Loved loved loved the ambiance and the food! The shakshuka was delicious, the Smoky harissa with red bell peppers really worked and how. The sourdough bread was generously toasted in olive oil, whipped feta went well with it. Mexican eggs were good too! Great coffee, highly recommend this place! read more

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Fantastic for brunch/breakfast! Quite expensive but worth it! Their grains bowl and pancakes, and Eggs Royale... What a start of a day:) ah and check out their ice tea! read more

Boston Tea Party - Grains bowl - yum! - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Exeter, DEV

I love this place but it really depends on what you're there for. The food and drinks are great and the staff is very friendly and helpful. My issue was I went here to do school work and the WiFi is very unreliable. I couldn't go here anymore even though I did love it because of the WiFi situation. A lot of space and very clean. read more

Boston Tea Party - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Exeter, DEV

The slowest restaurant I've ever seen! One star for their drinks, one star for one of their employees. Another employee's manner is not so good. read more

Boston Tea Party - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Exeter, DEV

Good cafe in central Exeter serving excellent fairtrade teas an coffees, loved the lapsang. However the upstairs is huge with an array of shabby chic wooden tables chairs and well worn sofas to lounge around, in giving it the feel of a student common room. So the students from the local uni love to hang out here in their droves, but hay we were all under graduates once. Enjoy!!! read more

Boston Tea Party - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Exeter, DEV

The food and service at Boston Tea Party has changed a lot, since my last glowing review. The prices have risen, customer service has been sloppy and the food quality seems to be getting worse with every visit. It really is quite unfortunate as it was my favourite breakfast/coffee place in Exeter, with it's quaint upstairs setting and once brilliant food and coffee. read more

We have a Boston Tea Party in Truro and the family love it. This one in Exeter is near the Exeter College and is festooned with students. The coffee is top-notch. The food quality has slipped a bit The prices have risen marginally The staff as ever are good Fantastic place for breakfast read more

As other reivews have mentioned, the Boston Tea Party has changed a bit over the 5 years I've known it. I'm still nostalgic for the chocolate raspberry tart, and yes, the quality of the cakes has decreased slightly under the new management, but it is still a perfectly decent independent cafe right in the city centre. Downstairs has more conventional tables and some window sofas, upstairs is an eclectic mix of varying comfortableness, but better for a longer stay (downstairs you have to contend with all the people bustling about waiting for their drinks, and staff coming and going). Free wifi is very handy. Sandwiches are excellent though a little expensive, as are the cakes mentioned above. For drinks, it's no more pricey than any of the chains nearby and not as soulless. Definitely recommend the kids hot chocolate (well, my daughter does) and the chocolate crunch cake (but maybe to share; it's a huge brick of the stuff!). Service can be a bit slow as it is often very busy, but is fine generally. read more

This place is fantastic! Quite small and pokey downstairs, head upstairs for a fantastic choice of seating arrangements, from old-fashioned gateleg tables to more modern Friends-style sofa arranagements. But what toeat and drink whilst you're there? The breakfasts are legendary amongst Exeter's student population, and rightly so; but there are also a wide range of coffee and cake options for later in the day; oh and then why not come back again for a late lunch? Yep, the menu's vast and has many, many veggie options, with even some vegan-friendly ones too. A fantastic place to repair to before, after or during your day's shopping or exploring in Exeter. read more

The place has excellent coffee and food. The atmosphere is great. The people working there are quick and straight to the point. The only letdown is their piecemeal Wi-Fi. read more

I love the extra attention the guys go to make your mocha/latte look amazing almost makes you not want to drink it to save the pattern. But the coffee is too good to pass up!. The upstairs space is huge! and some nice larger tables for groups. Would be a 5 out of 5 but only a couple of sockets upstairs - bring your extention lead if you wanna use laptop. read more

Horrid place. Full of Exeter students being spoilt and loud and making the place very untidy. Loud, messy and depressing. Avoid. My friend Dame Daphne is certain she picked up a dose of the crabs here. read more

An amazing place. The people who work at Boston Tea Party Exeter are incredibly friendly, outgoing, helpful and professional. The food and drinks are delicious and the atmosphere is warm, cosy and vibrant - all round perfection. read more

