Society Café — Restaurant in Oxford

This had been recommended for its coffee by an expert acquaintance. Appreciate this was for the espresso based offer, but we thought we'd try the filter options, and chose an aeropress coffee - I use this at home. The accompanying carrot cake came, and was eaten - not particularly fast - but the coffee didn't. We waited, and waited, and then I asked if it had been forgotten.....no, it's coming now, they said and there were two aeropress machines in front of the barista. So we continued to wait and wait, and at one point all the servers left the counter and there was no-one left. Finally, the coffee arrived - 15 minutes after ordering - and I said, 'gosh, that took a bit of a time, I thought the aeropress was a swift method'. Now the reply to that is 'I'm sorry you've been kept waiting' NOT 'do you have an aeropress and know how long it takes, because we leave it for two minutes...' Actually I DO have an aeropress, and I can make a better and stronger coffee in less than half the time this took. Customer service 0, coffee not great either. Come on, guys, don't argue with the customer, it takes 2 minutes to say - sorry if you've been waiting - and I can promise you, I'm not aggressive, it's just when I want a coffee, I want a coffee, not a wait and then...

Good coffee and great decor. Myself, my wife and my two year old son visited Oxford yesterday and I had done my research as to the best independent/speciality cafes in Oxford and Society came up automatically. I had the batch brew, my wife had a latte and my son had a hot chocolate. The drinks came quickly and the service was friendly. No complaints. After we had finished our drinks I noticed there were retail bags of The Barn coffee for sale and when I enquired how much they were I was very surprised to find out that you were selling them for £7:50 a bag. I couldn't resist at that price and brought a bag of Ethiopian. In my haste I had brought a bag of espresso roast instead of filter. Noticing my mistake I quickly went bag to the cafe to swap for a bag of filter. When I got to the counter to ask about swapping my coffee I was met by a man who grabbed the nearest bag of coffee to him and thrust it at me quite rudely and stared at me as if to say why are you wasting my time. Not no worries yes of course you can swap here are your options. I wouldn't dream of not talking a customer through his or her options in regards to a speciality product. Poor customer service and a poor attitude from yet another barista...

I am a regular at Society Cafe in Oxford which has the best coffee in Oxford and most places I go to be honest. It also has staff who are beyond lovely and give extra attention to repeat customers like myself, showing a genuine interest in my day to day and always presenting a friendly face despite them often being worked off their feet. The one thing stopping me from giving the place a 5-star review is the toilets which are cramped, dingy and awkward. Many people don't realise it's more than one toilet at first and then when you come in, if there happens to be someone coming out there is no room to manoeuvre. The blow dryer is on top of the taps so that when you wash your hands, your elbow can set off the blow dryer which blows the water sideways. The toilets are also tiny and in need of some vibrancy to match the rest of the place. Also, it would be good to have door hooks on the inside of the door to handbags and clothes while going to the toilet for convenience rather than having to leave them...