

The cafe was really busy but our food arrived quickly. There’s a good choice of food on offer. I’m only giving it a 3 because the food was definitely overpriced for what we received, which is a shame as the actual egg mayonnaise filling in our sandwiches was delicious.