Friday Street Farm Shop, Butchery, Cheese Room, Deli & Kitchen - Saxmundham

Serenity Sanders

An extremely disappointing visit. Friday Street has been a regular family tradition for lunch every week but it is looking like that will have to change.

A situation occurred today where a family member had ordered quiche and was brought a bottle of mayonnaise to go along side it. The quiche was nice enough but the mayonnaise is a different story. It was a ‘new bottle’ but upon removing the seal it looked curdled and had a yellow tinge. A worker was nice enough to take it aside and check it over and assured us its off-putting appearance was due to the mass amount of oil included in the condiment.

However the bottle was nearly a quarter empty when it returned which raised alarm bells that it was a different bottle which had now had a date added to the lid where as the the previous bottle had not gone one. We found it hard to believe their story that they had taken it away and squeezed out more than a quarter to check it was okay since there was such a significant amount gone.

We visited on the 7th of November and the new date on the bottle read the 5th of October. Whilst we presumed it was the use by date we were rudely told it was the date it was opened and made to feel we were being a burden for even asking. However, we wonder why this old lid had been placed on a new bottle.

To make matters worst we were rudely told by the manager himself it was the same bottle but upon questioning him about the October date he dismissed our statement and continued to tell us it was the same bottle and nothing had been changed. Being a manager we would’ve expected a bigger apology and reassurance but we were merely dismissed and made to feel it was our fault.

Finally a worker brought out another bottle and a new meal and assured us he had checked it over himself. However, after eating the meal (which mayonnaise had been added to) we looked over the bottle to find the best before the end date was August 2024. There was no date written on the sticker to say when it had been opened, just a plain sticker so we were skeptical to believe it had been opened today due to the BBE and sticker.

And our anxiety about the state of the condiment was further trivialized by a worker dismissing it as “it’s okay it was only 2 months ago and the lids may have got mixed up”. However, mayo obviously contains egg which after months we don’t believe it is just ‘okay’ to treat as a minor thing. In addition, to this he suggested that the lid from another bottle may have been mixed up, which we found hard to believe that they would keep bottle lids from nearly 2 months ago.

The whole situation put myself myself and another family member off our own food and with the poor handling of the situation we will hesitate to return. There was no apology from the manager and we were not given any sort of response to make up for the absolute poor service we encountered. A male worker told us he would return in 20 minutes after taking away the mayo, two months past its best before date, yet never returned.

Clearly this restaurant cares more about maintaining an image than apologizing to long term loyal costumers and accepting mistakes were made. We are saddened by what experienced today as before now we have always had a very positive visit.

Sue Abbott

We have had many enjoyable meals here with friends and family but it will be a long while before we have anymore! Last Tuesday we arrived for breakfast, there was no "wait to be seated sign" so we walked in, sat down and waited....there were only 12 people in the cafe including my husband and I so the staff were not rushed off their feet, they were walking up and down the cafe, brought out a couple of meals but no one acknowledged us or came anywhere near our table so after patiently waiting with no interaction from any member of staff we walked out. We had a delicious breakfast at Marlesford Farm Cafe where we were greeted warmly, ordered and served very efficiently!

Sharne Van der Burgh

Wow! Have driven past a few times, I am still exploring as I am new to Suffolk. What a treasure!! The whole shop vibrates with colour and positive energy from the fresh food. The variety is mind boggling. The people are friendly ans helpful
The cafe is nice- coffee was excellent (1 shot Latte so not too strong). Didn't especially appreciate the guy trying to use the phone while draped over the cakes (he was an employee) moaning about not being able to reconnect the phone - do your admin out of sight of customers perhaps...
Otherwise the quiche was nice- but that's all you get when you ask for a slice of quiche - no little salad or tomato on the side.
Coffee cake was delicious
The shop really made my day!

Lisa Kirk

Went in on the off chance we could get a breakfast and a coffee and we were pleasantly surprised ! The small breakfast was plenty and freshly cooked, could have been hotter and no butter offered. I ordered a cake, which I had to remind them about but they were very apologetic. Staff very friendly indoor and outdoor seating (we had the dog) toilets very clean and plenty of parking. Farm shop on site also well worth a visit ! A bit pricey but not off-putting.

Angela Dean

The best breakfast we have eaten in a very long time. Absolutely delicious.
The staff are so friendly and helpful as well. All in all a very lovely place to visit and enjoy a home cooked meal

PUNISHER

Very nice place to go with your family. Inside the shop very good quality product worth buying. The butcher had a big choice of good meat. Highly recommend.

Darren DuRose

An absolutely lovely farm shop with some great food and produce let down by its staff.

This could easily be a five star review if the staff perked up their attitude.

The lady on the cheese counter was the exception and was very friendly and helpful.

The lady (Sara) on the till really gave me the impression that she couldn’t have given a damn and would prefer to be elsewhere, if that’s the case I’d suggest you don’t work in retail. The lady on the butchery counter wasn’t much better.

We’ve been regular visitors when passing on our way to Aldeburgh, unfortunately this is not the first time the staff have been a little rude and made what should be a pleasant experience and little disappointing.

It’s not particularly cheap and considering we spent nearly £90 on basically cheese, a packet of biscuits and a couple of scotch eggs, it would go a long way to make us feel a little more welcomed and appreciated.

Shame as it could be an excellent place to visit.

Sophiá

Been coming here for years and I've had to delete my last review, the breakfast has gone hugely downhill, the quality is awful, burnt cheap bacon, really small sausages, tasteless scrambled eggs, toast that was barely warm bread, soggy mushrooms, optional extras we didn't get.. just very very disappointed with the food, absolutely terrible quality and portions, I genuinely wouldn't come back here again. Staff are absolutely wonderful btw, can't fault them one bit!! It's just the food, rubbish food, used to be fantastic up until about 2 yrs ago. Not to mention the car park is dreadful and full of pot holes it seems like the owners only care about the Electric car chargers.