Esquires Coffee (Catherine Street - Limerick) — Restaurant in Limerick

HORRIBLE service here! The manager here was shocking. We went in and we’re told we would be waiting for 20 minutes for a table for four people. Three family’s of three people were seated before us when an extra chair could have been pulled over to the table for one of us. Then a family of four came in about 25 minutes after us and they were seated right away. When I confronted the manger about this she was extremely rude and told us that they had ‘booked’ the table. This was an untrue statement as 20 minutes before she told other customers that there was no ‘booking’ tables. I mentioned this to her and she said that family were an ‘exception’, and that they were regulars. I don’t know what kinda of excuse/reasoning that is but regardless the attitude of that manager was horrendous. All the other staff in this cafe were very kind and acknowledged us waiting so long the manager was the only extremely rude one who really turned us off this place. Neither myself or friends will be back to this cafe, nor will we be recommending it to others. Over all horrendous management...

I'm sure the food is fine, but we never got any. Busy Saturday lunchtime where we were asked to sit and wait for a table, which is fine, but weren't informed we could sit at an outside table and order ourselves at the counter. But other people did this and had eaten and left before we were even seated. Poor communication between staff meant they were constantly asking who was next for tables and getting mixed up, which meant that two groups were then seated before us. When we did eventually get a table, they put us in the far corner and never came back to take our order, or even look at us when we waved to get attention. They took the orders for the other groups but not ours. After 30 minutes of being ignored, we eventually decided to leave, and no one even bothered to ask us why. We went to Canteen where they know how to treat customers and how to communicate...

If you enjoy being mocked with your coffee, this is the place! I visited with my son, who was quietly playing chess, and we ordered food—spending over €30. Unfortunately, the music was so loud we couldn't even hear each other across the table—you wouldn’t get music that loud in some pubs! I politely asked if it could be turned down, as it was just 25 minutes until closing. The response was incredibly unprofessional: the staff member looked at her watch, laughed, and then shared the moment with a colleague, continuing to laugh about it.

While the coffee was lovely and the young man who served us on arrival was kind and welcoming, the attitude from the female staff was disappointing and unwelcoming. I didn’t appreciate being made to feel so uncomfortable for making a reasonable request. Sadly, this experience means I’ll be choosing another coffee shop...