"Decided to revisit The Octagon last week on two occasions after a few years abroad, The first time was a disappointment so I decided to go back a couple of days later to see if it was just a one-off. Sadly it wasn’t! Having heard they had changed hands recently, my sister and I went for some lunch. After climbing through the mess of binbags, cardboard and bird excrement outside the doors we found the place to be empty and I can understand why... This restaurant used to be one of my favourite when I was in working in town, situated in the prime spot between the bus station and the Tri-centre buildings. The milky coffee and array of home made cakes (especially the scones) made it worth walking from the other end of town- at least they appear to have kept some of the better staff. The display counters were filled with over-cooked shortbread and rock hard flapjacks, bought in loaf cakes, muffins and biscuits. Such a shame as they used to make a wide range of Fruit cakes, flapjacks, bread pudding, and sponge cakes on the premises daily. Perhaps the new owners could rehire the old chefs to teach them how to bake cakes.! I decided to try a tuna sandwich and my sister had a Ham and cheese roll. My sandwich, despite saying ‘freshly made today’ was like eating cardboard! isn’t that false advertising..? We were served by a young girl, who seemed to think it was okay to sneeze into her hands before serving us. I think she left her manners at home that day too! Our teas were stewed and luke warm so we had to be returned twice- how hard is it to make a nice hot cup of tea..? We struggled to find a table clean enough to eat from so had to ask another young girl who could barely see over the counter for a cloth to clean it ourselves. We quickly ate our lunch and left, leaving the place empty again. I can safely say I won’t be back again, this place is doomed if they continue what they are doing. Perhaps if they get the staff to clean tables, learn basic hygiene customer service, serve food that isn’t similar to a back-street petrol garage, then this once popular restaurant can avoid being next closure of Swindon town centre."
