This Costa store is just outside one of the entrances to the Millgate Shopping Centre and is one…read moreof two stores in Bury. On my recent visit, they was a very large queue and I must of been waiting a good 10-15 minutes to get served simply because of a fault they have been having all day, they explained that only one machine to heat up the milk was working and they have been so busy, with customers nearly queuing out of the door that they could not even phone staff, their case was worsened with some staff being off and not showing up.
If you were in that queue I appoligise as I held it up even more trying to get them to check if the Gingerbread and Cream Christmas flavour Latte was Gluten Free, they didn't appear to know but I asked them what was in it and realised if they didn't put on the Gingerbread man it would be fine, the saucers the cups were served on were quite nice and the drinks were satisfactory, not the quality of Starbucks but worth what I paid, £2.85 but if you consider how long I waited, I wish I would of gone to Starbucks.
I bought a Gluten Free Christmas cake for £1.70 which was quite small and a little hard but yet the icing was nice and it was okay, but it wasn't fantastic either. I also bought a Gluten Free Christmas wrap, what is very similar to the ones Starbucks do, if you compare the pictures you will notice they is a few minor changes like lettuce instead of Baby Spinnach, even the wraps are the same ones from the same company.
A comment I must add about the wraps after trying them later on is they is another major difference between the great tasting one at Starbucks - this gluten free wrap may use the same wrap and similar toppings but it is just awful, I feel charging £3.70 for a wrap of that quality is robbery in pure daylight, Costa did make a great Chicken and Basil wrap so when this tasted as vile as it did I was shocked.
I understand what happened with this store, but they should be more prepared for events like this when it gets busy and a machine could break and they can't even phone staff. They should also have more knowledge about Gluten, the staff were like headless chickens, they really didn't have a clue and thought Gingerbread Men would be okay, I do feel all the more reason with them selling a variety of Gluten Free things they should be aware of this,
After trying the wrap, I have had to change my rating for the review from 2 stars to 1, for these reasons :
- They did have some Gluten Free crisps but their other products such as the wrap was vile and the Christmas Cake was okay but it was hard and for a small £1.70 cake, you would expect good quality.
- My drink was just Okay, it wasn't great, I would say it was worth £2.85 but it wasn't worth queuing up 10-20 minutes for, it wouldn't really of been worth having to wait half that length of time
- They did not have a good knowledge about Gluten Free, which is a must when selling multiple Gluten Free products.
- They struggled to cope with a broken machine and how busy it got, I am sure if someone would of spent 10 minutes phoning members of staff on a phone, that would of stopped them having customers have long waits all day, just for a short amount of times until they came in.