Sally Lunn’s

Wife and I have been there twice when they were not busy.
Overall I’d rate it as pretty nice.
Dispite complaints about the service or impatience or what ever. if you are looking for «r e a l» food made with real ingredients. this is one of those few places. The desserts look homemade and do not look perfect like from some manufactory because they ARE homemade and the ingredients are few.real.and expensive.
For my own health Id rather eat here than most other resaurants.
The Main Courses we ate were pretty good. price is at the top end of medium. and I will go there again.
My wife is a professional cook. I eat top end. honerably made stuff all the time. if I was alone Sally Lunns would be one of my regular places to eat,.especially healthily made desserts :)
Now.for service. I think you have to be kind in judging they’re service. From what I know elsewhere this woman has invested in a place that is land lorded by a unkind person. She carries a burden. give her a break. don’t be too demanding. its a hard job to begin with.

For the scones, it can be a 5. But, please allow ample time if coming here because they are understaffed. There were only 2 people taking care of an almost full place. And they were very polite but everything took forever. The fruit they use is sweet, the scones very moist, tea is average, meringues are delicious.
Cash only.

This place makes you feel like you’re in a different time. The atmosphere is so quaint and homey. The food is unique and very tasty. The desert… heaven. The only problem with the desert is… too many great choices! Our waitress was fantastic. She was fast and she gave recommendations as to what she thought was good… and she was right. Outstanding place for lunch, tea, and relaxation!

Food was fair. The peach scone was good. The tea (we had herbal tea) was good.
The service was awful. It took forever and there were only 7 other people there.
The table cloths were dirty, the floor was dirty with crumbs and food on the carpet.
Nice idea, but definitely not worth the money or time.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere here. There aren’t many places that feel like this place. I had a sandwich which wasn’t the best I’ve had, but it was good. The drinks and scones are very good. I found our waitress to be very nice and accommodating. My friend and I didn’t have any cash (they only take cash), and she was comfortable with us leaving to get cash and come back. I would go again when I’m in the mood for this sort of atmosphere.

I had Sally Lunn’s cater a baby shower for me. Theresa (the owner) was very nice and helpful when I came in to book the food (and paid in FULL in cash). After that — not so helpful.
I went in the day before the party to pick up the china so I could get that organized before the event. As soon as I arrived, Theresa came out and said «you’re going to kill me.» NEVER words you want to hear from your caterer! Apparently, the woman that had the china last returned it late, so I had to pick it up the day of my event, AND she forgot to call me to tell me not to come because she «got busy cooking.» Not a great start to my experience with Sally Lunn’s.
I was meant to pick up all my food at noon on Saturday (for a 2pm even). I got delayed and didn’t arrive until 12:30. The first thing that was said to me was «there are a couple of issues.» I was told that I hadn’t paid for the tea and I needed to give them $ 30. I told the girl everything was paid for, but I didn’t have my receipt and Theresa wasn’t there, so I had no choice but to give her another $ 30. Worse still, nothing was ready. One woman was still decorating the cake, one quiche was still in the oven, and when it came out, couldn’t be sliced because it was too hot. The other two quiches were stone cold. The scones were being plated, and had to be covered for the drive, but I was told to immediately uncover them or else they would get soggy. And they had no cake box, so my $ 65 cake was haphazardly wrapped. Lovely.
When I got home, I started frantically digging through everything looking for my china. There were three big tupperware tubs, and everything was everywhere. Very few things were labeled, and those that were, were labeled incorrectly. I had to dig through all three boxes to locate the 20 tea plates, cups, saucers and spoons I’d been promised. More than half of the tea cups were dirty, so I had to hand wash them, while trying to set my tables, find the missing tea spoons, and figure out how to heat the quiche, since there were no heating instructions, as I had been promised there would be. The tea sandwiches, which I expected to be presented neatly, and evenly cut into triangles, were thrown on a tray, all different sizes, and falling apart, so I had to reposition and stack them. And then, there was the cake.
My expensive Victorian chantilly lace cake was a mess. It was completely uneven, and sloped down to the right. The frosting had noticeable bare spots on the sides, where the cake showed through. The top wasn’t properly finished, and the edges had crumbs coming through the frosting. In short, it looked like I’d try to bake a cake myself. Fine, if I HAD tried to bake a cake, but this was clearly not a professional looking item, and certainly not worth $ 65. And when I went to get my receipt to call and complain, I noticed that the tea was listed, and I had already paid the $ 30 that they extorted from me when I picked up the food. Sigh.
I spoke to Theresa, literally as my guests were coming in the door, and she never once apologized. She told me the cups weren’t dirty when she packed them (they were), that the cake was beautiful when she baked it the night before (not sure what happened to it overnight, but it definitely wasn’t beautiful when I picked it up), and that she didn’t have the tea on her receipt. I said I’d bring mine with me to return the china and I’d expect to be reimbursed. She did agree to that.
The food was basically okay as far as taste goes. It wasn’t terrible, it was just unremarkable. I frequently order groceries from Fresh Direct, and their frozen quiche is just as good as Sally Lunn’s. Bonus: Fresh Direct prints heating instructions on the box!
When I arrived this morning to return the dishes, Theresa wasn’t there. The first woman I spoke to said she couldn’t give me a refund on the tea I paid for twice because she didn’t know anything about it. While I was arguing with her, another woman came in and said she knew I was owed money and gave it to me after I showed her my receipt marked «paid in full». About an hour later I got a call from Sally Lunn’s which I expected to be Theresa calling to apologize. Instead, it was Theresa calling to tell me I hadn’t returned one of her tea plates. I told her I’d repacked everything I used, and I didn’t know how she could tell something was missing given what a disgraceful mess it was when I picked it up. She hung up on me, and that about summed it up for me: another example of how a decent business is easily ruined by horrendous customer service.
Save yourself the time, money and aggravation and don’t go to Sally Lunn’s.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS — the service is horrid and the food is unremarkable. I tried to send a chicken pot pie to a family who’s loved one was hospitalized — you know, so they just had to pop it in the oven and have a home cooked meal after a day in ICU. After a number of errors I ended up paying for a pie that sat undelivered due to a mistake in the shipping form. Never again!

