200 Degrees Coffee Shop & Barista School, Lincoln — Restaurant in Lincoln

I've been a regular customer at 200 Degrees Coffee in Lincoln for quite some time, often visiting on Sunday mornings to enjoy a coffee while doing some admin work or Youtube watching on my laptop while waiting for my family to join me after a morning swimming class. Unfortunately, my recent experience was extremely disappointing.

On my latest visit, shortly after sitting down with my coffee and laptop, a supervisor politely informed me about a new policy banning laptop use on weekends. There was no clear signage about this policy, and it wasn't communicated through their app, which I had used to place my order. Despite the cafe being quiet and me clearly being a paying customer with my family due to join me shortly, I was told I had to put my laptop away if I wanted to stay. I opted for a refund instead and left feeling unwelcome and frustrated.

After contacting their customer service, the response confirmed that the policy is intentionally rigid, citing concerns about other customers being unable to find seating due to laptop users. While I understand managing space is important, this approach lacks common sense, flexibility, and basic customer appreciation. It penalises regular, paying customers who aren't causing any issues.

I've seen similar reviews from customers at other 200 Degrees locations who received the same generic responses. Clearly, the company wants to have its cake and eat it too, happy for customers to use laptops during weekdays when they need the business, yet conveniently banning them on weekends to attract family business (ironically exactly what mine was), while pretending the reason is something else.

Sadly, due to this policy and how poorly it's been implemented, I won’t be returning. I hope 200 Degrees reconsider their approach soon, because right now, they’re pushing loyal customers away.

Edit after response from business owner: Poor response as expected. I was a paying customer and had brought a coffee and using the cafe as actually as expected. To insinuate I wasn’t is frankly...

Went here today to check out what this new 200° Coffee Shop was all about. A calming atmosohere as you walk in. The decor is very earthy with comfortable seating and even the choice of a fireplace sofa area. I felt particularly drawn to the lighting, the bulbs hanging from the ceiling gave off just enough light but didn't wash-out the room from the natural light. Plenty of space for groups of people of varying sizes and even the choice of a sofa seat around a fireplace. I had a Coke and a Beetroot and Hummus sandwich. A very good choice and one which I would reccomend, however, there are plenty of different options to satisfy anyones tastes. I've even heard from an anonymous source that the brownie's are particularly good. A quick taste of their Capoccino and whilst I felt there was nothing particularly special about the taste, although i'm not a conniser, hearing that they do more in the coffee making process than just the brewing makes it all the more enjoyable and worth the money. As a student, I can definitly see myself coming here to do some work, as I noticed many people were already doing, however I wonder if we could see some cheaper quick options for food and drink alongside what you already offer? This might appeal to people just looking for a quick snack. Unfortunatly my sandwich took a while to come out and it became clear that my order had got lost and forgotten, however, I did get a free coffee card which made me feel as though they were genuinly sorry. Understandable though being the first day, so this hasn't turned me away. A warm coffee sized welcome to Lincoln and I will be interested to see where they go against the likes of "Coffee Aroma"...

Looked like a lovely busy cafe lots of people in there yet we still thought let’s go try out a hot chocolate we were willing to wait however long for it although we were not willing to have a couple who came in after us have their order prioritised before ours as well as another couple before us, and the reason for their VIP treatment was because they were going to watch a football match later. The Barista knew very well we watched her make at least 14 other drinks before the couple before us for theirs let alone ours! She clearly did not care and decided to giggle with her colleague instead of hurrying up. She then handed the couple after us their drinks and when the couple were surprised that they got their drinks before everyone else in the (fifteen minutes and counting) queue Barista replies with “ahhh it’s okay don’t worry about it enjoy your match” then carried on chit chatting away to her colleague as she slowly made the next drink… very unprofessional considering the rest of the staff were very welcoming and polite and you could see the urgency in the waiter to make sure everyone got their order. The Barista on the other hand is a real let down to the establishment and to be honest if you had a different one I don’t think your queue time would take 20 mins for a take out hot chocolate. Also management may want to discuss her hygiene levels as she was not using clean hands after touching everything else including her nose. The hot chocolate was alright, would have loved to say it was worth the wait but it...