Cafe Fame — Restaurant in Scotland

I had an EXTREMELY BAD experience at Café Fame last week that left me genuinely lost for words. I arrived at around 2pm, ordered a coffee, and sat down to do some work. The café was nearly empty the entire time.

Around 3:30pm, a waitress came over and asked if I wanted to order anything else. I politely let her know that I had already placed an order. It felt like a subtle hint to move on, which I found a little odd given how quiet the place was, and the fact that I was in a coffee shop and had already ordered a coffee.

Then, at around 4pm, the manager himself approached me and made it very clear, rudely and without any attempt at politeness, that he wanted me to leave because I "had only ordered a coffee the entire time". No explanation, no courtesy, just an unwelcoming attitude that made it impossible to stay any longer. He then ran off to the kitchen before I could ask what was going on and left his waitresses to deal with the mess - they seemed to be accustomed to his erratic attitude.

For a café that claims to be a place where people can enjoy a coffee and work or relax, this was a baffling and frankly unacceptable way to treat a paying customer. I’ve never been made to feel so unwelcome in such an empty space. Needless to say, I won’t be returning and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

Please take your money to a coffee shop with staff that understand basic hospitality 101!

• Further response to owner reply below - don't believe what you see!! :) *

"You had an espresso at 2pm and after one hour moved to another table by saying that “you’re waiting for someone else and will order then”. When your friend came neither of you wanted anything else to order." Yes, friend came in to coffee shop for a few minutes to leave some things with me, then left.

"After 3.30/4pm we usually open as a wine bar (totally new, otherwise the Cafe closes at 4pm)," If people ordering coffee need to leave by 4pm, I suggest you specify this somewhere.

"started preparing the tables and had a table booked for 8 people at exactly one of the tables you moved in (without even asking if it was ok?)." It's not typically expected that you have to ask the manager to move to another empty table in a coffee shop? If you had a reservation, put a 'Reserved' sign out. Or even better, come over and politely say?

"I myself apologized and asked you politely 10 min earlier that in 10 min there’s a booking of 8 people in that table and in that moment you started getting all rude and tense because you “had an espresso 2h ago in another table and pretended to sit there all day like they do in some other coffee shops” (your exact words)." This is not true. You did not say anything about a reservation. You basically told me to leave. At which point, I mentioned that it's quite normal for people in coffee shops to order coffee and stay for a few hours. At least, normal everywhere but Cafe Fame.

"At that point I never even charged you for the espresso and you never paid!" You were so angry you told me to leave...

I have visited this cafe for years, I used to really like it. In fact, I gave it a 5 star review 4 years ago.

Sadly, I’ll now avoid it permanently.

I organised a meet up, once a week, for my friends. They insisted on a local cafe with good coffee, centrally located.

Every time we’ve visited the owner has made us feel unwelcome. I think it is because we don’t tend to buy a lot of food, and we stay for 2 hours. At no point has every table been taken, there was always more space, so I’m not sure what the problem was.

We were made to feel unwelcome, and the owner and the waitress drew looks off us.

If you have a problem with your customers, come and explain it to us, we were paying customers like everyone else. I suspect you didn’t because we were doing nothing wrong and you’re just a grumpy dude.

I hope you take this time to reflect on your actions. With your attitude you’re undoubtedly losing business.

I won’t be back.

UPDATE

Reply to owner, In the interests of fairness, I thought it right to correct the record on some of your points in your reply, I think perhaps your memory needs a refresh: We visited 3 times (not 6) We moved “furniture” a small table and a chair, about 2 feet nearer, once. At no point, at any time, was the café ever full. Emphatically, there was no reserved sign on the table we did move. At no point did anyone ask us to move the furniture back – but I did help you, even after your pretty poor attitude and behaviour. So, if your problem wasn’t us staying there, then I am not sure what it was. Even if what you said were true, it doesn’t excuse your attitude or behaviour. Please bear this in mind for...

Love this place. The big windows, high ceilings, friendly staff as well as the tasty and traditional food and drink offerings. It is an Italian-themed cafe, with a map of Italy in one of the coffee tables, panini and bruschette on the menu and cannoli in the display cabinet (even the name of the cafe is Italian - “fame" means hunger in Italian).

The coffee, truth be told, is not quite to my taste - I find it too bitter. It’s a dark-roast Italian-style espresso, which is in keeping with the cafe’s Italian vibe, and a type of coffee I usually enjoy. I used to live in Italy, have drunk (and made) a lot of espresso and espresso-based drinks over the years, and so I have some relevant knowledge here. I am guessing the bitterness that I’m tasting is a result of them using a particularly dark roast and/or pulling shots that are particularly highly-extracted (espresso extraction can be varied by the barista and is a function of grind size, ratio of ground coffee used to liquid coffee yielded, and brew temperature). I see that a lot of people leave positive reviews for the coffee - I am just reflecting my personal preferences here. And, despite finding it bitter, I usually can’t resist ordering a coffee when I’m there (I miss Italian coffee).

Overall it’s a charming place and I love it - one of my favourite spots in Glasgow, hence the five star review....