The food is good but the service is horrendous to the point of insanity. We ate here twice and just can’t do it again. Chester service is better but still spotty. Even ordering a few scones to go sucks. The young guy behind the counter should get a job at a local pizza place. He is as unfriendly as can be.

Food is Delish, however service was Horrid. The waiter could not handle more then one table at a time, and took 25 mins to bring me water, that never came. Asked him 3 times for hot apple cider. Lunch took close to 2 hours. If you have time to kill then this is the place to go. Oh, and there was a total of 7 people in the resturant, so it was not busy at all.

Stale Cupcakes.

I went there to inquire about a tea party for 30. The owner did not show up until after 12, so I had to come back. When discussing the party, she could not find menus, business cards, or anything in the way of a properly run business. I also asked her if I could bring some outside food for our celiac (gluten free) guests and she became nasty and said NO! The only thing she was able to write down was the price per guest and it was exorbitant! Never again!

I grew up going to the Sally Lunn’s in Chester every Saturday with my childhood best friend. I was so excited to learn that another location had opened up and was eager to check it out. I am also getting married in May and thought it would be a good option for a bridal shower since it is closer to the city then Chester and more convenient to get to for my guests. My good friend and I went this past Saturday in the early evening. We walked in to find a few people who worked there crowded at a small table, they looked at us confused and we had to ask if we could be seated for dinner. They told us to sit where we wanted and I was a little surprised to see we were the only people there, but appreciated the quietness. I knew what I wanted (the Chicken pot pie), but my friend had a few questions about the menu. Our waiter appeared to be the owner’s son and knew NOTHING about the menu. He is quite possibly the most awkward human being I have ever come in contact with. When she asked him a question he giggled like a school girl and said he didn’t know. My friend asked if he could find out and he went over to what appeared to be his mother to ask. My friend could hear their conversation and began answering her questions across the room. The women didn’t bother to get up to explain the menu, she just shouted across the room. Whatever, at least we got our answer. The food came out and was consistent with how the Chester location tastes. The service was HORRIBLE. How can the service be bad when we are the only people in there? 10 minutes to find lemon wedges, no one came to check on us, and when we finally got the waiter to come over I wanted him to leave immediately because I couldn’t handle his awkwardness. The worst part about our experience was that the whole time we were there the women were shouting about some lady who had just ordered from them for her mother’s funeral and had called back upset because she had not received the amount of food they had advertised to her. Wether it was the customers fault or Sally Lunn’s they should have NOT been talking so loudly about this women and her situation. They definitely knew we could hear them, and they clearly didn’t care. Talking about your customers in front of other customers is a big no no, and this women’s mother had just died. COME ON. When we finally had to get up from our seats and ASK for the check, they informed us that they did not accept credit card. Really? Where did it say that? Who doesn’t accept credit card anymore and if you don’t accept it you need to ADVERTISE it so people are prepared. Luckily, we barely had enough cash and we were ready to go by the time it was over.
Needless to say, I will not be having my shower here.
To the owners of Sally Lunn’s, women come here for a special experience and to feel like ladies. I have had better customer service at a Steak and Shake and think you and your staff need to be trained in ladylike behavior before advertising your restaurant as such an elegant experience.

