A great location for a Sunday afternoon walk and lunch. The only problem is that you can only book the Canal cafe for parties of 6 or more and the main building / restaurant doesn't provide light lunches. There were more than 6 of us so we had to go for a walk whilst waiting on a table to be free'd up. When we did get sitting down and after quite a wait, the food was very good, we had pizzas, a chicken curry, burger, cottage pie, club sandwich etc. Coffees were great also, desserts weren't very impressive for a cookery school. Overall, a nice experience, staff were helpful and friendly considering how busy they were.

But my partner and i have eaten at the Canal Cafe several times. I usually have the Pate and She has a sandwich or cheese. I have to start this review by stating that the Food has always been extremely tasty thought slightly on the pricey side. However i have always had a problem with the slowness of the service. However this was taken to an all time low last Sunday. My partner and i arrived on a sunny day and went in to request that we could sit outside and also to get menus. We were instantly made to feel that our being there was an invonvenience (menus were almost thrown at us). We were then told someone would be out to take our orders. 10 minutes past with several waiting staff igoring us even though there was no one else outside. 15 minutes past and a waiter came out to clean up a table next to us looked at us with our menus and disappeared back inside. when 20 minutes had past and it was quite obvious they were not going to provide any service to us we decided to leave. While the food is good here and the sorrounding very well landscaped and maintained the service we found to be utterly atrocious. I am only writing this review as this is not the first time that i have experienced what can only be described as contempt from the staff here. A shame to ruin what is a perfectly good cafe serving perfectly good food in magnificent sorroundings. I for one will not be back.

Lovely spot this. Enjoyed on a warm balmy Sunday afternoon.Sat outside. The baked ham and cheese sandwich on homemade brown bread with spicy apple sauce was gorgeous.The lovely reconditioned old buildings now housing shops was a treat.The fresh tea leaf tea in silver pot was delish for tea lovers.Service was good and good value too. Lovely grounds beside the Grand Canal. Well worth a visit.