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anonymous   

User's reviews

  • Maudee's Cafe & Tea Room

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    My family and I recently had afternnon tea at Maudee's. Although the tea and food were fine, we found the service very disappointing and the business practices of the owners highly questionable. Prior to making our reservation we had read on the internet that two different types of tea services are available: high tea and cream tea, however, the menu provided at our table only listed the high tea and this is also the only option our server (presumably one of the owners) mentioned in his explanation to us. We listened to the full explanation of our 'options' and only after no mention was made of it, we questioned whether something lighter was available (ie the cream tea which we had read about online). Only thereafter was it confirmed that this was also an option. We found this questionable since the menu provided made no mention of the cream tea nor did the waiter volunteer this option on his own. As became clear later, it was clearly a deliberate omission of information. Nevertheless we chose the cream tea option and initially assumed this was not a deliberate omission of information until the bill arrived. There were only 3 of us and our teas and food were all served in combination on the same plate and in one and the same pots, however, we were automatically charged a 20% gratuity. Albeit the gratuity was not a large dollar amount, but gratuity by its nature is voluntary and it has NEVER been my experience before that a 20% gratuity is required for a party of 3. Typically restaurants require a 20% gratuity for parties of 5 or more which is very understandable, but in this case it was unwarranted and when we questioned it we were given a very curt explanation. The waitress was shrewish to begin with, so unfortunately this explanation of the gratuity only sealed the first impression we had of her as being rather unpleasant and short. Before leaving we also suggested in a polite manner that the cream tea be included in the menu, which was on our table, for guests that would arrive and were not aware of the lighter (and less expensive)option. It was explained to us in length that guests 'normally know' what they want and if 'asked' they are told about the cream tea. This omission of information and the 20% gratuity as well as the filthy hallway on the way to the bathroom left an extremely poor impression on us and we regret that we would not recommend Maudee's to anyone that appreciates upfront business practices. We have seen on the internet that the owner is in the habit of 'refuting' negative reviews. This underlines his lack of respect for customers and unwillingness to listen to customers suggestions for improvement as displayed while we were in his establishment.