SOHO Coffee Cribbs Causeway — Restaurant in England

On 29 december 2023 at 5:35 PM I went to your branch in cribbs causeway mall in bristol. I asked for Tea and flat white to surprised that they asked me to pay £13. i paid that to the lady on the cashier but because i realised that the money i paid is too much for my order i asked for a receipt, it took them long time to issue a receipt and i had to ask twice for it, finally they gave me a receipt for things i didn't order and more expensive than the drinks i asked for and on receipt there were things like : Amaricano & latte & flat white & cake !! When I told the lady on casher and the other lady who was preparing drinks that the orders on the receipt were wrong and what I asked for were different she started to get aggressive at me and told me no I did order the items on the receipt ! so i told her ok please correct the order and refund me the extra money i paid but i was surprised that she answered me in very rude aggressive way that she will not refund me because my order (tea & flat white) have the same cost like what they have on the receipt they gave to me (Amaricano & latte & flat white & cake) which doesn't make any sense at all so i asked that lady (asian lady told me her name is Karla) to stop being rude to me and told her that i want to speak to the manager please !! She said there was no manager there and she refused to get me in touch with her manager !! Then, when I insisted she gave me a telephone number saying it's her manager's phone number which i realised later that she just gave me wrong not in use number and that why am writing to you here. this incident was not the first time as it happened to me with the same lady (only asian was presented at the mentioned date and time saying her name was karla or carla) two times before and that why i have decided to let you know about it as obviously and apart of her rudeness to customers i think she is stealing money by charging customers for items more expensive than what they asked for or for extra items they didn't even asked for !! and mainly she does that when customers...

We arrived on a Sunday morning, before 11am so hardly peak time. The shops hadn't even opened yet. Only the food places were open. So not a lot of people around. Just for context.

Our breakfast order was taken promptly and only then did I notice all the people waiting for food. I ordered a triple bacon & egg roll and my wife avocado toast.

We waited....and waited....and waited. The couple in front of us was told they'd made the wrong order and if they wanted their actual order, they'd have to wait even longer because of all the orders. I later realised one lady was just waiting for a drink, no food.

I could see the single person trying to make the food was trying his best but was clearly swamped. I told them that I wasn't in a rush to begin with but now I am. But he got defensive. I then told the manager that this poor guy clearly needed help. Why they had 3 staff on drinks, 1 taking orders but only one guy making food is beyond me. They should have either told people to expect a wait or stopped taking food orders for a bit. The manager told me she'd go help. Then a guy came in from the outdoor seating area complaining that he'd been waiting over 40 minutes. The manager went off presumably to deal with him as he was clearly very upset as I would have been. When she came back she went straight back to drinks.

We got our food. Mine was at best meh. My roll felt frozen at the top. My wife said her toast was so hard she could hammer nails with it. I offered to complain again but she told me not to. What's the point. They clearly didn't care and we didn't have time either.

Worst experience I've had in a LONG time. Shame as the decor or location of this place is lovely. The coffee was nice too.

Would not recommend, definitely will not...

I buy coffee here on 3 or 4 days a week, i probably spend between £100 and £200 a month here, and i often bring family and friends too. Usually the service is very friendly. Timeliness of service depends on how busy they are as there is only a tiny food prep. area and one barista machine so, even with extra staff on busy days they have trouble increasing the speed of service. Not their fault that the premises are small and that they are popular. However today, although the Mall was relatively quiet, I got hit by what appeared to be a very inexperienced 'crew' who were having problems keeping up and were failing to clear tables and keep on top of the washing up. I asked for an oat latte and a croissant to "have in". After a 5 to 10 minute wait I was asked if I minded having my coffee in a takeaway cup. I said I would prefer not. The young man serving me said he would go clear the tables and find a mug. 5 minutes later my coffee arrived, from a different server, in a takeaway cup. It's not hard people, there is a Pret A Manger, a Starbucks, a Costa, a Bake + Barista, M&S, John Lewis, and more ..... all within a short walk. Why do I choose Soho? Because the coffee is good, but mostly because the staff are friendly and I get good service with a smile. So, plenty of competition, the service makes the difference..... my recommendation is "keep on top of staff training and team...