Knoops — Restaurant in London

I passed Knoops in Kensington on my way home for a couple of months; before I finally decided to venture in. Without writing an entire novel of a review, let's just say that I haven't bought hot chocolate from anywhere else since the first time I bought it here. Not even at my workplace which sells hot chocolate. The staff are very friendly and the manager is great person. With all of this in mind, a one star review does seem strange and it doesn't feel great to leave it. If any members of staff are reading this then please know that this review does not reflect any of you and it's always nice to be served by you. Customer service is what lets down this company. On three separate occasions, I have called the number listed on the website only to find myself talking to people saying that they're from a messaging service which passes on messages to the company so that the company can contact customers. It's a very strange set-up. On the first two occasions, on two consecutive days, I talked to someone who said he was from a company outsourced by Knoops. No one from Knoops ever made contact with me which is poor. The manager of the Kensington store ended up resolving both problems for me very quickly and apologised for the experience I'd had so far. Today, after being told by the team at the Richmond store that I couldn't pay with the app I'd topped up with credit, I decided to call customer service again. Of course, I found myself talking to the same messaging service which annoyed me. I'd actually like to talk to customer service rather than have to rely on a company relaying messages for me. A complaint was taken and I was assured that someone from Knoops would contact me. Although, when I asked if I could be advised about how long this typically takes, I was told by the person thay they didn't know as they were new to the company. Overall, for a company very similar in size and belonging to the same sector as the one I work for, this is an abysmal performance. I shouldn't be able to top up an app with credit then have to pay for my drinks anyway as selected stores don't accept it. The customer service team do not seem to care about their customers and they should probably get their act together before consider opening...

Very friendly, attentive and helpful staff, and a mind-boggling choice of chocolate varieties on offer! 5 stars for this alone. Unfortunately we were however left underwhelmed by the actual drink: Our small 34% milk chocolate was enjoyable and had perfect drinking temperature. The cream however was like a puff of air, no substance, no flavour, never seen or tasted anything like it. Seeing it fizzle out of the dispenser I’d already wondered why it looked so lacklustre, so not sure why staff didn’t pick up on that as surely that can’t be how it’s meant to be. I also found it somewhat odd that staff immediately put a lid over the cream, squashing it down and basically ruining what normally makes a hot chocolate extra luxurious. At that price I certainly do want to indulge any way I can. We also had a regular sized 65% dark chocolate, which had the same lacklustre cream and was so hot I burnt my tongue and had to wait ages for it to cool down. Not sure how they can get the temperature right for one drink but so very wrong for the next. Milk that is heated too much loses its sweetness and adds other unwanted flavours, which didn’t help balance the dark chocolate either. Overall I don’t think I’d go back now for quite some time as it’s also a very small space where you can’t really relax, for example to read a book with your favourite novelty hot chocolate. There’s a lot of potential here for sure and with a bit more QA and training the issues we had today can easily be addressed. Overall 3 out of 5 as you can get lucky with a perfect hot chocolate and because I really think staff were absolutely great with customers, so if you do get a sub-par drink and if you have the time to go back and ask for a new one then it is indeed well...

I tried Knoops for the first time in Richmond last week and had the loveliest experience, but was really disappointed by my experience yesterday 15/04/24 at the High Street Kensington store. I ordered a 39% hot chocolate with whipped cream and noticed straight away that the cream was off. I opened the lid and it was quite literally a pale yellow, so I tentatively went up to the bar and informed them and asked if it would be okay if I got a new hot chocolate. One of the women behind the bar turned around to tell the rest of the people working what I’d said and I was quite shocked at how annoyed she was. Then another sales assistant said to me “the cream doesn’t go off until tomorrow so it can’t be off” and I had to respond by telling her it was literally tangy to the taste and YELLOW and she physically rolled her eyes at me. She eventually asked me if I wanted a new one but I was made to feel really guilty for even asking. There was one lovely woman behind the bar who was really accommodating to me and made me feel better but I was shocked at how embarrassed I was made to feel about asking for a new drink that wasn’t literally out of date. I was then made a new drink without being offered a discount or any sort of refund even though I had had to pay extra for the whipped cream. Overall was really disappointed by the awful service and the quality of food considering how expensive my drink was but also How good the quality of the hot chocolates...