I normally like leaving positive reviews of independent cafés on TripAdvisor. Sadly, that won't be happening on this occasion as the service here left a lot to be desired.
I really don't get the hype for this place. Granted, when we arrived, we thought this...place looked really nice on the outside and as it was well past 2pm, we were looking forward to having some lunch. Whilst my dad was ordering, I went into the back room to get a table, only to discover that despite there being available tables, there was no space for us to sit. This might sound confusing, but here me out; the only table left, which was designed to seat four people, only had two chairs round it and as the back room was so tightly packed, there was no capacity to move another two chairs to this table, so we had to sit outside. To make matters worse, the back room was absolutely filthy with trays, cups and plates left all over the place. Already, this was not setting a good tone.
The service here is unbelievably bad. We ordered 4 x cups of tea and the staff brought out one teapot and two cups. After we waited for the other two cups to come out, we then had to ask the server what happened to the other two tea orders. It then transpired that the lady who took our order at the till, who spoke very poor English, had got our order wrong and only charged us for two teas!
I've worked in customer service before and when a customer is charged incorrectly, whether they are overcharged or undercharged, my first discernment is to apologise profusely for the inconvenience and put the situation right. What I did not expect is when the 'waiter' brought out the two remaining cups and a pot of tea, his first discernment was to say to us, 'now you'll have to pay for those'! So not only did we get charged wrong, we were then expected to pay for the member of staff's mistake! Admittedly, the charge was waived when we complained but evidently, basic customer service skills are not so commonplace in this establishment.
When the food finally arrived (service was very slow, despite this place being past the lunchtime rush), we were pleasantly surprised at the size of portions and quality of food, which is why this place gets 2*s and not 1*. However, the BLT I ordered had very finely shredded lettuce in. I tried to recall where I'd last seen lettuce like it, then it dawned on me: McDonald's! Literally, my BLT tasted more like a McDonald's bigmac then anything else so to be honest, my sandwich wasn't great and the side salad was actually more enjoyable!
To make matters worse, the pricing here is absolutely ridiculous. My BLT was 11€ I think and disgustingly, cheese and ham paninis are 13€! For the benefit of those who use pound sterling, 13€ is about £11, so unless the cheese and ham panini is coming out of the kitchen at somewhere like Claridge's, I'm not sure what makes a cheese and ham panini so expensive.
Overall, this was a very poor experience. The food was forgettable and the service was terrible. The staff, as well as being sluggish were also miserable to the point that a smile would be out of place in the establishment. As there are so many places presumably to get lunch in Dublin, I would recommend giving Keogh's Café a wide berth and finding somewhere else!More
