Perks Coffee Shop and Cafe — Restaurant in Gulfport

Perks Coffee Shop & Cafe Downtown Gulfport 1309 25th Ave, Gulfport, MS 39501

We walked into Perks around 10 o’clock for some coffee and breakfast. There were a few people seated, but it wasn’t packed. We wandered around and found several menus with different arrangements of breakfast items. While we were waiting, we heard a couple of customers inquiring about their orders, which had not arrived. Standing at the register, we watched, not the first, or second, or third person to walk up and do something on the cash register. The fourth person to walk up to the register finally acknowledged us, and was ready to take our order, on a paper ticket.

We ordered food, and started checking Yelp to see if this treatment is typical. The food arrived in a reasonable amount of time. The breakfast sandwich looked a tad bit small, as noted in some reviews. The breakfast bowl fully filled the available bowl space - definitely not a “small” portion, unless the previous servings were huge. The food was good, but the house blend coffee was a bit weak (could be their style, but I usually expect coffee house cups to be on the stronger side).

Since there was an issue with the register, at the end of the meal we had to remind them we had not paid yet. Apparently, they had lost our paper ticket. A middle age lady came to the the register to take over because it looked like they were running behind on preparing orders that been put in. She started asking if the food was good. And I told her it was good. Then I told her what we got, and then showed her a coupon that we found in the coupon book that a church sold (this year) - “SaveAround”. She couldn’t figure out how to put it on the bill, and made a comment something like, “I don’t know why our business is in there because we don’t participate. We do school coupons.” But then she said thanks anyway for coming in.

I then paid and in the receipt I put $0 tip because I was going to give the girl that helped us a tip instead of living it at the register. She took the receipt and looked at it, and ask me again if everything was okay with my food or anything. The way she asked a second time and the way she asked the question to me, she was shocked that I didn’t leave a tip.

I have always thought it was more appreciated to leave a cash tip. Mind you, as has been mentioned in previous reviews discussing tips, this is not a full service place. Our service person made our coffees, we added cream and sweetener, and she brought our food. That’s all of the “tippable” service. I thought the person making an issue of the $0 tip added to the credit card bill was RUDE. We did leave around an 18% tip in cash.

For a first-time visit, this wasn’t the best intro to their hospitality.

TLDR: Slow start to the visit, generally okay food portions, somewhat weak coffee (personal choice), and got hassled when left a $0 credit card tip after leaving...

I am very disappointed in this establishment all around for many reasons. Today was my first time visiting and definitely will be the last.

Before arriving, me and my partner viewed our selections for food and drink on their website. We ended up overall spending $50 with tip on drinks and food. We ordered fiesta burrito, hearty breakfast sandwich, an iced mocha latte, and an iced pumpkin spice latte as well as a cinnamon roll.

For the food portion of things, the fiesta burrito looked so good and packed with a lot of veggies. It was listed for 8.99+ and when adding meats the price would obviously go up. I forgot to mention I wanted any meat so it was ordered as is, which is fine. I was then charged an extra .75 for cheese on the burrito? No clue why. It’s listed already in the price. When it arrived, there were basically 0 peppers or any veggies besides onion in the burrito. Looked NOTHING like the photo.

The breakfast sandwich was incredibly small and had the saltiest sausage on it.

The drinks were overall awful. Another reviewer explained their cappuccino tasted like pond water and she was not wrong. I told the girl while ordering I wanted it to taste strong and that I wanted extra espresso. So, I went with a quad latte. I truly do not understand how 4 shots of espresso with milk and flavor tastes just like watered down milk. Tasted like There was 0 coffee in it. The mocha latte was the same way. Basically chocolate milk and it was ordered as a quad too. Looking back at the receipt, we were charged .50 for each drink for being iced? And on the mocha latte charged another 1.50 for mocha when it’s a drink listed on the menu for that price. I wish I read the reviews before coming here. There was a review explaining how a mocha is made with just brewed coffee and mocha and milk. That is incorrect. Mochas are made with espresso. That right there would have deterred me from getting any coffee here as they do not know how to make proper drinks.

We spent $50 on a horrible experience.

What really makes this place as bad as it is, is the extremely rude owner replying to bad reviews. I wanted to ask to remake my drink or possibly get a refund, but after reading about the way they speak to people over the internet when it comes to any type of confrontation I didn’t want to interact with this person at all. I’m shy as it is coming to these things and that just completely turned me off.

These reviews were not being mean or rude at all, simply sharing their experience. The owner calls them keyboard warriors and cowards. Very...

Impossible to give "no stars." Stood in line and asked if we had to seat ourselves; one young lady said that "they were busy doing something else..." and returned to their drink order, of which there were four people already seated awaiting those coffee drinks. Another tossed a to-go menu at us as we waited another five minutes before we returned our menus to the counter when we noticed three more people line up for whatever service they may or may not have gotten. We left doubting the two baristas would notice, and now write this with the hope that someone in this shop's management team reads it. Remember, it is important to greet and make people feel welcome in your restaurant. That didn't happen this morning. Coming back? Doubtful. Only on the invitation of the owner or manager, and doubtful of that even happening with the general attitude of the employees.

Update, 12/30/2020, at the request of this establishment's ownership: The Baristas did NOT establish whether it was counter service or otherwise; one of them clearly told us "...we are busy doing other things..." rather than acknowledging our presence by saying something like "We will be right with you..." The two working the counter were clearly focused on the already seated customer's order. While this is good for those customers, it does disenfranchise new customers when they are told by wait staff that "they are doing other things..." That is why we walked right out the door. Both my wife and myself have worked on both sides of the restaurant industry, (front and back of the house) and frankly no customer wants to hear that someone is too preoccupied to serve them at any capacity. It's irrelivant as to the store location (2501 14th St., Gulfport) bad service is bad service no matter...