I am the friend referenced in Alyssa T’s review and I wholeheartedly agree! Food was decent but service was beyond atrocious, especially considering we were the only people there!
Not only did we not find out that they didn’t accept credit cards until we tried to give them ours to pay for our meal, while we were digging for cash in our bags, the woman yelled across the room asking if we had a check! How rude! Thank goodness we had just enough cash to cover the check, there is no way I was dealing with not being able to pay the bill.
On our way out we looked for a «cash only» sign — it is about 3 inches wide in size 12 font at hip level on the door — who would notice that??? They didn’t even have it written on the menu — in fact, I’m 100% sure they just took the same old menus from the Chester location as they were old, dirty, and the address wasn’t even updated.
All in all, I was extremely disappointed with this experience. I have been going to the Chester Sally Lunn’s my whole life, my mom and I always went together and we even had her bridal shower there when she married my step-​father. I am also almost positive that the Chester location does accept credit cards. The only thing that will bring me back here is a scone — and I’ll get it to-​go based on this service experience!
:-(

Went to have afternoon tea at Sally Lunn’s Tearoom in Chatham, NJ and had thought that it would offer high tea like at the Plaza or Tea & Sympathy in New York. It’s tucked away off the Main Street of town in the middle of other shops that don’t seem to do a lot of business. It’s not a big place but the atmosphere is very nice — two nice-​sized rooms with tables having floral tablecloths with white crocheted covers on top of them, high ceiling in on of the rooms. Nice music (Sarah Brightman-​like CD) was playing.
They serve hot dishes too at a reasonable price ($ 8-​$ 12), e.g., potpies, vegetarian chili, sandwiches, but we went straight to ordering afternoon tea. For tea and sandwiches, there’s a choice between Basic Afternoon Tea and Victorian High Tea. The descriptions they have in the menu sounded great but I’ll tell you what it was really like. Basic includes 5 – 6 tiny finger sandwiches (salmon, cucumber with creamed cheese, egg salad), a pretty large scone and a pot of tea for $ 18.50. These are not served on a tiered plate holder. The Victorian High Tea which is $ 24.50 is the same as the Basic except it comes with three tiny finger desserts — a chocolate-​covered strawberry, yellow cake with lemon cream on top and a red velvet and chocolate madeline.
The sandwiches were good but not better than what I can make at home. If I were to connect the finger sandwiches, I’d really end up with one regular-​sized sandwich. The scones which were warmed up were delicious and came with two tiny plastic cups of jam and clotted cream. The teapots that they bring for one person are tiny — you’d get two cups at most. Overall, I don’t think that either the Basic or Victorian Afternoon Tea is good value for the what you get.
They have a big selection of teas which was good. Desserts that came with the Victorian were just okay — nothing special.
Service happened to be VERY slow but that was because they were short staffed that day — one of the waitresses had had a car accident, we were told. The staff was very friendly but overwhelmed (they would forget things — like bringing more hot water, milk) — it was pretty busy when we went — around 12:30 pm. We ended up getting our orders after what felt like an hour — someone at our table started to feel sick from the long wait because she was diabetic. No one was around to get a scone or anything — everyone was in the back kitchen. Ended up leaving at 3 pm.
Even if the service were better, I don’t think that I would go back for tea because of the awfully high price for what you get. I would, however, go back for one of the hot dishes which were a fraction of the price. And don’t go there if you’re in a hurry in case service happens to be slow on the day you go.