I decided to come back to this Starbucks and give them another try after my devestating experience in October 2014.
This store does definitley have some major flaws:
As a franchise store owned by the Village Hotel, they do not accept Starbucks Cards.
This store is quite a nightmare to get in with it being in a village hotel and up a lift which I don't really like or a few dozen stairs.
This branch of Starbucks does not have a phone line so you can't ask them questions ahead of your visit or make a pre-order such as on stock of an item or reserving that last cake.
I do feel this store deserves a higher rating than 3 however for the following reasons:
It is probably on the of the best stores in the local area which is not in a city centre but it is still quite hard to get in and I wouldn't say it is worth the higher hotel prices.
The barista has learnt from my past review and that same person seemed alot nicer, she made sure my gluten free brownie was in a wrapper and out of the fridge to avoid cross contamination, unfortunatly it tasted frozen and certainly not fresh, it was a little hard, it was a shame to see it be so dissapointed as I did come here for Mothersday.
The 2 people in my party ordered small drinks and they were given medium, As a regular at Starbucks I noticed the cup was Grande (Medium) as it had a G on and I picked up a fuss with the barista from my past review and it was tough at first, but she managed to eventually find the recepit and told me "They have no small cups left so they had to upgrade to medium free of charge", that is a bonus but I would rather of them tell me because in all honesty I thought they had stolen more of my money.
Despite not having Starbucks Card acceptions, they still partitipate in the Machiato offer where they have the stamps, if you buy 3 then you get one for free.
The store did have a good range of sandwiches and cakes for the later time of day when I visited and I would expect them to be much more busy with it being Mother Day and they was busy when I arrived, hence the reason they probably run out of small cups.
Overall, this Starbucks branch does deserve an upgraded rating but the location inside the hotel and the prices being much higher than normal branches, and that they don't accept Starbucks cards means that I can honestly over give it a 3, but I wouldn't say to avoid this branch at all costs anymore.
UPDATE: This branch is becoming somewhere to avoid at all costs for me, mainly down to a recent experience where I found staff to be rude, a very small proportion of the menu actually being stocked and poor drink quality, on a recent visit, I found that three drinks I tried to order were not stocked at this branch, which is frankly ridiculous considering it is a branch of Starbucks and it simply isn't living up to the expectation with the quality of beverage and service, and the stock as a whole. read more