Edison's Coffee & Wine Southampton — Restaurant in Southampton

Having been a regular at Edisons over the past year, it has been the go to coffee place for my friends and I. However, it is such a shame to see this place follow the rest of Southampton, down the drain.

Firstly, the positives. The employed (emphasis on this) staff are excellent. When they are left to it they thrive and are overall lovely.

However the owners/management probably need to go on some form of customer service course. My partner and I visited last week for our weekly coffee and cake. We were excited for the chocolate cake we have always loved. Bought the cake, went to sit down in the back corner (where there was other dogs), and the owner pretty much shoulder barged us out the way to form a barrier. I don't want to use the word 'rude' as I don't think this justifies the way this lady acted. She was condescending and dam right ridiculous. When we pointed the other dog out, she came up with some bullish*t response about the dog being too close to the kitchen (doesn't seem to be a rule anywhere else in Southampton but hay-ho). The other ladies sat with their dog seemed to be half way through their coffee so must have been sat there for some time before then being made to move. Anyway, we move and sit at the front next to the door. The waitress comes over and brings us our coffee and pupachino, apologising for how the owner acted (unsure if this was out of embarrassment or just having respect for us). Obviously I can't guarantee this, but the cake tasted like it was fresh out of a cash and carry. For £4.10 a slice, get a grip. Overall quality of food and drink here has gone down hill.

I don't mean to single out the 'lady' owner as the older man is equally rude. We visited a few weeks ago during the summer and my partner placed his foot onto the foot rest of the chair - to tie his shoelace. The older male owner came over and patted my partner on the back and whispered "take your foot off my chair", including other profanity I don't wish to repeat. Again, this obviously should have been a red flag but we gave them the benefit of the doubt, but overall that was a waste of time.

I think this place needs some form of reality check. Maybe the owners should learn something from other successful independent coffee shops in Southampton (wink wink, Bedford place seems to be a good place to look).

To prospective customers, I would advise you to flash your tory membership card as you enter, as maybe this will entitle you to courtesy and politeness from the owners.

The final send off from this review. Don't judge a book by its cover. My partner and I are young however this doesn't mean we are entitled to that level of disrespect. People like us (students and young professionals) are good for small businesses and promote places we feel to be nice and safe. You have lost two pretty regular customers - I imagine we are not the first, and most likely not the last.

(p.s The two stars are purely for the barista, she deserved five but this review is unfortunately not all about her)

(p.s.s if you would like to remove yourself from what seems to be a hostile work environment, reply help and we will come and rescue you - you...

I don’t normally write reviews but reading other reviews has made me realise a lot of other people have had the same experience as me.

I used to spend a lot of time at edison’s especially at the start of the year. I’m a uni student and I enjoy trying out new coffee shops and bringing my laptop with me to do work. I always buy a coffee and usually a cake a little later on into studying. The baristas are always really friendly and really nice, and that’s the one of the reasons why I used to enjoy coming to this cafe.

However, I have stopped going to this cafe. The atmosphere is no longer friendly and the owners are really rude. Myself and a friend spent 2 hours studying in Edison’s. Both myself and my friend bought a £5 pumpkin spice latte. We spent about 2 hours before being approached by the male owner telling us to buy another drink or leave. We found this really rude as the drinks we had bought were so expensive, and I was about to buy a cake on top of the drinks as well. I would understand if the cafe was busy, but it was almost empty, so I didn’t understand his reasoning.

On previous ocassions, I once had my feet on the chair for a short period of time and the male owner came to my table and rudely said ‘get your feet off my chair’.

I think the owners need to address their attitudes to customers, it’s rude and condescending. I understand if it is their policy to not do work in the cafe, but display it on the door, so uni students don’t have to put up with being (rudely!) told to leave after 2 hours. I’ve never had this experience in a cafe before, and I think the owners need to learn some respect for their customers, if they want their business to thrive. I won’t be returning to Edison’s and I won’t be recommending it to any of my...

I had a horrible experience here one day as a student. I have worked in countless coffee shops both chains and independents and have never experienced something like this before. Ever. I had a lovely time working in the nice atmosphere having bought a coffee and sat down to work for a few hours as you do. Firstly, this female waitress/ manager comes up to me and asks me to take my feet off the chair when I had just placed them there for a short while because the chairs were uncomfortable and I was trying to find a comfortable position and have done this in several other places with no reprimanding as if I’m some naughty schoolchild. Then a while later, a male manager/ owner comes up to me and says, “We don’t mind you using our study space but you’ve been here for over 3 hours and bought only one coffee and you’re using our space and electricity so could you buy something else” or basically leave as he insinuated. Now this was in front of the whole cafe and was embarrassing, humiliating and outright rude, borderline harassment. I was very upset by this but of course did not fight back, simply just said thank you and packed my things and left, having been unable to finish my work. As I have said, I have worked for about 5+ hours in several other coffee shops having bought a coffee and never been targeted like this before. Very disappointing and would not recommend if you want a friendly, comfortable atmosphere for working. This kind of behaviour towards customers is unacceptable. Shame because the atmosphere and...