Grounded — Restaurant in London

I am writing this review because I loved this coffee shop, I really liked it’s owner. It’s not a good review, but I am writing it because someone needs to stop this coffee shops determination to fail and close its doors for good.

When it opened some ten years or so ago, it was great. Now there really is nothing about it that is anywhere near above average. And it is very clear to someone in the hospitality business (or discerning person actually) that this code so desperately needs a new manager. I do hope that the owner sees this review.

The coffee is often okay, but not always and (which is not at all acceptable at around £3 per cup). Its still Monmouth coffee (very good), but it very much depends on who makes the coffee for you and whether they are in a good mood or not (and the staff are in a bad mood more often than not).

The advertised hours are always incorrect. It says one time on the door, another time on the website, and yet another on Google, but it actually seems as if they just open and close whenever they see fit. If you’re lucky (or unlucky depending on the coffee you end up with), they open at 8:30 Monday to Friday and close around 5 (yes I did say “around”). Firstly, 8:30 is not a reasonable time for a coffee shop to open. People want coffee first thing in the morning often as they’re going to work (y here’s a station around the corner, so what is the manager thinking?) 8:30 is not first thing in the morning. Commuters want coffee early. And commuters become return customers often coming back at lunchtime or in the afternoons, or at weekends. Weekends and holidays are hit and miss regarding opening hours. As well as the much later opening up time and earlier closing times, opening hours are just not something you can ever be sure of.

It seems as if this coffee shop is afraid to confront its staff and tell them that they will have to work proper coffee shop hours. Its a coffee shop after all.

The purpose of a coffee shop is not selling a luxury item, it is selling an (no judgement here, as I love my coffee) addictive substance. And so it needs to be open early and its opening hours should be consistent time (both in terms of, as advertised, and as customers have come to expect).

I think the changes this coffee shop has gone through is much the same as many large companies have suffered some coronavirus, lockdowns and onset of the general attitude that businesses could do whatever they wanted in the name of cow towing to the wishes of their employees (the same time the world went mad with working from home, closing due to the pandemic, telephone interviews, zoom meetings, reducing service, cashless only payments, social distancing - also the same time that the craze of pedestrians thinking that it is okay to walk in the road started).

It really is a shame actually, as I said I like really the owner, and my memories of the shop when it opened. But it really does look like this shop is in the process of managed decline and it doesn’t seem willing to pull out the stops and prevent that decline from happening. Either laziness, or someone really don’t know how to manage a...

It's nice and simple down to earth place. I had coffee and cake with my dog and it was a very present experience 😊 The only problem I have with the Grounded is that their cakes and muffins are made outside in a big factory who supplies it to every run of the mill coffee shop 😔😞 so there is no incentive to go back.

I've done a lot of research and their pastries are not organic !! So lots of E numbers and  hydrogenated vegetable oils to extend their shelf life😞

Please make it in house with healthy fresh ingredients. It's better for us and the environment.

In St Margret's the are around 10 coffee shops. Why not try to be different. If your food was exceptional and good there would be no need of other coffeeshops to open...

They had all the ingredients of an English breakfast on the menu but they don't specifically list it. So we asked for sausage bacon, tomato and poached eggs on toast and a cup of tea times two - for this we were charged £33! If my sister hadn't needed to catch a train we'd have walked out. We were told we would get 2 sausages though only one arrived with a paltry amount of bacon. Another sausage and an additional small amount of bacon was forthcoming later. The sausage and bacon were not very good quality - i.e. almost certainly supermarket and not from a butcher. Plus the server knocked a lot of milk all over the table and didn't even notice! Dreadful and overpriced...