Starbucks

I called in this branch of Starbucks while in Manchester, to grab my free Starbucks Card reward drink, in a more quieter, city center location, as Mancunians will know, Starbucks’ in the Arndale can become manic at times, especially recently with the Christmas and New Year period.
This store seemed to not really have a queue, and although most of the limited seating was full, it seemed quite quick to go in and out with my to-​go coffee! It is just a shame, it seems they had run out of the paper red cups!
I like this Starbucks store, it seems an old building, near enough opposite NEXT and The Printworks, but inside it is nice, despite limited seating and they do have a few signs regarding Starbucks Rewards, and the difference between Green and Gold level, which I have not seen in any other store, even as a GOLD member myself. (I admit, I do come to Starbucks quite a lot!)
The staff seemed quite friendly, and the man who served me seemed polite and to be giving me his full attention, to make sure he didn’t slip up and get my order wrong. I ordered a Large /​Venti, Gingerbread latte, of course without the sprinkles, which contain gluten.
My drink was okay /​average, and has been made both better and worse before at other branches, so it does represent a Standard branch, although quite a nice one inside, despite having limited seating upstairs which is a shame, meaning you would have to go downstairs for extra-​seating, making it a little hard for wheelchairs /​prams, and the staircase didn’t look too appealing anyway, it looked more of a one you would find to go into a cellar of an old-​house.
I noticed the barista was stood their talking to someone while making my coffee, hence was a little slow, and it was confusing as which drink she was doing, I think they were just stood their talking to her without ordering or waiting for a drink, which was a little confusing.
It is hard to decide whether this branch warrants 3 or 2 stars, as I could argue for both, but I do feel as the coffee was up to a good standard, it is a nice branch other than the limited seating and cellar downstairs seating, and the friendly /​polite staff, it does warrant 3.

Starbucks
As you enter the store your think it is very small, but if you go down the stairs there is lots of comfortable seating plus the toilets. It is a good place to meet friends. It offers a wide range of coffee and speciality teas. There is also a good selection of cakes and snacks.

I’ll keep this short, it’s a perfectly adequate Starbucks… If you don’t know what Starbucks is like by now then I genuinely don’t know what rock you’ve been living under ;)
Seriously though, decent little SB, good seating and friendly staff, decent coffee and frappé’s to boot!

Convenient for Victoria station but lacks atmosphere
On a corner site, this Starbucks is not the most exciting venue: its convenience is probably its greatest value so I’m not recommending that you make a special trip to get your coffee fix.
The café tables on the ground floor get the best view but avoid the banquettes, as I believe that they were designed by a giant — you need to be 6’4″ for them to make any sense. Downstairs are plenty of the usual Starbucks tables and chairs but it’s a lightless basement so don’t expect to top up your tan. Service is okay but it won’t blow you away — even at quiet times it’s good, never great.

Just popped into this Starbucks to meet a friend for a coffee after work. It looks incredibly small at first but there’s plenty of comfortable seating downstairs. I also found that their free Wifi was both easy to connect to and fast. Had a tall filter coffee which is reasonably priced at £1.55.

Above all the quality of the drinks here are the usual standard of the chain. As a GOLD member the drinks become very reasonable. It annoys me when people slate a venue just because of who they are as opposed to something they are not doing or the poor quality of their food or experience! For £2:50 I had a grade (medium) ‘Guatemalan’ with an extra shot and vanilla added, because all the extras get discounted to zero as a GOLD when paying via the app. This is a good way get great coffees made to your taste for the price you would pay for a standard one in another place. So Mr&Mrs skeptics, focus on making it work for you rather than having a pointless gripe at something you are not able to change based on your own principles! Phew rant over! Hope my info is of use to you regards the starbucks app… Inbox me (and like this review) if you want to know more folks. ENJOY

As a rule of thumb, I prefer independent coffee chains to corporate ones. I occasionally pop into this Starbucks however, to grab a take away coffee on my way to Manchester Victoria. The food and drink outlets in the station are all terrible and since the temperature in the train station tends to be cold to freezing, it’s either get pneumonia or settle for a hot but overpriced americano. At eight a.m. when I’m still waking up, it’s a no brainer!