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  • Unbearable attitude from the boss

My boyfriend and I are vegan and gluten-free so decided to give Pea Souk a go, even though we'd already eaten. There was not much for vegans and only one option that was also gluten-free, but we decided to order one of those. We sat down and I had a look at the drinks menu and spied a vegan hot chocolate - which would have been great, but when I asked, I found out they use Provamel - owned by Dean Foods - which owns the biggest megadairy (as in, no grass) in the U.S.. No thanks! (Plamil is a great UK vegan organic fair business to support). With that in mind, nothing else took my fancy, so we asked for tap water with our main that we intended to share. BIG MISTAKE! The owner, the woman described in the review below, came out the kitchen and spoke to my boyfriend and I like schoolchildren, telling us that it was by exception okay for us to sit there today (how gracious, as paying customers!) as there were no customers. (At all. At 11.45am on a sunny Saturday in early September. Wonder why...) but normally I would have to buy a drink. It was not so much WHAT she said, but HOW she said it. Honestly, if it was okay, why bother saying anything at all?! Business sense also seems a bit lacking - people are much more likely to enter a cafe that is not obviously empty when the rest of the town is buzzing! We WERE paying customers and not happy with the attitude that SHE is doing US a favour. Sorry, no, we were not that enticed by the cafe or menu, but thought we should support a vegetarian business, especially one that seemed so sad and empty! But really, the rudeness makes it pretty clear why! So, we just walked out. Reading the short reviews here, I really think they either walked into a different place, caught the place on a day when only the owner's long-suffering staff were there, or they are fake. In fact, we mentioned our visit to friends when we got home, and it turns out they also observed a similar incident to ours a year ago! Friendly and helpful are certainly NOT the words that sprang to mind in our experience. The owner/cook should keep her charming manners to the vegetables and leave customer service to those better suited to it. This is the first vegan/vegetarian restaurant I've ever walked out of, especially before even ordering. Avoid.


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