Costa Coffee — Restaurant in Cambridge

Subject: Complaint Regarding Poor Service and Coffee Quality at Costa . 25/08/2025

I am writing to express my deep dissatisfaction with the service I recently received at one of your stores. I ordered an espresso, and politely asked the barista to prepare a fresh one rather than serving me a pre-made coffee. Unfortunately, her response was both rude and unprofessional.

Instead of preparing a new espresso, she simply poured the coffee she had already made into a takeaway cup. This completely changes the quality and taste of the espresso, as it loses its crema on top and becomes cold. Espresso is not meant to be treated this way, and the experience was extremely disappointing.

This is not the first time this has happened. On a previous occasion, I was in a hurry and accepted the espresso, even though it was cold and had no crema because it had been poured from one cup into another. Such handling of espresso is entirely against its proper preparation standards. In fact, in an Italian café, such behavior would never be tolerated—it would be considered a serious mistake.

What made the situation even worse was the barista’s unpleasant attitude when I kindly explained that espresso should not be transferred from cup to cup. Espresso is not juice; it loses its essential qualities the moment it is mishandled this way.

I find this behavior unacceptable, especially since I am paying for a properly prepared coffee with my own money—not receiving it as a favor. I hope Costa will address this issue seriously and ensure that staff are trained to prepare espresso correctly and treat customers...

There’s nothing we enjoy more than a nice drink from Costa and the one at the Beehive has been our go to for several years. The staff have always been lovely, one was moved up to manager and sadly has left now. I haven’t caught his name before but there’s one lovely member of your staff he has red hair and he’s always polite and friendly.

It is a real shame he can’t be your manager and rather than you’ve employed a big large bald headed condescending and rude one instead. Not only does this manager decide to close whenever he wishes even to loyal customers, he leaves all the chairs and tables and signs outside for just anybody to come and take at night. He talks to his customers like dirt and won’t even look at them whilst doing so.

I wouldn’t count your ego too high mate, you’re a manager at Costa and you’re nowt special. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Fortunately I’m not somebody who will just allow you to speak to my mother like that so I’ll make sure all your superiors are perfectly aware of your wrong doings and I’m sure even just a little telling off might take a dump on your day like you do...

Went in on a Sunday towards the end of the day. Most tables were dirty and hadn't been wiped down. Spilt drinks, serviettes, empty sugar packets, bits of food etc on many areas of the floor. The milk jugs were absolutely covered in dried milk and weren't being cleaned. Fresh milk was being added into jugs of already-heated milk with it all being heated up again multiple times over. The one available toilet was disgustingly filthy (urine all over the toilet and floor, toilet tissue everywhere, one of the worst toilet brushes I've seen in a while).

Staff seemed pretty stressed and were unable to wash any crockery. I think they were just focusing on serving people and didn't have chance to carry out basic cleaning.

This visit was consistent with others I've made throughout the year. I have held off leaving a bad review however cleanliness and hygiene hasn't improved. I heard multiple people mention to staff today about the toilet but nothing was done about it during the 60 minutes we were...