Life as a SEN mum

I couldn’t get through the festive season without a review of the Grinch Cafe, partly because it’s been the thing I’ve been asked about the most so far this year.

Where is it?

The Cafe is located on floor 1 of Primark’s Birmingham store on High Street.

What’s on offer?

There’s your usual offerings, crisps, biscuits and juice, much like any cafe. But then there’s plenty of themed cakes, themed milkshakes, coffees and hot chocolates, as well as the biggest waffles I think I’ve ever seen. We opted for 2 coffees, 2 soft drinks, 2 slices of red velvet cake, and a packet of crisps (Charlotte can’t physically enter anywhere selling food without insisting on crisps). In total it came to £22 (ish) so certainly not the cheapest cafe, but also definitely not excessively priced.

Service

I’ve seen lots of reviews saying service was shocking, now I can see why, but honestly the issues come from the sheer amount of people visiting. We were very lucky and got there early before any queues formed, but it did still take a while waiting for drinks and I could see the queue gradually getting longer and longer, the staff were lovely. But between prepping food, making drinks, and taking orders, the staff just couldn’t keep up, so yes expect to wait. The seating is what let it down, out of season the Cafe is a quick grab and go, with a few tables and some benches, obviously this is more than enough on a usual day, but doesn’t provide enough for the amount of customers this season. That being said, you have to remember, this is inside a clothing store and space is a premium. The worst thing is that between everything else, the same staff prepping orders are also the ones responsible for cleaning tables, and it clearly was just too much to keep on top of.

Would I recommend it?

The question you all really want answering. Would I recommend it? In short, yes it is worth visiting, and if they did similar next year we would go back, however, the earlier in the season you can visit the better, as we returned a few weeks after our initial visit, but didn’t actually go into the cafe as the queue was already ridiculously long, even less than an hour after opening.