This is an absolute not to be missed classic on the Exeter scene. Its a curious mix between an old church hall and a furniture shop upstairs but I've lost whole days lounging about and chomping down on huge cookies and jugs and jugs of tea. read more

This is quite a nice place to meet and chat over a cup of coffee. Staff are more than often friendly and they offer a lot of variety as far as hot drink go. read more

Great coffee shop! There are loads of mis-matched sofas and old furniture in the high-ceilinged upstairs, as well as student art on the walls, and it all makes for a cool atmosphere to snuggle up with some hot chocolate on a wintery day. Really friendly, warm place, with top service, and delicious coffee! read more

Boston Tea party is quite centrally located, on Exeter's Queen Street. It is a fantastic alternative to all those faceless corporate coffee franchises, and it's got a wide range of beverages (hot and cold) as well as food (from sandwiches to soups, as well as a wonderful selection of puddings - their carrot cake is simply delicious!) You can get a loyalty card that you get stamped each time you buy a drink there - I think if you get 5 stamps, you qualify for a free beverage. My favourite is the white hot chocolate - tastes like liquid marshmallows. The upstairs room is huge, and is decked out like a classy village hall. I really like this place, and I'm sure you will too! read more

Despite the devious name, this place is actually a coffee shop. And despite coffee not being as nice as tea, serves relatively nice coffee. If you have to drink the stuff, there are certainly worse dens that you could do it in. The food tends to be rather good, with a varied selection of fresh main courses, fresh 'homemade' sandwiches & sweet baked things. If you haven't been before, and make it through the afore-mentioned queue, you may like to recover in the large upstairs bit. Or not. Worth a visit. read more

To be honest i thought it was a bit of a dive, don't get me wrong it has certain charm ad the staff make it as welcoming as they can but i would rater spend my money at annother café read more

LOVE! most incredible drinks (hot and cold) and incredible food, particularly cakes etc, rocky road is perfection. ..................free wifi (!!!!) and seating is awesome (huge room with 'random' tables, chairs etc) (as well as sofas) Definitely somewhere you could sit in all afternoon doing some work or whatever. A must visit everytime I go to Exeter read more

Very nice place, but a little overpriced for a student budget (even though is always filled with students). Love the atmosphere and the upstairs room, is really worth visiting. Have to say the coffee is SUPERB. I'm a coffee lover and that along made my trip worth it. I had the pancakes when I went, but was still hungry when I left. The portion was a little smaller than I was expecting (3 small pancakes for 5 pounds). Would love to have had a full plate. Nonetheless, I will be coming back to try other items in the menu. They looked gorgeous on the nearby tables read more

I love this place! They make a mean white hot chocolate. This is a lovely place to go and relax and catch up with friends. There is plenty of room upstairs so you do not have to be rushed out your seat for waiting customers. read more

I came here at the weekend and sat outside in the (little bit of) sunshine, where my boyfriend and I each enjoyed a delicious breakfast. I had eggy bread with bacon, avocados and tomatoes, accompanied by a seriously good coffee, while he had scrambled eggs on toast, followed by a homemade apple cake (that too was very good). I thought the waitresses were friendly, the service quick and the food better than I could have hoped for. Would definitely return. read more

The best casual breakfast I've had in England! I was in the mood for a traditional English breakfast while passing through Exeter and stopped into this place. I was amazed at the quality of the food. I ordered "The Boss" and it was perfect! Large portion of freshly prepared high quality ingredients. The cappuccino I had was a work of art as well as delicious. Highly recommended!!! read more

cool place. good sarnies, cakes and teas. very lively, energetic hangout. lots of Uni students, but locals come here too. There's often a queue for service. read more

lovely little place to dine, whilst shopping a great place to stop

Free wifi dry scones

Food just isn't good. They attempt a crack at fancy casual dining but it tastes like a bad chain. Avocado toast tasted like sour lemon and the bread was horrible. The meal was inedible. Two stars for a decent scone. read more

Slightly expensive but that's the only complaint. Excellent drinks - the house tea is probably the best cuppa to be bought in Exeter; wonderful food; curious, probably unique ambience, especially upstairs. It does get full and, consequently, noisy, how do students afford it all the time? read more

Great food, friendly atmosphere and efficient service. Their Tiffin/biscuit cake is the best you will ever have!

