The Rabbit Hole - Lincoln

My friend and I were in town for the Huskers game. Lincoln was very busy!! We arrived about 10:00 A.M. There were other tables there. I ordered the white chocolate cranberry scone slightly warmed up; very soft moist! My friend ordered the chocolate granache tart; fresh blackberry and bunny ears!! She loved it!! They do a carafe of Mimosas for $15:00, they use real orange juice. We did have to wait for some fresh brewed black coffee, which was fine! We had asked for real mugs not paper, the nice young server delivered them when the coffee was done brewing. That was fine because we could sip on our Mimosas in nice glass champagne flutes !! My friend has been here before, my first time, we will be back. Cheers

I don 't usually like to write bad reviews for small/new/independent businesses, but in this case I feel my hand has been forced as the staff were uninterested in my comments made in person and clearly have no desire or intention to start offering anything of value to their customers. My main issue is the fact that they were serving tiny pieces of cake for £2.20 a slice. This in itself was not a problem, I actually thought it must be very nice buttery home made cake if it was being served in such little slices, and was quite happy to take a piece. But the fact that the cake, by their own admission, was from the local Cash and Carry (or equivalent) and probably cost less than £1 per entire cake. They had cut these little cakes into 4 6 slices each. You can see these in some of the photos (in the photos on their Facebook group, they appear to have photos of slightly bigger, possibly better cakes). It is OK to buy things in, it doesn 't have to be home made, but to just settle for the lousiest inexpensive cake you can find, cut it into the smallest pieces you think you can get away with and charge the same price as places that at least take the trouble to source quality cakes (or make their own) shows a lack of love, care or understanding of the business they had somehow found themselves in. The badly executed Alice themed decor (eg. wrinkled up, badly laid black and white chequered lino, cups glued to the wall with scrunched up brown paper stuck to them which I realised was supposed to be tea), and other odd touches such coloured paper arrows to the toilets with misspelled directions, sink full of dirty dishes sitting there in full view actually in the tea room with the tables, and the toilet shared with the tattoo studio next door may have been amusing on their own, but the fact that the owners couldn 't even be bothered to source interesting or quality cakes made the whole experience lacklustre and sad. Here we have people who want to run a tea room but fail on every level, from serving cakes of the type you might buy when you have no choice but to purchase them from a petrol station on the way to visit an acquaintance in an unfamiliar part of town on a Sunday evening when you find nothing else open, to showing a complete lack of ability to create any kind of ambience or aesthetic, especially since the 'tea room ' (and I use that in the loosest possible sense) has a theme with such potential! I told the owners that £2.20 was too much for a slice of cash and carry cake and they were not interested in this, so I am writing it on here. I do not mind paying for cakes. I do not need cakes to be big. I just think the owners must have a special kind of contempt for their customers if they want to serve them literally the worst cake they can find, and the feeling is mutual, so I feel the need to call them out on a public forum. I think that the idea of giving up one 's day job and having a tea room is quite a sweet fantasy that many people entertain, but probably would not have the skill or determination to pull it off. These people seem to have found themselves somehow fulfilling this fantasy, and knowing or caring nothing about tea rooms and what makes them good. It felt like we had walked into the venture of some particularly unsuccessful 'The Apprentice ' contestants who had tried to cobble together a tearoom on a budget of £50. If the owners are reading this, I challenge them to tell us something they do well. Do not say 'we are unique and the only Alice themed tea room in Lincoln ' that is not an answer to my question. Do not say 'people like us ' I am people and I do not like you, and it also does not answer the question. Tell me one thing you actually do well, because I could not see any. OK you were not rude, but you were not receptive to my comments (and I worded them very gently indeed, unlike this review) although that is the very bare minimum one should expect. Not rude. Give yourselves a pat on the back for managing to be not rude.

I could relate with Alice when entering the Rabbit Hole, nothing was as it would seem for a Tearoom. Firstly as it is child orientated, I would expect room to park my buggy and sadly the hole was too small and buggy space limited. Secondly, upon asking for a high chair I was informed they didn 't yet have any maybe my daughter should have sampled the drink me potion to grow a foot or two. Thirdly, sharing a toilet with the tattoo parlour next door, in my opinion isn 't very child friendly. I was really excited about our visit to the Rabbit Hole, I had dreams of tea in china teacups, tantalisingly tasty homemade cakes and wholesome sandwiches. But like Alice in Wonderland, it was all just a dream. On the plus side the staff were very friendly and welcoming.

There are a lot of nice tea coffee shops in Lincoln and this one is decorated in an Alice in Wonderland theme to make it stand out. Unfortunately when we visited everything else let it down. We were given no menus and just told they did sandwiches or tea cakes I had asked for a scone with jam but apparently that needs to be ordered in advance. We both chose a tea cake (we weren't sure what sandwiches were available) and I had a tea while my son had a milk shake. The milk shake looked good and he enjoyed it but my tea came with UHT milk, if they make milkshakes surely I can have real milk with my tea! Overall, this is a new cafe and looks great but there needs to be some changes for me to return.

This is a new little coffee shop, staff really friendly and coffee and hot chocolate lovely, thanks, looking forward to trying the aftenoon tea.