Brown Bag — Restaurant in England

Where shall I begin? I’m writing this while in the café itself. It is VERY noisy in here! You can’t hear yourself think. When Costa Coffee was here, the way they physically had the furniture and so on seemed to absorb the sound of the conversations but the new flooring now and the big open plan ‘hangar’ like space amplifies ALL the chatting going on and it is like noise pollution - not cosy anymore 😕 No longer a place to relax. I also dislike these HUGE dark brown corner panels which look offputting and quite frankly awful! The staff: one or two were 100% in their soft skills - smiling, welcoming, professional. Two were po faced and serious looking - this is a SERVICE industry - come on, look engaged and cheerful! The Coffee: Pleasant and quite okay The Decor: Very tasteful though it could do with some bright colours or flowers on the tables. It feels claustrophobic because there are no pleasant vistas to look at, like fields of poppies and Tuscan villages on large posters on the wall so you can metaphorically be transported somewhere away from the stresses of daily life. The cups and saucers: Very nice! Would I come again? No way! I love a calm café to relax in and the atmosphere in here is not relaxing, primarily due to the noise, dark interior and lack of bright colours as well as the overwhelming presence of those awful corner panels. Have a nice...

Food is always good quality at the brown bag, I’m always impressed. The ambience is nice and the window seating and outdoor seating is lovely.

Unfortunately let down in recent visits by staff who seem to view us more as an inconvenience than customers. This seems to be a trickle down from one of the more senior members of staff. We think she is the manager although we’re not sure, as there is no identifying name badge or similar.

Bracknell brown bag often half fill hot chocolate cups and fill the rest with cream. The first time we thought it was an accident, but I asked recently for a full cup of hot chocolate with a small squirt of cream on top and the (manager?) barista was quite irritated by my request. She seemed upset to have to fill the cup and actually had to be prompted to add more milk by the cashier.

When we left the shop we said thank you and waved a polite goodbye but the staff ignored us.

We understand cost of ingredients is high but prices have also gone up, and the Wokingham brown bag staff have never behaved this way. It’s very much a localised issue to the...

Coffee and food is good. Unfortunately though for more than 6 months we have mentioned to staff that the internet is beyond poor but sadly nothing has changed. The internet speed tested from multiple devices and times of day is less than 1mbps. usually 0.3-0.7mbps whereas a bare minimum standard would be 20mbps let alone other main corporate chains which have 50-75+.

Guys... having non working wifi in 2025 as a coffee shop is below hygiene standard... I highly advise you correct this. Food wise and coffee its great but reasons like this make me more likely to just go to Starbucks and give my money to the big chain because they do pay attention to this details. I reluctantly write this review but I have noticed you have not made any changes in this area despite...