This place has been around for a while, coffee house by day and more of a restaurant by evening.
As always its the venue, service and coffee that I'm looking at.
The venue: 4
This place is in a great location, sitting as it does on one of my favourite streets in the city. Looking out onto the Dome and the Pavilion Gardens, its in a great spot for leisurely sipping your coffee while people watching. During the daytime this place is quiet, I was their only customer during my visit. Its modern and very clean, with very solid comfortable furniture. From the outside it looks small but there is a cavernous space to the rear including the courtyard that gives the place its name.
The coffee: 2
Served in a quality white coffee bowl, the cup was definitely the highlight of the "coffee" experience. As you can see there was an abundance of chocolate added, without being requested. One of my coffee pet hates is having chocolate dusted over everything, saucer, cup handle etc. I was cleaning it off my hands for ages. Anyhow the tepid coffee was basically not much more flavoursome than hot milk, without the heat. The barista wasn't able to tell me what type of coffee they were serving as she "only makes the coffee" in any case it was bland, lacking in flavour and with little of a caffeine kick. On the plus side the froth was still hanging in there to the very end.
The Service: 0
Considering I was the only customer I was truly appalled by the customer services in this place. The barista was so busy talking to her friend that I had to interrupt her to order the coffee. She took the order without looking at me once and never stopped talking to her rather embarrassed friend. The coffee did arrive promptly in fairness although I put this down to the lack of customers and the baristas desire to got back to talking to her friend. When I went to pay, she was on her mobile phone talking to what was clearly her boyfriend, who she was clearly not getting on well with and took no notice of me. I left the money, minus tip, on the counter and left.
I would give this place a miss, which is a real shame as it's in such a lovely place and could be great.
Overall Score: 6 out of 15
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