Ok so I've read a few reviews on Trip Advisor and seen the overtly aggressive replies from the owner of Barista's, Andy, who seems to have a steadfast refusal to accept any constructive criticism from some of the other reviewers. I completely understand being proud of your place of business, we chose to eat at Barista's because it was independent (and the menu looked good).
Service wise; I couldn't fault the service of the staff. It was a pretty long wait but it was busy and the waitress was super nice.
Food-wise: Absolute dogpiss. I ordered the eggs royale. My girlfriend ordered the Tuna Mayo jacket potato. The coffee was great, really enjoyed the latte. The jacket potato had never seen an oven, and had been microwaved to the point of obliteration. There was no mayo. Literally a tin of cheap tuna tipped onto a radioactive, soft and dry jacket potato. It tasted like shit. So I offered to swap my eggs royale and eat the jacket potato.
There are many offences in the culinary world but to get smoked salmon, a poached egg, some fucking packet hollandaise sauce SO wrong is just the worst. I can forgive the hollandaise sauce being from a packet, it's not like I expect somebody to whip up one from fresh when serving that many covers. I'll start at the bottom and work my way up. The muffin was barely warm, let alone toasted. The smoked salmon was on its last legs, partially grey and in a couple of places; black. The eggs were the worst part of the whole wretched thing. They were so underdone that the egg white was raw and was running with the yolk, it was disturbing. They looked like they'd been microwaved, or rather undermicrowaved. I wish I could actually make you know how bad it was, so you can feel what I'm going through just reliving it in my head, let alone what it was like having spent £18 on 1 x coffee, 1 x tea, 1x coke, 1 x tuna jacket and 1 x eggs royale, and having to force yourself to eat something, that is frankly horrible and on the verge of inedible, because you've dropped 6 quid on it. I ate one, it was horrible. I couldn't bring myself to eat the next one. I didn't want to complain because the cafe was superbusy and the waitress was working really hard and she'd been so nice I didn't want to make her life any harder. But I needed to say something.
In conclusion: excellent service, great coffee, food I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. read more