As a café in a train station it is always going to struggle on ambience and being a lovely place to sit. Although I guess in much the same way as it's nice in the airport to see people on their travels and wonder where everyone of off to, if you're a people watcher this might tick a few boxes.
The main reason I come here is because I work 10 mins walk away and on a Monday that offer the O2 meal deal, where you get on of the big lunch baguettes they do plus a drink and crisps for £1 is you are an O2 customer (you need the O2 priorities app to get a code). Given that I'm paying £1 for this I'd easily give the place 4 stars. The food is pretty good, by which I mean their baguettes, the crisps and drinks are of course same wherever you buy them. They have a good variety on offer and seem to stock up well even on the Monday when it's busy with the offer. Given the rapid turnover in clientele with the transient nature of people in a train station, they do a good job of keeping the place tidy and the tables clear. There are sometimes a few crumbs about and the odd cup not lifted yet but given the location I think it would be a bit unfair to expect quite the same as a regular café.
The staff are nice as well, given that I mainly eat here on the busy meal deal days they are friendly personable and efficient despite often dealing with a long queue of people.
Now I may be wrong but I think the prices (vaguely from memory are a little on the high side due to the meal deal I don't check properly). So I think it may be a detracting point, I guess there's the element of the captive audience as with airports. I'm not sure I'd walk 10 minutes to eat here if the O2 deal wasn't on, but if I'm getting the train from central and I'm hungry, Upper Crust would certainly be a welcome sight! read more