I have been to three Costa Coffees in three different cities: Dublin, London, and a market town in Surrey.
I shall never go again, ever.
In all three establishments, there has been a trend.
1) The shops have been dirty-dirty tables, dirty seats, dirty chairs. In one, I cleaned the table with wipes from my purse in the Dublin shop. I should have walked out, but in all the cases. I paid for my food before sitting down. The others were dirty as well, especially the one in Surrey.
2) The management and servers are rude and inept. In this last one, I waited until two other people who came in after me were served at the tables. Why? The girl delivered part of my lunch to another table. It sat there for many minutes in the upstairs. When I asked where my order was, they took it off the man's table and gave it to me. I said that food put on someone's table should not be served to another-I asked at least for another drink. The manager became angry and literally slammed the drink down on my table and said, "This is the iced coffee, Take it." It was not another one, but the same one which had been carried up and down steps, on another person's table for ten minutes or so. I was astounded. Europe is not a clean place and I do not want to eat or drink anything served to another table, left there, and then taken off again. Nasty.
3) The meat in the sandwich was tough and of a low quality; the lettuce was less than fresh.
4) No napkins--I am amazed at a restaurant or coffee shop that does not have napkins. True in two out of the three.
5) Grumpy staff.....well, with management like that, who can blame them.
6) Dumb staff; I asked about the advertised wifi and the person at the counter claimed he knew nothing about it and had to ask someone else. The wifi was timed so that one only got 20 minutes. That was the reason I chose Costa Coffee-for the wifi. Never again. Cheesy.
Compare this with the smiling staff, clean premises and napkins at McCafe. The coffee is also better at McCafe. I had to wait for my order there once (and I have been in McCafes maybe 22 times), and the management came up to me and apologized without me even saying anything. One can sit there for an hour and blog happily away, talking with nice, intelligent young people. Napkins are not a problem....
I decided to make the rounds of coffee shops as I am travelling, especially when I need wifi for the blogging.
I have been to one Nero's in London. It was friendly and clean. However, the tables were way to close together for an intimate talk, and I was having one such talk with a friend. There was no room for a laptop.
If any reader wants to make suggestions for nice places, please feel free to do so in the comment box.
Oh, I recommend The Humble Bean in Dublin. Clean premises, nice atmosphere, great coffee. And, the servers are friendly.
To be continued....