The fury over the ill-fated pasty tax should have warned David Cameron to stay well clear of Britain’s high street eateries. But the prime minister wandered into a café for a cup of coffee to a decidedly frosty reception – when he was told to get in line by an acid-tongued waitress.

If that wasn’t enough, when he turned tail the premier was given a ticking off for taking his custom next door.

Mr Cameron was visiting Plymouth for Armed Forces Day when he stopped at The Sandwich Box Plus in search of a pick-me-up.

Café worker Sheila Thomas failed to recognise the Tory leader and told him she was busy serving other customers.

‘I didn’t realize it was him at first,’ she said.

‘I was in the middle of serving a customer so I was running around trying to do something and didn’t take too much notice, to be honest.

‘He asked if we served takeaway coffee and I said, “Yes but I’m in the middle of serving somebody” and he said, “I’m so sorry”. It was only afterwards somebody told me it was the prime minister.’

After a ten-minute wait, Mr Cameron’s aides popped to Warrens bakery next door to buy the peckish premier a jam doughnut and a cup of tea.

He sat outside in the sunshine before heading back inside The Sandwich Box to pose for a photograph with teenager Josh King.

But Mrs Thomas had words with Mr Cameron when he returned. ‘He came back in afterwards and I told him off for not getting a coffee here,’ she said. ‘He shook hands and was very pleasant.’

The incident comes after other recent forays into the ‘real world’ backfired.

Last month the prime minister left his eight-year-old daughter Nancy in a Buckinghamshire pub after a Sunday family meal.

And on holiday in Italy last year, he was forced to carry a tray of drinks to his table when a waitress told him she didn’t have time.

He left without tipping but returned later to make amends.

(Read by Brian Salter. Brian Salter is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)