Personally I try really hard to stay away from big chains like Espresso House and Starbucks and so on, but because of their ideal location I sometimes cannot help myself. I need my coffee fill in the morning.
In all fairness, Espresso House's coffee is pretty good, and their chai latte (not real tea but powder tea) is delicious especially if you make it a dirty chai. Dirty chai, for those who don't know, is an additional shot of espresso in the chai, and it works best with the powdered kind. I have also found Espresso House's bagels to be very tasty.
Despite the good coffee and bagels, Expresso House generally lacks service. This was quite evident at this location when my barista failed to ask me if I wanted my bagel heated, and only asked after it was already in the toaster. I do understand that this is location has a high volume costumers, however she was quite rude to the couple behind me as they had not decided on what they wanted by the time it was their turn.
There was two baristas at work during my visit, both who seamed quite busy with orders, but they still found time to talk amongst each other, but a third person not currently at work. I found that to be extremely unprofessional and I can only imagine how they talk about demanding costumers as me.
Either way, I decided to eat my food there as I do not like to walk and eat at the same time. This proved rather difficult as almost all tables were filled with empty cups and plates. I cleaned a table for myself, and sat down. During my 20 mins at Espresso House, no one cleaned any of the tables and costumers had to make room for themselves.
I cannot say if it is the lack of people at work, or laziness that makes it messy, but it overall makes a negative impression. Espresso House general appearance seams so cozy, and their team is so well followed through on all their locations, but this constant lack of clean places to sit down is not impressive and just underlines why I rather use small businesses that need my money more than big chains. read more