Starbucks

For the second day in a row, the barista informed us that they are not making filter coffee today. Come on, Starbucks! American ex-​pats depend on you to provide reliable American-​style filter coffee. If you are going to make espresso drinks only, I will take my patronage elsewhere.

Was informed two days in a row in very broken English that they «don’t have filter coffee today». The first time the cashier somehow ordered us two steamed milks instead and the manager had to sort it out.

Good location — and the world and his wife seem to agree. So much space… and it’s poorly utilised.
Service takes forever and I mean forever. Don’t expect a coffee until about 5 minutes after you order, that’s after waiting 15 minutes in the (never ending) queue — and I hope you don’t want that sandwich toasted — that’ll be another 5 minutes…
Really poor service, served by people who are hard to understand as English obviously isn’t their first language.
It’s a shame to see a successful chain do so badly in the centre of Oxford!
Also don’t expect wifi to be free — its BTopenzone — so unlucky to all of you who don’t have a subscription to it. Try else where — there’s about 20 different coffee shops within 2 minutes walking distance — Different coffee shops have their perks — and if Starbucks is still the top of your list — be prepared for a long wait.
Ps. Toilets are usually in a horrendous state.

#573 Immediately after a dainty breakfast at Quod, Adam B. and I headed over to this Starbucks location to unwind with some coffee before hitting up the Oxford Central Library. The place was quiet, there was virtually no line, and we got our orders in less than 5 minutes. Amazing. If that’s not a perfect Starbucks experience, then I don’t know what is.
Since the place was empty, we decided to take advantage of the upper floor’s spacious seating arrangement. We snagged two fluffy chairs by the window to sink into and sipped our coffee for over an hour without feeling rushed. Got in some reading, as well. Only complaint (and a nit-​picky one at that), was that my mug was sticky all over from the caramel syrup in my caramel macchiato. It was a task just trying to hold the thing and not get the caramel all over my book. Once 9am came around, we got ready to leave, right before a huge crowd of twenty French teenagers, obviously on a field trip, made their way upstairs and proceeded to be raucous, bawdy, and loud. Good timing on our part, I’d say.

I really like this location. They have a really nice cosy setup on the ground floor with the store heading rather far back and then a surprisingly large upper first floor. which provides a nice view down on the adjacent Cornmarket Street.
The coffee hits about average for U.K. Starbucks, nothing special, but hits the spot.
It can get quite busy due to its prime location but as long as you are not in too much of a rush you should be fine. The baristas have quite a high efficiency it taking orders although it might be a good idea if they started writing names down on the cups so that those around the pick up area don’t have to keep confirming whose drink is which.
The best part of this Starbucks location, something that will be unappreciated by those from the U.S., is that on most days it is open to 8pm so that you can get your Starbucks fix up to 2 hours later than most other locations. This also allows you to get a nice warm early evening drink with a friend without having to battle the 5−6pm rush-​hour.

Well, it’s Starbucks, so there’s no point commenting on the food/​drink as it’s the same everywhere. What’s great about this branch is that, in central Oxford terms, it is huge. Quite a few tables extending back downstairs (though no natural light) and a big upstairs area with large plate-​glass windows and loads of light streaming in. There are also views over Cornmarket (in fact you have a direct vis-​a-​vis into McDonald’s!), which is not exactly the best view in Oxford but not bad for people-​watching. One piece of advice: pushchairs, like early Daleks, cannot make it up stairs. If you want to avoid the yummy mummies and screaming babies on te ground floor, I recommend you make the trek up!
Two key advantages over other Oxford chain cafés:
1. For laptop addicts is it has power sockets everywhere, and there is the usual BT Openzone wifi.
2. It is open decent hours on Sundays.
In terms of service, the queues can be pretty long sometimes and you often get caught behind a huge group of teenagers or foreign students. The staff do a decent job with a multilingual crowd but it’s not always necessarily the quickest coffee in Oxford.

Downtown Oxford was a much bigger place than my dad and I expected on our trip there from London. We expected very few shops and/​or restaurants and were shocked to find tons and even a Starbucks!
This Starbucks was nice, spacious, and clean. However, like London, the drink prices were HIGH. Not quite as bad as London but why were we drinking coffee at a Starbucks in the UK anyways?! We should have been at a local coffee shop!