Coffee#1 Westbury-on-Trym — Restaurant in Bristol

Update March 4th : strong good staff core of new manager Cl', long standing Sh' , and as Br' , now seen after transition, to be keeping up the excellent pleasant kind way hard working way that former manager A and staff such as Brn and Jonas established here in WoTrym for Coffee #1, 7 and more years back. Coming through strongly for us all. Many thanks much appreciated!!! . Looks good ! (As for the maintenance staff and company!?? Who knows who they are & why they do or don't do what they do for here or other coffee shops too. A mystery !?? And no good advert for the business and company one would think. Whoever they are!?? ).

Update, 2024: Dear Coffee #1 Westbury-on-Trym: this is what a toilet door handle with lock looks like, photo, and is found in every other coffee shop and Coffee #1 ones too in the land. Toilet lock has had a good update . And very pleasing kind service and toastie toasted well . Updates to food selection bring more variety and not pesto in everything. Good !? Coronation Chicken panino looks worth trying when not sold out !

...service very good from young Indian manager on duty yesterday and leading the team he, Nov 7th 2024.

Earlier review might not be relevant now... Re maintenance as it looks better cared for. What is your local Overseer Mgr lady doing to hold the maintenance contractors or staff to task at last. So a helpful photo taken in Coffee #1 Hungerford to show them what a proper handle and lock looks like which does not embarass and upset customers. Kindly . Response from Coffee #1 to this here please?

Update Nov 2023: Tensions can arise now, due to staff disgruntled upset with the lack of pay rewards, and with the lack of care from the oversight managers over them in the company, it seems. And their being too absent to help and listen. Never seen and never indeed getting helpful views from we loyal most locals also, to help develop and keep the business fine and tops, as it is at all so.

Over 7 or 8 years of being a loyal most customer, here in our community, home village suburb, the customer service response policy seems set to be, discovered to be so, -with this great firm -, seems set decided by them to be a NIL! one.

Or nil glad full resolution and listening truly at all. And only to give a show!! of response year on year. They are not really interested at all to hear if even their most loyal keen customers have some feedback seeking to be helpful. Pride before a fall one thinks it shows.

And when one tries to be constructive helpful too & because!!!: they are so good as a whole generally, the chain and our local !! This one finds very surprising for a business which appears to be so well founded in good ways generally. This must threaten any fine business .

The staff feeling of wanting to get off home after 6pm as soon as they can, has grown. And this week, when I literally jogged half a kilometre to make closing time & I arrived literally 15 seconds after 6 pm and the mean fellow would not have served me, "closed !" he said, and his colleague supported him too. If I had not felt disgusted, as a loyal most customer, as he also knows me to be, and asked him kindly to open the till please, and 'one quick takeaway drink please '.

Such an attidude is rather alarming one might say in hospitality!!? And moves bad feelings. In a pub or the like, one is not made to feel unwelcome, a minute after closing time.

One has noted how the maintenance contract firms are not held to account well or at all , and shoddy jobs done, and take a long time to respond to do them too. This makes it more trying still for staff as for w customers..

I am very happy to actually go and meet with these unknown bosses and talk about this all. I am a 60+ years caring type, I hope! ... and with a good brain to think such through with them, the good Company. And not be blanked out as their policy seems to be, re customer concerns. Kind regards and thanks! Best of hopes. Update Oct 2021: Just the same ! : Excellent and much appreciated still. As earlier words, review 2 years back ...

Food (and drink!)

Popped in for a coffee and some gluten free cake (I am a Coeliac, so need to be careful about cross-contamination & a strict gluten free diet), having visited many times before.

Unfortunately, they were unable to make decaf coffees, as the machine was broken, so we had a regular vanilla latte, and a decaf tea with oat milk.

We were hoping to have some gluten free sponge too, but all they had left was prepackaged gluten free coconut and cherry cake.

The cake was fine, however it was stored in a basket, by the till, with non-gluten free, unwrapped cakes and pastries, which were touching the outside wrapper.

This meant that I had to ask my Mum to unwrap the cake for me, as I didn’t want to risk getting gluten on my hands and then potentially cross-contaminating other things. This may seem ridiculous, but I am rather sensitive to gluten and ‘glutening’; I wouldn’t have had any cake, if I hadn’t been hungry (having not had any lunch by 15:00).

The latte was a tad bitter, but that was my fault for not asking for the seasonal medium roast beans.

Service

The barista was friendly, and helpful, but both of them seemed tired, a bit fed up, talking about how much longer their shifts were/wanting them to be over.

I can understand the sentiment, but it did come across a bit negatively. We chose a table by the window, which had dishes on already, but they quickly came and cleared it for us, without us asking.

Atmosphere

We sat downstairs, which was strangely quiet, despite a number of other guests, but as we quite like a quieter atmosphere, this was fine for us; it allowed us to chat easily and play Scrabble on my phone.

Final Thoughts

A bit disappointing compared to previous visits; perhaps if we were there earlier in the day and if the decaf machine had been working, we might have felt differently.

Hopefully next time it’ll be working, and the gluten free sponge will be available.

One thing I would mention/like to see changed, is the storing of the GF product, regardless of whether it was wrapped or not, against the non-gluten free food. I found this disappointing/concerning; fortunately I wouldn’t go into anaphylaxis if...

Unfortunately my recent coffee really wasn’t good. Oat milk flat white to go, not sure if they just didn’t care because there was a lid on it or because it was oat milk but it was scolding hot with really poorly foamed milk - very bubbly and just no care put into it. It’s very possible to foam oat milk well, so that shouldn’t be an excuse. For the price of the coffee at almost £4 it really should be a great coffee, there are a lot of better coffee places to visit in bristol. The atmosphere was good though, it was quiet and didn’t feel cramped for us...