Artigiano Espresso & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Exeter

I must say that my experience today has got me rethinking coming again.

Albeit seldom, whenever I make a trip to Exeter, the Artigano is always my first stop along the high street after parking up at John Lewis after a long drive. The artisan coffees, refreshers and bakery items are absolutely delicious.

Two friends and I walked in at precisely four o’clock. I appreciate that the coffee shop turns into a bar, but on this occasion the place was rather empty - unlike the congested and busy state it usually is in. We came straight to the till to order. No other customers walked in, the shop wasn’t it’s usual busy self & there wasn’t a queue.

As we were pointing and audibly choosing from the menu, the tall, bearded gentlemen with glasses jumped up and ripped down the signs, as we then decided to order standard coffees as we couldn’t see the menu, we were right beside the cakes and bakery items, pointing at them & very audibly choosing them as the gentlemen returned to reach in front of us and - not take them away but - abruptly stack them all and push the stack away from us.

Before he returned to the other side of the till to finally take our order, allthewhile we’d waiting a good five minutes to be acknowledge - and the entire time a lady had been at the section the entire time and not acknowledged us - I started by asking for the cherry slice and he immediately huffed, took a long downward blank pause and then exclaimed that he was just about to...

I visited Artigiano with a group of friends/colleagues last night as one of our clients had bought us £100 of vouchers as a thank you for the service we had provided them. We were lucky enough to find a table and sat down. One of us went to the bar to order our drinks and when paying produced our gift vouchers. The staff more or less insinuated that these were either fake or stolen because we had a large amount of vouchers (£100) that this was very unusual as most people come in with £10 or £20??!! Really?! We then had to provide details of who had purchased the vouchers and when they were bought whilst the vouchers were passed around from one staff member to the next to establish if they were genuine!! Finally we were allowed to spend them and get on with enjoying our evening. We stayed for another hour or so and had just ordered another round of drinks when a member of staff cane to the table and slapped a sign on the table saying that it was reserved and we needed to move!! There were tables either side of us (one where a couple had just sat down) so why ‘we’ were asked to move was beyond us? The manner in which we were spoken (sorry I mean shouted at) was disgusting!! I have worked in the same industry many years ago and I would NEVER have spoken to a customer in the way that we were spoken to...it was appalling! I will never return to Artigiano and will be making sure I spread the word to...

Came in for a drink on Saturday night with my partner. We ordered one drink each and paid the 10% service charge only to wait 35 minutes for our drinks! I asked the lady who brought us our drinks “Excuse me, what is the service charge for?”. She got very defensive. After being argumentative she said we could have the 10% refunded. But I wasn’t so bothered about the money so I said didn’t take it. So she asked me “Well what would you like me to do about it then?” And I said I just wanted to make them aware that it wasn’t a good enough service as they weren’t busy at all. She continued to go against me and so I said to her “There is no argument here, it just wasn’t good enough.” She replied “There is an argument, but okay.” And walked off. About 5 minutes later one of her colleagues came over with complimentary shots and apologised. Which we were grateful for. But that is all that needed to happen in the beginning. The other employee should not have back chatted us.

Did not get her name. Long blonde hair tied back and wearing glasses. Please have some respect for...