Olivers Bakehouse

Such a shame. Oliver’s Bakehouse used to be great, but it’s totally gone downhill to the point where I – and a number of other people I know – have given up on it now.

They have a few fundamental problems, the first being they have decided to leave their business in the hands of teenage girls. If you can get the young ladies to acknowledge you and stop talking to each other within 5 minutes, you’re doing well. I kid you not, it’s as though you’re an inconvenience and interruption to their gossip sessions. This has happened to me so many times now, it’s enough to stop me going there altogether. I have friends who’ve had the same experience many times too, so it’s not just me.

If that’s not enough to put you off – and it was for me – they also no longer seem to have bread. A little unusual for a ‘bakehouse’. I used to pop in for a sandwich and they always had a good choice of breads, but for a long time now, they never seem to have any bread. It’s kinda important considering their core business.

Such a shame, this place was truly great and it’s gone to pot.

This was my review back in 2008, I’ll leave it here to show how much this place has declined:

A lovely village cafe/sandwich shop. They do takeaway and have a few tables (indoors and outdoors). Everything is made fresh and you really can taste the difference. I can’t recommend this place enough.

The roast pork, stuffing and apple sauce baguette is to die for! :-)

Lovely bakery in this very cute little village.
Quality of products is very good and you can sit outside as well.
But I do have a few points that let this place down.
The service must be the slowest I’ve ever seen. Even just getting a loaf of bread can take 20 minutes at this bakery.
I once ordered a wrap and the girl from the bakery came back to me after 15 minutes to tell me that she had to wait for the manager to come back since she couldn’t prepare the wrap.
Although sometimes up to four staff are working behind the counter not much seems to be happening.
Another point is the state of the espresso machine. I think it has not be cleaned since 1984 and the coffee tastes stale because of it. Also the steam pipe of the espresso machine is dirty. That should be cleaned after every use.

Overall it’s a nice place but could improve on some points.

While Olivers have not been baking, I found two very good bakers in Hartney Whintney, which are very good but not quite as good as Olivers.
But having visited to-day (05/12/11) for the first baking since the regular baker quit, I was disappointed. The Granary Bread is not the same as previously, the texture is different as is the taste, but the thing that really upset me was the price. The price of a granary loaf has iincreased from £1.45 per loaf to an inflation beating price of £2.25.
Bye Bye Old Basing, hello Hartney Whnitney

A wonderful cafe / bakery tucked away in Old Basing. This place has it all, cumberland sausages for a cold winters morning, outside tables for a nice summers day.

The local coppers regularly drop in for their sarnies.