I recently wrote the following review for empireofthewill.blogspot.com: The Boston Tea Party is a chain of cafés in the West of England with a manifesto promoting organic milk, fair(-ish)ly-traded coffee, local produce, and community art. Predictably, some of its branches feel more like community centres than cafés, but one Exeter's branch reminds me more of a Post Office. It is the only café I know of where the customer has to queue, not only once which is unfortunately now very common in Britain but twice: first, at one end of the counter, where he orders and pays for his items (he may also have his loyalty documents stamped here) and then a second time, as he shuffles over to the opposite end of the counter to stand with other members of a blank-faced and silent class waiting to take receipt of their goods. After a short time his items are ready, and they are thrust towards him along with a terse barked public announcement regarding the contents of his little package. In fact the ordeal is exactly like that of Argos, an analogy that is actually quite fitting, as Argos is probably where The Boston Tea Party sends its staff to learn customer service and the ancient art of making reasonably acceptable coffee. The café is immensely popular with clamouring trendy bozos: We've all seen them, the kind of shit-for-brains who wear hats indoors. In The Boston Tea Party they slouch on fashionably tatty sofas, sometimes in each other's laps, for anything from an hour to a day, shouting and guffawing at each other whilst horribly nibbling the foam off hot chocolates, childishly nursing skinny hazelnut-syrup lattes, or gesturing ridiculously with bottles of 'real lemonade' held pen-like in their fingers, as they imagine grown-ups do with beer. They pose in cartoon-coloured, made-in-China clothes tight jeans, baggy shorts, and T-shirts with KERPOW written on them. They laugh and shriek hollowly at each other with sham delight in awkward teenage attempts at adult carefreeness; and they put their feet up on furniture which is not theirs. That is, at least, how they behave when in groups. When alone they are invariably social cowards, shutting the rest of the world out with piped music and pretending to be doing something awfully grown-up on their phones or laptops. The next age group up in The Boston Tea Party is the university student who kids himself that he can get as much reading and typing done there as he can in five minutes of silence in his own accommodation. I have little to say about him, as I am myself probably a member of his charmless class. Above that there is only one class of adult attracted to The Boston Tea Party, and one only has to look at the fluttering spectrum of home-made paper 'flyers' (which before Microsoft Publisher were known in Britain as 'posters' and 'leaflets') pinned to the café's community noticeboard to know what this group is all about. The posters predominantly advertise wonky 'alternative' therapies and cultural events, usually with an 'anti-estalishment,' hippie, or fad-socialist twist. I recently observed a lady in a burgundy and mustard onesie, with her fifty-year-old floral-dress friend, pinning a bright orange business card to the wall. Upon later inspection it promised that one of them was a Psychic, clairvoyant and holistic healer. Utterly ridiculous! These people are, I think, attracted by The Boston Tea Party's youthful and liberal pretences, or perhaps by the 'countercultural' members of staff, who often have tattoos. At least one of the kitchen and till operatives is less concerned with selling croissants than he is with parading his flagrant homosexuality. read more

Have had the occasion to have a bite to eat here from time to time. I am inclined to agree with some of the other reviews, the wi-fi is appealing, however if you go there at the wrong time of the day, the noise and hustle and bustle is so overwhelming, that I find it difficult to get anything done. read more

fair service, poor food

I go in here a lot, sometimes for a quick coffee and occasionally for a light lunch. Their coffee even the bog standard house coffee beats anything the big mega-chains serve hands down, and it's still on the right side of 2 quid, too. Their food's very tasty, local, covers a great range, and isn't unreasonably priced, either. This, combined with the pleasingly shabby vintage furniture, occasionally interesting artwork and free wi-fi makes for a very good pit-stop. The problem with BTP, as others have said, is that it's a prime hangout for kids from the nearby 6th form college and university, so it can get very crowded and noisy in term time. The other problem is the silly queuing system, whereby you queue twice (once to order and again to collect) in queues which often stretch the length of the cramped and narrow downstairs area. In fairness, given the building's footprint, their options in this regard are limited, though it strikes me that delivering drinks to tables, as they do with food, even if only at peak times, would be worth trying. There never seems to be a shortage of staff, and though I've never seen any of them kicking their heels, it's often hard to resist the impression that there's too many in the (very small) kitchen and not enough out front. In short, pretty good, but let down by chaotic service and and its term-time status as a 6th form common room. read more