Books and Beans — Restaurant in Aberdeen City

Summary: Expected a quiet, cosy bookshop with drinks service, instead got a stressful greasy spoon with a few bookshelves.

Full review: After a lovely weekend visiting Aberdeen with my book loving partner, we were very excited upon finding out there was a second hand bookshop and cafe in the heart of Aberdeen. We were expecting a quaint and cosy establishment where you could peruse books, and then maybe sit for a little coffee. This is NOT what we got.

When entering Books and Beans, I was greeted with a rundown corridor that either leads to a very odd smelling and looking "cafe" on the bottom floor, or a rundown staircase leading upstairs that we never got a chance to look at before a rather unfriendly member of staff ushered us back outside. We were given (no choice) a table in the cafe while being talked over.

We instantly got an unpleasant smell when in the cafe (something other reviews have mentioned before, so it's definitely not just us!). It was cold, loud (the full kitchen was open plan and shared the room with the diners), and there was pitiful display of books (we were never given an option to go upstairs, which may be different).

We ordered chips and couple of drinks (no soft drinks were available, only "organic" drinks), which were fine. Chips were good and large portion. Reasonably priced, although we specifically stated we didn't want the optional service charge, something incredibly rare for us (both of us have previously worked in customer service).

I hope this is taken as constructive criticism, the owners seem to take bad reviews personally and snap back at reviewers. We love this concept, but rather than a quaint bookshop with coffee, this is a bad, rundown greasy spoon with a few...

Would not recommend. The coffee was nice and staff friendly enough. However the food was basic and very overpriced for what it was. Long wait for order to be taken and then when our food arrived it was not what we ordered. I can understand that these things happen when busy, but the cafe was very quiet. The staff seemed preoccupied by chatting and giggling amongst themselves and constantly shouting across the cafe to chat to each other. This did not make a nice atmosphere for customers. No bill with the breakdown of items charged was given, just the girl coming over with the card machine with the total already entered. This makes it awkward to know exactly what you are being charged for. I worked out that we had been charged for the incorrect (and more expensive) item due to the previously mentioned error with our order. A tip had also been added on already which was a bit cheeky as we would not have left a tip and it puts the customer in an awkward position of having to ask for it to be removed. I doubt the owner will try to improve on these points, as looking at other reviews, any criticism is reponded to quite rudely and defensively, however I am leaving this review for others who may be thinking of...

Used to love coming into Books and Beans as a student, looking through second hand books and maybe getting a coffee or sandwich, but currently the place has lost all balance of Bookstore and Cafe. Trying to look at books is nigh impossible when the place is busy, because every concievable corner has has a table crammed into to it to make more money (a sentiment I understand, but which destroys the bookstore aspect). If you want to reach a Stephen King, you may have to lean over a student working on an essay or a gran enjoying her latte. The cafe aspect used to be present, but the area was spacious and comfortable with room to browse the books! I worry that the heart has been stripped out of this little bookstore, for the sake of profit from literary illusion pancakes. The place is also direly understaffed, the very nice girl at the counter was overwhelmed and said it would be a 30 minute wait for food, despite 4 of the tables upstairs being empty. If you can't feed that many seats at once, maybe don't have that mamy seats at once!...