“Used to love Grandpa Greenes in Diggle..lovely food,beautiful setting but the last time we visited there were two dogs sat on the seats and no one did anything about it.Surely there should be basic hygiene rules ?This happened last year and we have never been back.”
“We went for breakfast. Don’t sit in the conservatory as it’s way too bright.
My partner asked for the sweetcorn fritters but instead of poached eggs, to have scrambled eggs. They said they can’t make any changes. Which makes me think these are pre-prepared and reheated meals.
I had the poached eggs.
No orange juice in stock.
After scraping the mountain of soggy, boarder line expired spinach off the muffins and seeing the almost blue ham, we eat what we could manage and left.
Only the fact we had little time that morning kept us from going elsewhere.
Avoid for breakfast. Diggle Lock is a few minutes away and will be going back there next time.”
“Grandpa Greene's was an expensive and waste of a day out. By the time we arrived we were ready for some refreshments. We had driven some 25 miles to the place which in fairness is in a lovely setting but please be aware it is sited close to a canal and railway line so please look after your children and pets.
Well, we joined the queueing system which is a strange system of two queues but you have no idea which queue to join. The system is confusing.
When it is your turn to be directed as to what to do you will come across youngsters working there with two way radios trying to organise chaos. The management is nowhere to be seen. This is just the start of our miserable experience. We are shown to our seats in what resembled a dog compound with the amount of barking going on. Those poor frightened little creatures scared by all the activity going on.
We ordered our food, eventually, after the youngster reported her 'tablet' was faulty and she had to go and find another. The menu was limited. The four of us opted for sausage sandwiches. Some with fried eggs - big mistake!
Those that took their first bite ended up with a mess in their hands as the bread rolls collapsed because they could not support the contents. The sausages were 'tough' and very 'chewy'. The egg yolks dripped everywhere. The drinks never arrived and we were told it was their policy to bring drinks after the meal. My wife had to ask for them to be brought. This was the beginning of our 'synthetic' experience with their milkshakes. We decided to call it a day. "Lets have an ice cream" we thought. Synthetic mistake number two! The ice cream was barely palatable.
The last straw was being told we had to rejoin the queue for our ice creams! Well, that was it we quickly exited the place never to return. Alas.”
“We were very disappointed with our day out to Grandpa Greene's.
So that we don't appear to be people who complain just for the sake of complaining I would like to include the positive which is the location but please be aware you are near deep water with a canal and close by is a railway line.
The negatives:
1. The staff. They were mainly young people with no obvious seniority in place. The person in charge clearly was not the owner. When we complained for the reasons below we were offered a free ice cream!
2. The queueing system resembled a theme park and was disorganised. We were told to wait and nobody came back to us. After asking we were seated in what I can only describe as being like in a dog kennels. Constant barking from dogs, poor things, who were clearly not happy in this confined space full of activity.
3. The sub-standard food arrived. Sausage with skins that you could not chew. Bread buns that broke up and let the contents fall out.
4. The drinks arrived AFTER we had eaten what we could of the sandwiches. We were told "this is our policy". How do you eat sausage sandwiches of dry bread with tough skins without a drink?
5. The dogs barking and the poor food meant a quick exit. "Let's get an ice cream and just go" we thought. Then..... guess what?
6. We were told we had to join another queue similar to being in a theme park.
The young man was adamant we could not be served and we called for the manager to complain. Another young girl arrived and offered us a free ice cream. She was full of excuses about how busy they were and her attitude certainly did not help.
7. After waiting for the ice creams to be made by one slowly working employee we finally exited Grandpa Greene's never to return.
8. There was one surprise left for us. The ice cream was synthetic and not the lovely fresh ice cream which we often find sold now where you just have to have another. We just felt completely let down and had wasted a day out and a lot of money in the process.
We shall never return to this place.”
“Grandpa greens used to be a place you could get tea & coffee whilst you were walking your dog on the canal, although I appreciate that it’s done well to expand, it clearly has nothing to do with the quality of the coffee or service. Today I simply asked for one decaf Americano with cold milk; what could go wrong? Before we even got to order that particular coffee we had already queued at the new shack for coffee and a tea for 5 minutes only to be told they didn’t serve take away hot drinks there.
We then stood and queued at the original shack when after 5 minutes we were told we couldn’t queue there, we had to walk up the canal through the car park down the hill to queue behind 1 lady. Once it got to our turn the girl was radioed that we could go down to get our two takeaway hot drinks (yes, radioed). Once ordered, the drinks took around 15 minutes to be made. My decaf Americana looked more like a very weak latte with no froth & tasted weak watery & was scolding . I went back and asked the girl, could she do me another as it tasted of water and it was scolding, could you just do me half a cup so there is more flavour. Got my second cup and looked and tasted exactly the same, £2.50 for scolded water. It’s such a shame because it’s beautiful up there. If you’re gonna be charged £2.50 for a brew then at least send your staff on a barista course and research some nice coffee to sell to your loyal customers. And if your going to employ little kids for cheap labour, train them to be polite and teach them some customer service skills. Customer is king remember. Probably won’t return unfortunately as I hate bad service and rubbish coffee. You ruined a lovely little shack cafe.”
