Café Cognito — Restaurant in Aberdeen City

We were excited to get there after a long drive out of recommendation from our friends. When we arrived it was busy. They had us placing our orders before figuring out the sitting arrangement. As we are a family of three with a small baby, we needed extra room. They made us sit inside the nail bar (there’s a nail salon inside the coffee shop). We literally sat inside the nail bar right on a table were nails get done, surrounded by nail polish and a strong smell of acetone which could be harmful to our baby. We couldn’t stay there, so ended up getting a take away instead because we had already paid for our coffees. They literally poured our cappuccinos from a mug into a paper cup, instead of offering to make us new ones. Consequently, the coffee was disgusting because all the froth had mixed up. The stuff was rude, the old woman who served us started shouting “I did tell you there was only a place inside the nail bar!” Causing a scene when she never actually told us. She might have said it to another member of the staff but certainly not to us. It was really awkward to be confronted like that in public when we had done nothing wrong. It totally killed our experience and expectations. We left the place and ended up driving back home feeling totally demoralised. Will never ever ever ever go to this coffee place ever again!...

An older lady asked us if we were buying anything else after we had been there for 2 and a half hours and spending over 20 quid for soup sandwiches and coffee. When we said no thank you she told us the time we arrived and that she needs the tables because they are a small business. We tried to make the point that we payed quite a bit of money and she asked how long you plan to stay and I replied until the end which was 2 hours more. She said its OK if you plan on buying more things but we get busier later and need the tables. We were indirectly asked to leave which I thought was unessacary as if we had bought coffee in the morning and the lunch later we probably would have...

The location isn't great but the real surprise is once you sit down (if you manage to find suitable seating because it's soooo damned cramped inside) and get ready to order, you soon realise how noisy this place is, not due to the patrons but due to the incessant banging of utensils and that annoying coffee machine that somehow requires the servers to keep banging the "spoon" against something metal. Why can't they simply make provision for their noise to be in an isolated area out of the hearing reach of customers baffles me.....SO IF YOU ENJOY NOISY BANGING PLEASE...