The Honey Pot Ltd — Restaurant in Great Britain

Disappointed and Frustrated, Poor Barista Skills Ruined the Coffee

We stopped by The Honey Pot on Sunday morning (13th July, around 10:20–10:30 AM) while travelling through Penzance. Being coffee enthusiasts, we always look for a decent medium roast Arabica to take away - and after seeing the beans on display, we thought we'd give this place a try.

We ordered at the outside till: one flat white with oat milk and one cappuccino with oat milk, both single shot. We clearly requested for the milk not to be overheated, as boiling milk ruins both the texture and taste - something unfortunately common in many UK cafés. My partner has over 10 years’ experience as a barista and owns a speciality coffee shop in London, so we're not new to quality standards.

The drinks were made by a different barista than the one who took our order. She announced "cappuccino" and handed over a double shot drink. We clarified it should’ve been a single shot as ordered. Her reaction was unprofessional and visibly unpleasant, but she remade the cappuccino.

Despite repeating our request not to overheat the milk twice, she reused the already overheated milk for the flat white and made new milk only for the cappuccino. Both drinks were too hot - I burned my lips on the flat white, and the cappuccino was the same. The milk was scorched, ruining the flavour completely. It’s a shame because the beans themselves didn’t seem bad.

We didn’t have time to argue - there was a queue, and we were on the road - but this was a frustrating and disappointing experience. We’ve been to Penzance before, and the only truly good coffee we've found has been at Wren and Raven Café Bakery (sadly closed that day).

If The Honey Pot values customer feedback, I hope management reviews barista training and quality standards seriously. We’ll be writing to the manager directly and expect a refund for a poor-quality product and even...

Edit: Thank you for your detailed response. It's reassuring to hear that you do know a lot about coeliac and to know a detailed account of what measures you have in place to avoid cross contamination.

Coeliac reactions are quite severe and my body has only started to return to normal again now, two weeks later, so it sucks that it happened. But I do understand the difficulty in making sure everything is completely separate and safe, especially on a busy morning rush.

If I was to come back, is there anything I should have done differently to make sure everything is safe?

Old review:

Nice place but not very allergen-friendly.

As a coeliac, it always brings me great anxiety to find places to go out to eat, but this place seemed to have a good gf reputation. Unfortunately this was not my experience. The waitress serving us seemed to be knowledgeable about allergies and when I asked if cross contamination would an issue with their gluten-free meals they assured me that since my allergy was written on the order it wouldn't be a problem.

However, when my veggie breakfast came out, my toast looked suspiciously similar to everyone else's, so I asked one of the staff if it was gluten free and it wasn't. They were nice about it though, remade my meal and took it off the bill.

Although in their haste to remake my meal or perhaps just out of habit for non-coeliacs who just have a gf preference, I suspect that not all the precautions were taken, perhaps they put my gf bread in the same toaster as the regular bread or something because I left the cafe feeling extremely nauseous.

I hope that this was just an honest mistake, but perhaps refresher of cross-contact and food allergy safety is...

We went there twice during our Bank Holiday weekend in Penzance. Pleased to see so many options for vegans like me. My Vietnamese noodle salad was OK, but I quickly realised they had forgotten the tofu (which would have made it very expensive!!) They promptly brought a bowl of cold, diced tofu (and did the same for the nearby table - maybe the person in the kitchen hadn't been told about all the ingredients?) Anyway it was a bit bland but filling. My ginger smoothie was too strong for me, I had to add water to it! My partner enjoyed his halloumi sandwich. We decided to come back 2 days later to try other items on the menu - this time I absolutely LOVED my vegan sandwich! It had vegan feta instead of halloumi, and the chili jam was incredible. We also found the soup of the day (dahl) really yummy. We ended up staying for 2+ hours as it was so rainy outside. We had incredible desserts, both vegan: banana bread with chocolate spread, and lemon, mint and elderflower cake. We also had herbal tea. All in all it is a cosy place, although it is a victim of its success: very busy, which meant that we had to wait quite a long time for service. You also have to walk through the kitchen to go to a small toilet. Not ideal, but I can see that they are planning to update this! It is a bit on the pricey side, but worth it if you're looking for fresh...