This is a nice little cafe and not usually as overcrowded as many in the city centre can be. They were quite happy to commit to have space for ten of us on a Tuesday evening, although they warned us that while we were welcome to stay until 7pm, the coffee machine gets switched off at 6pm.
The prices are about average and the coffee is nice but nothing out of the ordinary. They have a good range of cakes and bakes and some of the salads and sandwiches look really delicious (I fully plan on returning over lunch at some point). If you have a Waterstones card you can earn or spend points when you buy things in the cafe as well.
Now that might be my favourite bit. It's in a Waterstones. Waterstones may not be the perfect bookshop but it does pretty well. There's not much more comforting than sitting down in an armchair and sipping a hot drink whilst surrounded by books. Cunningly, the cookery book section is just past the cafe's seating area - so if you do find yourself thinking that you might be able to make your own chocolate cake at home, they are quite prepared to sell you the very resource you most need.
I only wish they were open a little bit later. The Waterstones on Sauchiehall Street has a Costa Coffee instead. While it's in the basement so it doesn't have the benefit of the natural light that Cafe W has, it does manage to stay open a bit later. read more