Applestore Cafe

I dont like giving bad reviews because sometimes businesses have a bad day, a run of bad luck, etc. But given the price of the food, the lack of service and the fact this is supposed to be a wedding venue, then im going to have to share We hadn't been in a while, but it looks like they've changed the name to the Striped Apple? Not sure why, have they changed hands? They used to make really nice chunky chips, now they make generic fries. So that was the first disappointment. The staff were pleasant enough initially. My pregnant partner made out right from the beginning when ordering that she was gluten free, but when they brought her hogless roast sandwich, she had to double check the bap was gluten free, as it looked the same as mine. The waitress went off to check, came back and took the dish away as it wasn't gluten free and whoever works the kitchen replaced the bap with some generic slices of gluten free bread, unbuttered. Her dish came back a little colder. I had the Swiss Steak Sandwich on what was supposed to be a ciabatta. It just looked and tasted like a standard bap to me. It came with a small portion of tasteless fries. At no point during our meal did anyone come to ask how things were! This is basic catering service! Several hours later, my partner now has symptoms of gluten ingestion. Call it a hunch, but we think they scraped the hogless roast from the gluten bap onto the gluten free bread, thus cross contaminating it. Both meals, by all accounts, were extremely bland. We just couldn't taste anything. I even separated out some of the ingredients to sample by themselves, but they were all texture and no flavour. So too was the hogless roast. Although it did taste like someone had squeezed some cheap bbq source into it. For the price, really poor. Ordinarily I'm a cake fiend, but given the price of the food and the lack of flavour we decided to cut our losses and leave. My bland sandwich cost the best part of £14, my partner's hogless roast sandwich was around £12. For £30 and considering this is supposed to be a wedding venue, we would have thought the food would have some flavour to it, that the staff would communicate our fairly basic dietary requirements and that the staff would check in on us at some point to make sure everything was OK. Again, this is basic catering. The coffee was good though. Just don't waste your money on the food and probably give it a miss if your have any food intolerances. Hopefully these guys don't do the wedding catering or you'll have a wedding meal to forget. A real shame, as this place used to be alright. Dietary restrictions: We ordered gluten free hogless roast. It came with a gluten bap. They replaced the bap with unbuttered gluten free bread and we think they scraped the filling from one to the other, contaminating the food so now my pregnant partner is dealing with that. Dont trust them if you have bad reactions, not worth it.

Used to love this place. However, since the change of menu and change in chefs/Striped Pig, unfortunately, the quality of the food has gone down significantly. Maybe just a few teething issues, but I didn't think the food was worth the money. It's such a shame. I will maybe try again in a couple of months...

Good to stop for the facilities but the food and drink is extremely overpriced and took ages to arrive. Coffees were spilled before they were handed to us, tiny plate was inappropriate for the huge bit of cake, and the soft drink wasn't the one I asked for. 15 quid for a couple of mediocre coffees, a slice of cake and a soft drink is ridiculous. The cake was nice at least!

Lovely food and really attentive staff. Thoroughly recommended.

Very pleasant breakfast in quiet surroundings. Might get a bit hot on some days because the bit we were sitting in is basically a greenhouse.

Only an overall 1 star for this place. Expected a lot more as so many of my friends recommended it. But in reality it wasn’t good. Visiting on a Monday morning there was room on the car park. This is NOT a place to visit if you are managing a mobility disability. Path to restaurant quite difficult. Steps with single handrail into the eating area. Tables are rickety. So are the chairs. We just chose a bacon / egg bap and a latte each. The bacon was cooked nicely but sadly lacked flavour. The coffees were brought to the table with most of the coffee swilling out of the cups when the young lady was carrying them to the table. Overall disappointing. Tried it once. Don’t need to go again

Lovely place to spend time

Love this place, staff are wonderful, food is tasty and good size portions, not to mention it came in record time even though we were a group of 8. Lots of room to sit outside. And near a playground for the kiddos to enjoy. Attracts lots of dogs/dogwalkers, the dogs were all very well behaved and looked after Dietary restrictions: Dairy free, gluten free and vegan options available. Parking: Parking outside is a bit tight with quite a few potholes, there is a nearby overflow car park. Both tend to be pretty busy so be prepared to be working around other vehicles. Parking is free. Kid-friendliness: Very kid friendly. Staff are very friendly to little ones. They have a separate kids menu and there is a playground very close. Additionally when seated outside the tables are quite spread out with plants in between so you don't feel that you are disturbing anyone. Wheelchair accessibility: I don't recall there being many steps and I believe there were step free routes in to the cafe if you access it from shop side, however the surfaces are very uneven, the road has potholes and puddles. I think this would be quite difficult for most wheelchair users even if they had assistance to help negotiate parking and difficult terrain. We were travelling with someone who could walk but had limited mobility due to a food injury and found it was fairly manageable.