Lemon Cafe not so great customer experience

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Permalink Reply by Penguin on September 4, 2015 at 12:10

I went a few days ago and the service couldn't have been nicer. It was busy too. Full English was great. More pricey than the Park View but hey, i know rates on Green Lanes are astronomical.

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Permalink Reply by Cem Kaplan ( Cafe Lemon ) on September 4, 2015 at 13:49

My name is Cem Kaplan and I own the cafe along with my business partner Irfan. I’m adding this post to respond to a couple of threads posted last month that have picked up on some problems at Cafe Lemon.

First of all thank you all so much for taking the time to offer feedback on our cafe and huge apologies for any drop-off in standards you may have noticed.

I do recognise some of the issues that have been highlighted. Most of these problems developed whilst I was away through August.  For those of you who know us, I’m sure you’ll know that for many years we’ve offered tasty, great value food and friendly service. Sometimes things hit a rough patch and sad to say, we’ve just been travelling a rather bumpy road. Sometimes, however, it’s no bad thing to get challenging feedback. It’s an opportunity to reappraise and make things even better than they were before. 

I want to reassure you all that we’re now on the case and are rapidly putting things right and we’re aiming at delivering even better service and even tastier food, made with even better ingredients, whilst still offering traditional Cafe Lemon value.

So what will the changes be? Let me offer just one or two insights.

First and foremost, we’ve recruited a new team of staff especially chosen to put the smile back in the Lemon! I’m sure you’ll feel the love next time you come in. 

Our direction of travel with Cafe Lemon has been to put a real focus on high quality ethical food whilst not losing sight of good value. Wherever possible we’re trying to 'keep it local' by sourcing our produce locally. We’re also treading the fair trade path. In some instances this, along with rent hikes, means that with great reluctance we have had to put some of our prices up.

For example, we now use only 100% organic fair-trade arabica beans. Our price increased from £1.99 to £2.20. We hope you'll agree that at the same time as offering great coffee and supporting the fair trade movement this still represents good value.

We’re doing similar things with our food. In one development, we’ve started partnering with local butcher Baldwins, to offer a high quality gourmet free range breakfast - delicious and well worth a try! 

BUT, we also want to keep good value at Lemon. So, we’re currently working on the prices of our regular breakfast and aiming to reduce them if we can do so without impacting on quality. 

We have been in Harringay since 2004 and we love being here. We’re committed to our neighbourhood, just as we’re committed to offering you all a great community cafe experience. Please do pop in and try us. I am usually 'in the house', sometimes in the back office, and I’d love the chance to meet you. Whether you just want to say hi or give me some good or bad feedback, just ask for Cem (pronounced Jem) and I’d welcome a chat.

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Permalink Reply by Kat on September 5, 2015 at 17:23

I agree that the service has definitely decreased. There used to be a really nice, friendly waitress but I haven't seen her for a while. I did go in a couple of weeks ago and there was a new English waiter who was friendly and polite. I will go back soon as I think the all day breakfasts are amazing!

Thanks for replying Cem. 

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Permalink Reply by Ian Craine on September 5, 2015 at 17:56

Kat, I suspect you're talking about the same girl I mentioned a while back in this thread. She was very nice but they come and go. And I know the young fellow you mean- yes he's fine. And really there's nothing identifiably wrong with any of them; it's just that sometimes one or two could go the extra mile. I do agree with the general tenor here but it's still a good enough place to go to from time to time. And we are spoilt for choice around here- in quantity at least if not always quality. 

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Permalink Reply by Kat on September 5, 2015 at 19:09

Agreed - a smile and friendly hello makes all the difference! I might try Bun and Bar for breakfast too as I love their burgers and cocktails so hoping their breakfasts are nice?! 

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on September 5, 2015 at 19:26

Hopefully the all-new team will starting making themselves felt pretty quickly.

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