Starbucks on Gibbon Street is in a good, albeit slightly unusual location, being located in the corner of a parking lot, of an ASDA supermarket. They have their own dedicated parking spaces, and a drive-thru, making it ideal to pop into the Starbucks, without needing to go inside ASDA or walk through a large car park.
I find the location of this Starbucks to be ideal on a match day, to call in, to relax with a coffee after the game, while waiting for the traffic to die down, which can be a nightmare in the area, with roads gridlocked and public transport (trams and buses) packed like sardines), the opening hours until 22:30 are reasonable, but this does leave only a short window to visit after the game for an evening kick-off. Again, a 24-7 Starbucks would be handy here, or at least opening until midnight, when I have visited right before closing, they always do seem to be busy.
This store is a franchise location, operated by Euro Garages, the pricing is a rip-off, and perhaps most comparable to an airport or motorway services location, I understand most franchise Starbucks locations cost more, but the pricing can reach in excess of £0.75 to £1 more than a regular store, which is unjustifiable for the location.
The interior is comfortable and quite clean, and the staff are friendly. Starbucks cards are accepted but they do NOT support ordering ahead with the Starbucks app.
Drink quality is reasonably good for a franchise location, my drinks have been made up to Starbucks standards, for beverages I have ordered here in the past couple of months including Iced Gingerbread Lattes, Iced Pumpkin Spices Lattes, Iced White Mocha and Cold Brew.
The toilets seem to be almost impossible to get into, they have a coded lock on the toilets, which is a combination of letters and numbers, I never seem to be able to get inside even with the code, with the toilets towards the back of the store, I'm not really sure why they have them locked unless it's left open the person who was in the toilet last, it's like cracking the Da Vinci code to get in.
3* - This is a nice Starbucks store based on the quality of service and beverages, but I wouldn't visit on a non-match-day, solely because of the rip-off pricing and toilets. read more