GAIL's Bakery Reviews 

Welwyn Garden City store, TERRIBLE! Rude staff, staff have an unkempt appearance, tables never cleared, staff talking loudly about customers in front of customers! Shelves always empty, OVER PRICED AND OVER RATED!

I LOVE Gail's - I don't understand why there are so many bad reviews on here and I want to redress the balance! I live in South West London and visit many different branches per week including: Barnes, Putney and East Sheen. The coffee is delicious as are all their pastries and the staff are always very polite and helpful.

I love visiting Gail's at Sheperds Bush Road when I stay at near by hotel. Love to have breakfast or lunch there. I usually buy sourdough Bread with me back home to Norway and freeze them in half.
My kids enjoy them a lot.
Food, staff and the atmosphere is excellent. wish to get there back soon.

Absolutely outrageous, a high street retailer that does not accept the king's coinage! This should be illegal, shame on any establishment that serves the public but chooses to not accept cash. Places like this should be publicly ridiculed and boycotted by everyone. Cannot comment on the food, I walked out and won't be back until their shocking company policy changes.

Gail's Bakery at Cambridge Station provided an exceptional service for us this week when we needed some catering for a work meeting at short notice (we were too late even to order online). The helpful nature of the staff and chef allowed us to place an order which we were able to collect on time - quickly and effficiently - well done Gails !

The shop is nicely set out and the staff are pleasant.
I bought a brown sourdough at 10 am which I looked forward to trying .
Unfortunately the bread which I tried 30minutes later was hard, heavy and with very little flavour. It did not seem fresh. The holes characteristic of sourdough, were largely missing and those there were were tiny.
This is the second time I have bought bread from Gail'sand I was also disappointed on the first occasion. The pastries however look very nice and I have been told they are good.
I hope for a better experience in the future.

I recently visited Gail's Pastry in the Elephant and Castle area and had a disappointing experience. I ordered a cold drink and a dry pastry, expecting a delightful treat, but what I received was far from satisfactory. The drink was served lukewarm, lacking the refreshing quality I anticipated, while the pastry was overly dry and crumbly, making it difficult to enjoy. The flavors were bland, and the texture left much to be desired. Additionally, the service was slow and inattentive, which only added to my frustration. Overall, this visit was underwhelming, and I left feeling dissatisfied and unlikely to return.

Something has changed with the Seeded Sourdough. Till a couple of months ago, it was superb. In fact, I struggled to find better wholemeal bread anywhere. But now it's become rather variable, with the odd loaf reaching the previous standards but, in general, the rest being rather bland and, sometimes, downright tasteless, like cardboard. Gail's - what have you changed?!

I visited Gail’s Petersfield for a late lunch and noticed that while other customers were given numbers and served at their tables, I was asked to collect my tray from the service point. I wouldn’t usually mind, except that I had to juggle a tray, a bottle, and my bag, creating a very awkward and embarrassing situation.
This isn’t the first time I’ve felt treated differently at GAIL’s Petersfield. On more than one occasion I have been ignored by a particular server while waiting for my order to be taken. After serving the customers before me, they decided to count and rearrange items until I had to point out that I was still waiting.
I don’t wish to speculate on the reasons for these experiences but it’s really disappointing when a visit that should be simple and enjoyable becomes uncomfortable and frustrating.

Today I tried the new formula for Gails dark hot chocolate 70% with soya milk. I know this is a new formula because last Tuesday when I went to purchase the dark hot chocolate it was not available because they were waiting for the arrival of the new 70% dark hot chocolate formula. I did not like it. After the initial taste, for the remainder of the drink it tasted like a regular milk hot chocolate. I absolutely adored the "original" or "old" dark hot chocolate formula with soya milk. It was like a little dessert during my day, more like a traditional Italian hot chocolate very thick yet still very drinkable. Alas my love affair with Gail's dark hot chocolate is over. I will be off to Hotel Chocolate to drink 85% or 100% dark hot chocolate with oat or coconut milk. Farewell Gails...

Nice food and coffee and service at the St Paul’s branch in London. But no working Wi-Fi - which is something I think is an important part of the service (it is 2026!!).

this is meant to be a dog friendly place. Dogs will bark when they meet. It’s rude and unacceptable to ask a customer to leave in the middle of her paid meal to leave because the dogs are meeting and barking. Not sure if he was the manager but they need to have better trained staff with more emotional intelligence.
There are at least 10 other coffee shops in the area!

Gails in general is always pretty good. But this branch is fantastic- that staff are always smiling and very attentive to customers. My daughters love going there and the staff always greet them. The managers particularly are great and know the regulars very well

After a previous poor experience with the ‘Too good to go’ bag and a rude staff member in the Putney store I haven’t visited in some time. As an Orthodox Christmas treat I thought I’d try again. Big mistake! There was no bread in the £7.50 bag despite there being several loaves on the shelf just before closing time. This was despite the website offer stating the bag normally comprises 70% bread. I asked the staff member if I could swap as I’d really hoped for bread but she was unhelpful. I can only imagine she wanted it for herself. I’m done with Gail’s, its surly staff and over priced offer. Looking online I now see I’m not the only person disappointed with the poor value offer.

Visiting GAIL’s Kingston is always bittersweet. The produce is amazing, the staff are attentive but the bakery is dirty with tables overflowing with used crockery and massive queues. I’d love to recommend but I can’t. The exception for me is the Cobham bakery

Nice food BUT disappointed cash only and lack of attention to detail clearing table and toilet

(Tunbridge Wells)
Food and drink were fine (as usual at a Gail’s) but although the café was quiet the unoccupied tables (and in one case the benches) were covered in crumbs/sticky mess/spilt liquid
The staff (3 of them and not doing much) were not friendly or engaged in keeping the place clean
Finally, a golden retriever type dog stood on its hind legs and put its paws on the counter where the staff serve the drinks from (the staff seemed to tolerate the dog and did not even wipe the surface after this)

I visit Gails on High Street Kensington or Kensington Arcade every single day. I think both branches are lovely. I go to Gails largely for their reliably good coffee, I only drink espresso so the coffee has to be good. I also like the teams at both a lot - same people for the last few years, all friendly, kind and helpful. Especially Messi at High Street Ken branch (also Jakob who is super). Both branches get very busy but they always look clean and tidy

Awful and very expensive : Total
Cost , £16 - Cup tea in paper cup - Chocolate drink - Scone in paper bag without any Butter / jam ( staff member “Says we have none Available” Also cake - Taste like bog standard supermarket brand . This Cafe needs to give it a new look and improve rapidly as every person seems to get a poor service !!!

No bread, unable to manage a simple queue and serve people in the order they arrived. Gails Woking is dismal.