The Reading Room At The Barlow

Such a lovely and welcoming place. The food is amazing and so are the staff. The homemade lasagne is the best I’ve had anywhere (I’ve mine is better This is my new go to place for lunch

Had my grandsons christening party here, had afternoon tea, which was beyond expectations, marvelous food, wonderful atmosphere, attentive staff. Best tea room in the Edgeworth, Ramsbottom, Holcombe area. Give it a try. Very reasonable prices thoroughly enjoyable.

What has happened at this cafe? Service is very very slow, and when the food arrived we felt that the jacket potatoes we ordered were on the cold side and quite hard. We had touched them of course. On complaining one of the kitchen staff came out and said it was difficult for her to do 3 jacket potatoes at once, she had checked them with a probe and that it was the tuna filling was making them cold. She said that she would be presenting them to a member of staff to eat, which was quite shocking and unacceptable really. Her manner was quite condescending as though we were idiots, and it appeared that an apology for our disappointment was given reluctantly. This used to be a lovely friendly place to visit for a lunch with family, but it's doubtful we will be returning in the near future.

This is normally one of our favourite cafés to visit but after a terrible visit yesterday we won't be returning. We ordered jacket potatoes with tuna, which took almost an hour to arrive on a Wednesday lunchtime (the cafe was barely half full). When they did, they were hard inside. We returned them to the counter and asked for them to be made into sandwiches instead as we had a newborn baby with us and had already waited a long time. We were told that was no problem by the man at the counter. While we were waiting one of the kitchen staff came to our table and told us there was nothing wrong with the potatoes, they had been cooked for twenty minutes and she had probed them with a thermometer before serving. She reported she was going to serve them to someone else. Her attitude was rude, and there was no offer of compensation or apology . She told us our order was at the back of the queue of other customers. We were also not offered the difference in cost back as we had paid more for jacket potatoes than sandwiches. Food that has been sent back should not be served to other customers. This was my first outing/lunch out with my newborn baby, which I was hoping would be a special occasion, but instead, we left disappointed and upset by the service and the way we were spoken to. Would not recommend.

Been in the Barlow twice recently the lovely cakes have disappeared, very slow service provided by staff clearly run off their feet. Not great what happened???