We went for a little trip into Romsey today and first impressions were that it was a thriving and rather sweet town. I liked the little market stalls, parking was easy and the shops seemed busy, although I don’t know if a lot of people were buying.
I was really disappointed to find nowhere to have a good coffee and sandwich. We tried the department store but it just seemed rather old fashioned and the queue in the restaurant was huge and there was zero atmosphere. There was a Costa Cafe but I really wanted to patron a privately owned cafe and see something new on the menu.
So we tried here, Cafe Fresh on Romsey high street.
It looked really welcoming apart from a table in the window with left over food/plates. This was a problem. The tables weren’t being cleared by the staff and whilst there the table next to us had to ask the waitress to take away the old plates which she hadn’t noticed before she gave them their lunch. There was not a shortage of staff, they just didn’t seem to be very organised.
We ordered two coffees and two toasted sandwiches. I had virtually finished my latte before the toasted sandwich appeared.
The menu was also strange. Someone in charge had decided that an piece of A4 paper laminated and folded in two would look good with three black and white photos on the front of Romsey. Two of the photos were identical and completely over exposed with flash and sunlight taking away most of the picture. They must have decided that it didn’t matter and that was the problem with this cafe in Romsey. Someone just didn’t care. Their were nice photos on the walls but someone was now sticking posters and leaflets like a teenager does in their bedroom and it just all felt rather tired.
A walk around the inside of the shops gave us both the same feeling. That Romsey looked so nice on the outside, it has so much potential but inside I would say it all looks tired and old and has just given up.
