52A Coffee House — Restaurant in London

updated review

The comments from the owner is an example of how unfriendly they are. Their tone alone is a strong example.  As well as being unfriendly, they have also said some spurious claims. Firstly I was never told that it cost 50p to add honey or sweetener to my hot drink.

After, I bought my drink, I sat and plugged in one laptop not "many devices".

I left because I was told that laptops can only be used for an hour. As explained in my initial review this was a strange concept to enforce as nobody else sat in the cafe and it wasn't busy. You could have made more money today because there was a plan to buy more items but this was never fulfilled because of your 1hr laptop rule.

As a business owner, considering customer feedback to improve your establishment will help your business grow not spreading spurious claims and having a defensive and unprofessional tone. My advice for you regarding this experience is that you could be  more flexible during quiet times and warmer to your customers.

*Updated review

A quaint little coffee shop but not a very friendly place. I ordered a hot drink and asked for some honey, reluctantly, I was given it and told that next time I would have to pay for it.  I found this extremely strange as I assumed it was a given to be provided with sweet condiments and sweeteners when one has bought something. Then, I was told after I had sat down that I can only use my laptop for an hour when there was literally nobody in the cafe except myself.

Nobody sat down in that cafe for the whole duration of my stay so I found it quite bizarre that this was enforced. I could understand if the establishment was busy but there weren't any customers when I arrived nor when I left.

If the service was a bit warmer, they would have had more money as I would have been able to stay longer...

Wouldn’t recommend! An year ago on my first visit here I really liked the atmosphere. But then my boyfriend and I were kindly asked to leave after about an hour or so, because “this is a business and other people want to sit here as well”, regardless of our second order of coffee. Anyway, today I asked my boyfriend to come again, because it seemed cozy on this rainy Saturday. We had two cappuccinos, a croissant and a pastry, opened our sketchbooks (we are artists and can’t sit anywhere without them) and started talking, sketching, etc. After some time over an hour the owner asked us whether we wanted something else, my boyfriend still hadn’t finished his cup of coffee and said “No, but we are leaving soon.”. In a minute she again asked us to leave. Also, it was quite offensive to call artists with opened sketchbooks “an office”. She started getting rude once my boyfriend told her that what she is doing is not a nice cafe policy. She said that this is a business and that she remembers us from last year when we did the same thing. Then she said she will call the police on us. This made us angry and so a cup of unfinished coffee was spilled on the table. She said that she will file a complaint, because she has our credit card info from the payment and I guess CCTV. Hahaha, I can’t wait to share on my story her Instagram post about that - we are so looking forward to it, as she screamed at us about it once we were walking away! Is that normal? A thing I like about the owner’s answers I see in the comments here - her use of the full names of unsatisfied clients, hahaha. Best...

Coffee was not bad, but the staff were oddly standoffish.

I came here on a Sunday afternoon and as soon as it was my turn to order the first thing they said to me was an abrupt “it’s a no laptop policy on the weekends” - I didn’t even have a laptop on me, I was just ordering a coffee! Felt a little passive aggressive.

I asked them why do they ask, and they said “oh, it was nothing personal” - yet they didn’t ask anyone else in the queue this question. Strange!

Not feeling that great about coming back here tbh - just made the whole experience uncomfortable. It’s a shame because it’s a great location.

I literally just wanted a coffee!

EDIT: I have seen you respond and say that my review was "dishonest", that I was "aggressive", that I am "experiencing issues". These are lies and character attacks. Was anything I said in my review incorrect?

Consequently, I have reported your reply Google's business legal team. And seeing your other responses to reviewers, seems I am not the only customer who's had sub-par service from your establishment.

EDIT 2:

For all interested, 52A Coffee House has changed their reply to the one you see below. While I do commend this, I would like to clarify that in their original response they attempted call me “aggressive” and a “liar”. Luckily I have a record of this original reply when I sent it to the Google Business Team. As you can see by the numerous other reviews of this cafe, the owners here are just kinda...