Ole & Steen Reviews 246

Oxford branch has a filthy restaurant and toilets. Awful customer service. Complaint sent to head office and still unresolved from 2 months ago.

Long queues and premium prices. Don’t expect plates, knifes or forks with which to eat your top-priced cakes and make your own tea by adding hot water (apparently Ole and Steen tea bags don’t need boiling water) yourself. This is justified as ‘giving you the choice as to how strong you want your tea’ which shows that the company knows about as much about tea-making as it does about decent service.

Cancelled an order on Too Good To Go over a month ago and never got my refund. Their AI bot is useless and there's no customer service. I paid for a product which was never received and this is my money. Care to respond ole and steen?

Have same issues as below - their app is shit, do not use it. I had four errors with payements which ended up being "reserved" for a week already.

Don't bother ordering for collection using the Ole app because the Richmond branch frequently fails to monitor orders placed in this way. The staff tell me that the order comes to a till that is not convenient to check. I discussed this with the manager months ago and nothing has changed. See other comments about Richmond below. Go to Gail's instead, they are polite, efficient and care about customers!

I have decided to leave this feedback because I come here very often, and this visit was especially disappointing. The service was very slow, the tables were consistently dirty, and the furniture looked quite run‑down. It feels like the place isn’t being maintained properly. I really hope someone in management takes this seriously and makes the improvements the café needs.

Second visit here, wanted to give them the benefit of doubt....but both visits the place is grubby. Crumbs on seats, piles of used cups and plates not cleared and the floor is disgusting! Definitely won't be going again

In their Notting Hill Branch February 26th 09.15am. Serious overcrowding. Staff selling in house orders with nowhere to sit. Coffees delivered and not told, so when we found them they were cold. My order was a breakfast bun . The eggs were half cooked and the sausage still cold from fridge or freezer. This is a serious health and safety issue. Reported to staff and sent the order back. They appeared uninterested and disengaged. Maybe this standard is normal for them. It is not for me. I took three guests on their first day in the UK. Left embarrassed and hungry.

I've had a really good experience at all the Ole & Steen locations in NYC, especially Union Square. Their salads are terrific but their sandwiches are really great. Always consistent.

The service in their Strand branch is really bad, one of the staff was so rude & lacking manners, i ordered some pastry which had some obvious dirt when some of the staff at the desk were helping me try to figure out what it was, the person who gave it to me was gasliting, dismissive & had a weird smirk.When i asked for the pastry that( i havent even touched at the desk) to be replaced she just snatched the plate from my hand in a terrible way, it is a the worst experience i have had in a café, where instead of apologies for serving me dirty food i was treated this way.. i don't recommend this place at all

Best coffee prepared by the lovely staff .
Friendly atmosphere and great bread too !
Always welcomed with the smile .

Always a friendly reception at Northcote Road SW11 branch, and their toasties are cracking

I visited the Westfield branch and decided to buy a chia rye bread. I noticed there was a 50% discount for members. When I reached the counter, I asked the male staff member (bald) if the bread was included in the promotion. He told me I needed a QR code, so I said I would quickly register for membership and come back. He then said the bread was not included in the discount. I replied that it was fine and that I would just buy it anyway.
At that point, he smirked and laughed sarcastically. I asked him what was funny, and he suddenly shouted at me, asking why he wasn’t allowed to laugh. I found this behavior extremely rude and unprofessional. This kind of attitude shows a lack of basic customer service skills and made my experience very unpleasant. I will never visit this place again!

I’ve been a regular Ole & Steen customer for several years, but my recent experience has been extremely disappointing.

I raised multiple complaints in September. One minor issue was resolved quickly, but a more serious complaint about misleading promotions, repeated sold-out stock, and a faulty app payment process has never been resolved, despite months of follow-up emails.

I was repeatedly encouraged to use Click & Collect, only for the app to fail due to payment issues that were not clearly disclosed. This led to wasted journeys and frustration. Communication from customer support was confused, slow, and often irrelevant, with long periods of no response at all.

Ole & Steen also appears to have removed itself from Resolver and uses feedback forms that don’t clearly invite follow-up, which makes escalation difficult.

The food can be good, but the customer service and complaints handling are very poor for a brand positioning itself as premium. I would think carefully before relying on their app or promotions.

Went for coffee and pasties in the Richmond, London store. Never again!
The person who was serving was rude and after taking the order conversed with a fellow assistant before getting the order. Had to request a tray that was dirty anyway, and then milk for the breakfast tea. The tea pot was dirty and had to request for the table to be cleaned. The seats were also covered in crumbs. It wasn't that busy either. Complained to the company and they promised a free coffee if I produced my recipt which I hadn't bothered to get or even keep. So all in all pretty useless and it's not cheap at this bakery!

Used to love the branch just off Piccadilly and would rave about it to my wife but at either the Kingston or White City branch we’ve both had bad experiences.

Most recent was the chemical taste of coffee at the White City branch and there was also a thick layer of dust on the wall behind us, literally clinging to the wall. My initial thought was poor franchisees, but they don’t offer this, so it is all down to the head office.

Such a shame as it all seems like a lovely place just badly run and bad hires.

Last time I go to the Kingston cafe…the pastries are great, but the coffee is dreadful…which I don’t get. As other reviewers say, service is also a bit iffy. Shame as you expect better from this brand and for the prices.

We are regular customers of Ole and Steen Richmond
On 26 October 2025 my credit card was overcharged by them. I discovered it when I received my statement.
I wrote to Ole and Steen via their website but have received no response.
Ole and Steen place their card machine low down. The shop is not well lit. One relies on their staff to charge the correct amount before one taps one's card.
Be careful.

Poor quality food, filthy branches, head office ignore complaints. Avoid this chain like the plague as they are extremely poor.

Attempting to order bread via their App. in order to reserve and collect later today. I have managed this easily for the past couple of years. But oh my days what a phaff this has been last night and today. Probably over an hour of my life I'll never get back. Dreadful. Sadly I will not be trying again.