Black Cowboy Coffee — Restaurant in London

I cannot dissuade anyone from going to this coffee shop enough!

Been to this coffee shop a few times now and each time I've witnessed or encountered situations where the owner in the cowboy hat has gotten aggressive towards customers and others using the space. The owner is extremely passive aggressive, sarcastic, rude, and unpleasant. On one occasion, a customer enquired about juice place next store only to be met with a sarcastic and rude response. I myself was rudely spoken to when asking about a particular item on the menu as if I was the stupidest person on the planet.

Again, I cannot recommend you taking your business elsewhere more, you should not spend your money here. It's a shame the bid to turn elephant & castle into a sort of "Little Latin America" similar to Little Portugal failed as we could be drinking proper Columbian coffee instead of this sludge. Though slightly further away from the station, I would rather go a little further out of my way and go to a different coffee shop than spend my money and drink this caffeinated sewage water. I'd rather drink straight from the Thames than put myself through this coffee again.

In terms of the food, the items that come out of the microwave at this establishment makes Whetherspoons food appear like a michelin star restaurant. It can be hard to tell what this place even serves as, when you enter, you are immediately blinded by the bright signs flashing at you displaying what the place serves. There should be a seizure warning before entering the establishment and the signs give the place a dystopian cyberpunk nightclub feel and is totally a pointless addition to a coffeeshop/livestock food distributer.

Additionally, the shop also offers a range of "Fresh" smoothies which I witnessed being dispensed from a pre-packaged bag by a member of staff... I can only assume by fresh, they mean fresh a month ago when they were processed and packaged into a bag and shipped to the coffeeshop. Either that or it is the latest GMO fruit that naturally grows blended and in a plastic bag.

Please save yourself the time, money, and health, and take your money elsewhere. If you want good coffee, even the costa machine at the local Sainsbury's trumps this place and comes with far less ridicule...

I ordered a chai latte so can't really comment on how the coffee was, but I'm giving this place one star because of how rude and sarcastic the owner was during my encounter with him yesterday. I asked him how the move was from the elephant n castle shopping centre to his new spot / general changes in the area due to gentrification and he said it was great (& didn't seem to care about any of the other local traders who are yet to be relocated). After a while, I then asked if I could film him making a coffee for a uni exercise, which he said 'not right now' as I had to 'ask him in advance'.

He then threw shade at where I was from, saying 'all you Somali people are 'ditsy' and don't understand things, when the reason I couldn't understand him was because he was talking very fast, he had a thick african accent AND was wearing a mask. When I then asked where he was from, he said 'better than Somalia' and then laughed. Trying not to get angry in the moment, I asked where he was from and he said 'west Africa' & I then asked 'so what's with the black cowboy thing'... expecting to hear something about him living in America, which he then replied to 'google me' and that I should do my research. Clearly, all the recent attention he's gotten from 'support black/small businesses' has gotten to his head, and I will never visit his cafe again. I'm not sure if he has something against Somalis personally or is islamophobic, but I found him unnecessarily aggressive from the beginning of our encounter. On my way out he told me I was 'missing an opportunity' to film him, as if he didn't say no earlier.

Maybe everything he said was just his 'sense of humour' and he had no bad intentions, but you shouldn't talk to everyone the way you would with your friends and family because to me it just translated as rude. Good customer service goes a long way, and it's not very difficult to be...

I am a regular customer of the juice place next door but I thought I would try the vegetarian chilli from Black Cowboy. Unfortunately my experience was spoiled by an aggressive female member of staff in a black wooly hat.

I ordered a 3 bean chilli and coffee at 12:40 and sat down. At 12:58 nothing had arrived. In the meantime a number of customers had come and gone with takeaway orders so I went to check what was happening.

I should say that I didn't mind the wait for the food I just wanted to make sure I hadn't been forgotten and get the coffee.

The woman I spoke to seemed to take this as a personal attack. She said they always serve the coffee with the food. Disputed that I'd been waiting as long as I had. Protested that the food was 'freshly made'. She did bring my coffee but refused to make eye contact and kept saying that the food was freshly made as she delivered my coffee. She continued to complain about me loudly from the counter until I left.

The guy who made my food was friendly and apologetic. I told him that I wasn't upset about the delay, just his colleague's attitude. He seemed embarrassed by her behaviour.

Side note: the coffee would've been better if the hot water had gone in first (see photo). The cutlery was dirty (see photo).

I'd like to give this place another chance. I hope this woman was just having a bad day and that she can can reflect on how this situation escalated...