Esquires Coffee - Maidstone — Restaurant in Maidstone

Not great anymore, use to come years ago and was lovely but seems to have gone down hill a bit. Met with a friend today for breakfast and ordered a decaf oat coffee, mug of tea with milk, a bacon sandwich and scrambled egg on toast. They had no decaf and no bacon available so changed our order, what was fine however I can’t really drink caffeine and would think a coffee shop would have this available. They also didn’t have decaf a few weeks ago when I popped in and had to go somewhere else, so think just not being ordered? I paid in cash but they didn’t have enough change so I just took what they had. When the tea came it didn’t come with milk, and when we asked they had no milk jugs when the coffee came out it wasn’t oat and had to be re made and was told some one else must have taken the oat one however we sat next to the coffee station and an oat coffee was never called, what’s a little worrying just because if some one had taken it unknowingly and had allergy’s, this could be problematic. Coffee was a bit burnt, Food came out, scrambled eggs were super watery and bland. The rest was okay. Had to look on other tables to find salt and pepper as again they didn’t really have many. I asked for some napkins after I had looked on the sides and was told they were also out of these, so had to be given a new washing up cloth. They girls seem sweet who work there but think there must be problems within ordering and management as they seem to be low on stock on everything. Foods been pretty bad the last few times I’ve been, thought it might have just been off days as use to be a nice little breakfast spot but now think not very good might be the norm. Last time I had avocado on toast with poached eggs, was told the eggs would take 10 to 15 mins what was fine, when they came out it was so bland with what seemed like a whole pot of chili flakes on top to mask this and the eggs where so so over done and almost mashed on the plate, I didn’t eat them. even the lady who gave me the dish questioned if it was okay knowing it probably wasn’t but I didn’t want to wait longer as my friend already had her food. And the time before that I got two salmon bagels to take away what use to be our favourite when we lived closer, they didn’t have any bags and hardly any take away boxes and they tasted stale, really not nice and we didn’t end up eating them either. I don’t think it’s a front of house issue more a management problem. Hopefully picks up again but at the moment I wouldn’t...

I used to come in to this coffee shop all the time and loved it the staff were lovely and chatty and the coffee and food was amazing. However when I went in there last week we were greeted (if I can even say greeted)with a man in an unbuttoned white top who was really unfriendly - he told me they had no ingredients for the smoothie I wanted - even though when I left I could clearly see them all in the fridge. He told me I could only have orange juice which I had to wait 15 minutes for! I had to go up and ask at one point if it was ready in which he stared me dead in the face and ignored me and started chatting with one of his colleagues. I then had to ask him if he had an answer - in which he clearly did hear me as he finally answered me to tell me it would be a further 15 minutes on top of the 15/20 minutes I had already been waiting! Whilst waiting I watched another customer go up to him and tell him he got his order wrong - he gave him an americano instead of a black tea. It's not very hard to apologise let alone even speak to your customer - seems like you're hiring people that like to smoke before they come in or something not a clue why he had to be so horrible. Very much doubting if I will...

Sadly, after a good few visits, today made my mind up for it to be our last. I ordered a full English which must've been nuked in the gigawatt microwave oven because my hash brown was chewy and looked like it'd been fried which it clearly wasn't. The bacon, although delicious was as crispy as a packet of frazzles. And to top it all off, they had no baked beans so I was giben various options and opted for an extra sausage, both of which were also the consistency of a reheated walls sausage - all crispy skin and fluffy insides with zero meat texture. The final straw... "could I have some vinegar please?".... (scurries off ransacking all the cupboards) only to be told they don't have any. I mean c'mon guys..... national baked bean shortage and no vinegar? It's like going to mcdonalds and being told fries have run out!

The coffee is always tasty whatever beans they use so that's a plus but the food on this occasion was damn poor, well, well below standard and wasn't even that hot.

What a sad let down, the ambience in there is amazing and the coffee is great. Real shame, just as well there's lots of other competition...