Oasis In The Park

Prices are extortionate £2 for a doughnut, £1.50 small bottle of Pepsi £2 mug of coffee, the person in front of me was served food that was clearly burnt but the staff seemed to think it was ok. Staff are polite though and the place clean

I have just been to this café with my 3 young children. I live near Sefton Park and come here regularly but I seldom go to this café only once or twice since it opened, I have bought an ice cream off them so we could eat outside.
Well today I decided to sit in to eat. What a big mistake. I bought my children ice creams and ordered a spicy chicken wrap for myself. Was told that there wasn’t going to be any chicken for the next 15 minutes so I changed my order to a ham and cheese wrap instead. Was given a ticket and on it said I had to listen out for my order. Well it took 20 minutes to arrive, by which I was already regretting my purchase dearly. Not only that, but the food turned out to be just one pannini-​grilled flour tortilla with about 3 thin slices of ham and some flourescent yellow cheese sandwiched in the tortilla. And on the other side of the plate, a tiny ping pong ball portion of salad leaves with some olive oil drizzled over it. I wasn’t given any cutlery to eat with, which, fair enough, with the tortilla sandwich I could just eat with my hands, but was I supposed to eat some salad leaves dripping with olive oil with my fingers? Were they just meant for decoration, or was I supposed to now make the walk to the cashier to ask for cutlery? In short, this was not worth the nearly £4 price tag it cost me.
And then I witnessed some disturbing things committed by a member of the café’s staff whose job seemed to be clearing used dishes off empty tables, taking the lid off the little white flip-​top-​lid bin that was near our table and pushing the contents of the rubbish bin down with his bare hands, and gasp! Fetching plates of food orders out from the kitchen within minutes of pushing contents of bin down with hands all done without wearing any gloves! He looked scruffy, unkempt, and I was inclined to believe he may not have even washed his hands carefully between clearing dirty dishes, pushing contents of bin down, and serving customers food from the kitchen! At one time, he actually plonked a dirty used plate on the side of MY table closest to the bin (when I was still eating with my children) whilst he was clearing unwanted food off another dirty used plate. I was so gobsmacked by this that I just stopped eating and stared at him all that time, jaws agape. Never have I dined in a restaurant witnessing a waiter/​staff putting a dirty dish on a customer’s table whilst the customer was still eating.
To be fair, he only did that because he was struggling to clear some sticky food off that other plate he was holding, and he couldn’t have held on to both plates at the same time whilst doing that But still Yeurgh! He never once looked at me or in my direction as he did what he did. Whether that was because he knew what he was doing was wrong, or because he just could not give a toss, I don’t know. Soon after, he disappeared off into the kitchen and re-​emerged with a white plastic basin to clear dishes with so he did not have to do that again presumably. And he never did. But he should have done it right from the beginning, shouldn’t he?
Well we left pretty quickly after that. I felt a bit sick after seeing all that and quite frankly, will never frequent that establishment again. In fact I question why the clearing of uneaten food off dirty dishes was done outside in full view of eating customers. And why each time that member of staff clears the dishes, he has to take off the bin lid completely, and then use his hands to push the contents of the bin down to make more room for more rubbish. It just smacks of laziness, lack of awareness of basic hygiene, and lack of concern for the customers.
It’s a pity that this is the nearest café to the playground, which my children like to go to, so it’s convenient to just come here after being at the playground. But the service is just horrendous. So bad, I do not feel like spending an extra penny in here again. The café at the duck pond is more pleasant though, although they do not serve much cooked or hot food.