Hope and Lane — Restaurant in Dover

Hope and Lane serves fair coffee and good vegan and non vegan hot snack options (not meals, more like sausage rolls and small pies and sweet snack.) This was a busy Saturday so it was full and not very easy to move around I’m afraid as they have tried to fill the place with seating both upstairs and downstairs. The staff were doing their best but there weren’t enough of them and the space behind the bar is not big enough for them all to work and sufficiently serve the customers on a busy day. It’s a shame the business hasn’t got that right. I wasn’t sure what the reference to 1800 Columbia was upstairs then realised they simply hadn’t bothered to check how to spell Colombia 🇨🇴 as opposed to Columbia. 😂 always a sign of a non curious coffee business. What a shame - I had higher expectations. Just in response to the owner's response below - Yes, I know Costa Coffee (and just so you know Costa Coffee is a British multinational coffeehouse and retail company headquartered in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Coca Cola). Not Spanish. I don’t often buy coffee from Costa as I am interested in artisan coffee. Your suggestion that I try Costa reeks of sour grapes / sarcasm which is ungracious and passive aggressive to say the least. I said your coffee was fair. Are you sure you’re happy to receive feedback/ reviews as you stated?

As busy as your cafe was, many customers left before ordering as the space was too crowded with chairs and tables weren’t cleared as there were too few team members so it was hard to move around. That experience implies you don’t seem to mind that you are squeezing in your customers, And your staff were struggling as there were not enough of them on shift. That’s unfair to both them and customers.

As to the Colombian reference - you mentioned it was made in Colombia. And? My point was not to the people that made it - more your casual disinterest as a coffee purveyor in getting a detail about a rich coffee region right and respecting the history and culture of the Colombian Coffee - but your response says it all really.

Finally: your defensive response laced with sarcasm shows a lack of understanding as to the point of public reviews and your communication with a customer in a public forum around how you could improve, displays your low level of commitment to good customer service. Customer service isn’t only about good food, good coffee, a good experience within the space, but also about an owner’s ability to hear home truths from a customer about your business. And how you handled that as a professional...

Went in here today to have coffee and cake and expecting to be greeted by a nice friendly local coffee shop, however, the staff were arrogant, surly and clearly couldn’t be bothered to even greet customers with a smile or a hello- as a business owner, I would not dream of treating by clients in the way we were treated today- it was almost as though we were an inconvenience to be, god forbid, ordering coffee and cake in a coffee shop! After reading the rest of the reviews, clearly we are not the only ones who have been treated to their special brand of customer service. The girl with the blond hair was particularly vile, glaring at me when I was taking more than a few seconds to decide on a coffee- tables filthy, staff can’t be bothered- avoid like the plague! Found it equally incredible that the owner had the audacity to pull someone up on a similar review, questioning the impact of their comments on the business- clearly they need to sort the staff issue out rather than attacking...

This is a nice, popular little cafe to go to, as sells both sweet and savoury food and snacks. To eat in or take away. However for those of you who are less able, there is a big step up into the premises. Because its popular, there isn't a lot of seating on ground level, and again it has steep stairs to negotiate, same for the loos. There are a couple of tables outside on quite a narrow pavement, however, it's a busy road for cars and pedestrians, so not really the best place to sit especially if in a wheelchair. Not the fault of the cafe at all, just where...