Fantastic reception on arrival, the freshly pressed apple juice was sublime, looked like a cocktail at breakfast time!
The prices are higher than a street cafe but the view, service and ambiance are worth every penny, Really cool place to hang out
Gms
This Cafe has the ambience, food quality & presentation of a Blackpool Pleasure Beach Cafe with the prices a of a central London Restaurant - we regrettably didn't check prices before we entered but saw the sign & fancied fish & chips. The no more than 5oz Battered Haddock was tasteless, arrived only with a large bowl of McDonalds style (very thin) chips, a very small bowl of rock hard peas & tartare sauce!. For this & 2 small bottles of Coca Cola we paid £39! This is the worst value establishment have have ever been to - an absolute 'rip-off'
Humbug Rock
This restaurant /cafe - as others have indicated is pricey.
Expensive is OK if visible and reflected in value. Unfortunately this was not our experience last week (Sep 09) We were handed menus and our gaze directed to the 'Specials' on display. Without checking the Menu we went for the trad. fish & chips on the board (pricey we thought at £9 ish each - but "hey this is Rock - it'll be good")
We ordered two fish but with just one portion of chips for the 2 of us;
Fish was fine - not excellent. Chips were matchstick frozen type but the pot of peas were 'rock' (pardon the pun) hard.
Hungry.... we were fed.
We were more than surprised though, to be presented with a bill for £33.50 which included a coke and tonic water.
On checking - we were told that the 'on board ' price was the 'take away price'
Sadly, we hadnt consulted the Menu after being shown the boards....knowledge is all
Wont be going back.
Far better value to be had elsewhere.
PS Tables could do with a scrub. Wooden slats ingrained with ketchup doesn't look good.
On the positive side - the waitress was pleasant, the location is enviable as is the classy seaside ambience but they shouldn't expect to profit from that alone by maximising takings from unwitting visitors in the short season.
Pastyman
Absolutely crazy prices even for the Rock area, a chicken burger at the exorbitant price of 13 pounds, I'd expect the whole damn chicken in a bun for that price, coffee also far too expensive. Surprisingly never seemed that busy at any time of day. About time there was some competition for this overpriced excuse for a cafe!!!.
Yvonne
What a pretentious cafe, with surly rude staff!
Shouted at me because I had the audacity to bring in a buggy, Therefore would advise management that the back to front sign on the front door is a bad idea...
Overpriced food I mean £9.95 for an Egg Mayo sandwich even if it "does come buttered" and with packet of crisp!!!!! and £4.50 for a smoothie..would have to be a whole weeks portion of fruit for that price
Better to go up the road to the delightful "The Rock Bakery" where they not only charge £1.95 for said sandwich, they also have some yummy pasties and cakes.....Although they would benefit from tables and chairs outside as eating in the car does leave lots of crumbs....
donkey
well, well, well, what a fabulous gem this is....amazing views, great decor, unbelievably fantastic mussels......if you haven't been, you need to! i will be telling all my friends..........
SaltySeaDog
Our first ever time to Rock yesterday...and I must say the last. If the Blue tomato cafe is representative of Rock then it quite obviously has so much wealth it can afford to be rude and ignorant to its visitors.
We turned up at the cafe at around 1:50pm, there was not any opening times apparent on the door. Our order was politely taken and promptly served too. The food was very good. What was appalling was that each member of staff was not talking but almost shouting, whistling almost deafeningly loud and discussing how awful Jane MacDonald is.
We were the only customers and made to feel very unwelcome, it felt as if we were sat in the kitchen during staff lunch time.
How do the staff know we were not related to Jane MacDonald?
fayefiggs
"I think I'll have a smoothie and a mortgage!" commented my friend as he read the menu in the Blue Tomato Cafe. I was absolutely taken back with the ridiculous prices that this cafe has the audacity to charge. Nachos are £8 and scrambled eggs and salmon will set you back more than £10.
The table was so sticky that the newspaper stuck to it and the annoying staff spent most of their time flirting with each other or whistling.
On the other hand the lemon drizzle cake was gorgeous and I have to say the cafe has very tasteful decor.
Unfortunately, i don't think I will be returning here again.
Toby Messer
Having arrived in Rock early one Saturday morning with my good lady wife and the dog, a cappuccino was in order. The waitress was attentive and friendly and the coffee was agreeable. The only thing that left a bad taste was the price - £3.25 each for a regular (not large mind) coffee was not steep but positively precipitous. And we come from Barnes the coffee village of south west London.
Sooze
Five of us and the dog mostly enjoyed our afternoon at this lovely cafe in Rock. Our waitress was charming and the whole experience was what we were looking for after a day on the beach with a choice of great food for everyone. The only blot on the landscape was the pernicious manageress sat inside in the corner making totally inappropriate comments about her waiting staff. I would NOT revisit this cafe if I knew she was going to be there as I find it unacceptable behaviour to cause an atmosphere of fear in your staff that obvious. We were sat outside and we could still hear her.
