Costa Coffee — Restaurant in Rushmoor

I took my family here as a treat on the way back from a university meeting in the evening 19/06/2024. Unfortunately due to the poor service level and attention of the staff our visit was somewhat marred. The young blonde girl that was "serving" appeared to not really want to be there, when my wife asked what sugar free flavours they had, she replied in a surly manner "whaaat?" my wife repeated the question "you whaaaat?" On the third time she got an answer. The girl then proceeded to slam the tea pot down on our tray, which spilt the drinks, my wife began to mop it up and then the girl half hearted wiped the tray with a Napkin.

Unfortunately there were no seats available due to half of them being stacked upside down on the tables. I am not sure what environmental health would make of having seats placed upside down on a table - to my mind this is a clear health hazard, the germs from a seat going straight onto a table where people eat. I am sure they would be shut down for this until rectified.

Due to there being no seats I asked the blonde girl politely "Is it ok to move the chairs off the tables so we may sit down?" Her face glazed over, and eyes rolled and I am not sure I even received an answer, but my wife tells me she did mutter "yeh ok". I am sure the chairs were up on the tables like this so the staff could run off early, as opposed to doing the cleaning properly when the store is closed.

We then sat down to enjoy our coffee. Behind us the girl started messing around in an unproffesional manner with another girl working there, both being loud and giggling. She also kept scratching her face/nose in front of the other customers with no sign of any hand washing, again I'm not sure what environmental health would make of this. The staff then went outside to vape in full uniform ten minutes before the shop closed, yet again not sure what environmental health would make of wearing uniform outside when serving food, let alone vaping in it.

The latte we were served was also cold, not well made with any care or attention and the glass was not cleaned properly.

This branch of Costa needs to seriously step up it's game - I would suggest a serious talking to from area management and a rethink over who they employ and how the train them. As the current manager does not seem to be running his/her store correctly with all this going on...

The customer service received by the staff was fine, as were the drinks we had. The problem I have is with the parking!! My friend and I always meet for a Costa and a catch up before Christmas - it's become tradition and we have never considered going anywhere else but Costa. Due to being in Tier 3 because of Covid, we got our drinks from the drive thru and sat in the carpark in our seperate cars. What we didn't realise was we had a time limit of 90 minutes. After an hour and a quarter (only 15 extra minutes!!), a couple of drinks and were having a good laugh, we left thinking nothing of it. That was until a parking charge notice of £100 hit my door mat this morning. To say I'm dissapointed is an understatement. All we wanted was a bit of normality, whilst still sticking to the rules and socially distancing, just to get hit with a £100 fine (reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days) for sitting in their own carpark whilst enjoying their product!! I think the time limit rule is unfair considering most people meet friends or family in a coffee shop and they don't want to have to keep an eye on their watch! I also think the outrageously overpriced fine needs to be reconsidered as this will put a lot of people off visiting Costa - I know we will not...

Not a great experience. Got the last space in the small car park. Queued for a while. Only 1 barista on, so coffees taking ages and she was very grumpy. Only a few tables left but covered in used items and pretty dirty. Took a while for someone to start clearing. Once we'd sat down noticed the floor was dirty. No napkins available. Had to find someone to ask. Nobody restocked the container whilst we were there and saw 3 other customers asking for them. My partner saw from the door the state the kitchen was in, plus there were flies around the food area. Seating was hard to get to as the aisles were very narrow, and people's chairs covered possible ways through. Only 1 toasted sandwich was available, which was not great; very greasy and squashed. Our cappuccinos were one notch up from luke warm. Very small slices of cake for the money too. Our stomachs have not been well since this experience, even after a few hours. Never experienced any problems with any other Costa before. Won't...