Welwyn Coffee Lab — Restaurant in Welwyn Hatfield

I worked from Coffee Lab in WGC twice this week. The coffee and pastries are excellent, and the staff are genuinely lovely. The upstairs space is bright and peaceful, which made it a great place to work. At first.

Unfortunately, on both visits, the owner made me feel like I was in the way. Yesterday, he hovered near my table and clearly waited for me to leave, then took the table the moment I stood up. Today, I chose one of the only larger tables by a power point because I had more kit with me. I was asked to move mid-work by a member of staff so the owner could change the table. He didn’t speak to me directly either day, which made the whole thing feel worse. It came across like he sees himself as above engaging with customers.

I had planned to stay until 2:30 and had paid for parking in WGC accordingly. Instead, I left early, lost that money, and I’m now working from my car because I have no alternative.

Most businesses carry out changes outside of customer hours or give fair warning. It felt unnecessary and unprofessional to be moved mid-shift, especially when the space upstairs was almost empty. The new smaller tables aren’t practical for working, and it seems regulars who come to work aren’t welcome anymore.

I spent over £70 across both visits and had planned to come for another three days. That’s more than £100 of lost business. I’ll be supporting another independent nearby that actually values its customers and isn’t afraid to speak to them directly.

I must reiterate the staff are...

It looks really nice but the coffee is so overpriced, i have worked in a specialty coffee shop before and the prices were high but not as high as here. To my understanding it’s locally sourced so I can start to get why it’s that price but regardless, the staff were polite but there wasn’t an ounce of speed in the way they moved or made the drinks, it wasn’t busy and we were the only ones waiting, we were honestly there for about 12-15 minutes. One of the people spent about 5 minutes picking at a cup lid trying to pull them apart rather than just getting another lid and the guy was really hostile when we asked for a dash more milk in the white americano we ordered for some reason. On top of that the sizes of the cups are insanely small it’s quite ridiculous for the price. It was quite painful to be honest but the vibe is good and the cakes...

Definitely the best coffee shop offering in Welwyn - taste and texture blows the chains out the water. I’d say this is a London style coffee shop - short drinks and fairly high prices. Atmosphere is very pleasant with great music & nice seating.

I’d say what lets the place down is a couple things around their systems - they’re often understaffed with one barista and another taking orders / clearing up. That’s not necessarily an issue, but it seems contradictory that they offer table service (which is great) but on the other hand they take one order at a time, often leaving a queue that you can tell creates a lot of unnecessary tension for the barista. I’d advise they take advantage of their lovely atmosphere, clear the queue and allow people to sit & relieve pressure for the hard...