Starbucks — Restaurant in Knoxville

Just stopped in for some coffee and a bite to eat. The person who took our order was pleasant and very friendly. The barista who made our order was not however. We ordered 2 drinks (nitro cold brew w/ sweet cream, nitro cold brew w/extra sweet cream). After her first pour she sat the coffee on the counter and I asked if it was the one with extra sweet cream. She casually ignored me and walked away. When she started pouring the second cup I asked her if it was the one with extra sweet cream. She looked up and with a decent amount of what appeared to be frustrated attitude said; it is on the label, you can just read it. So I looked at the label with all of its anacronyms and asked her, what if I can’t read it? So she said “Well I don’t know what to tell you”, and walked off.

This is not the type of service one would expect when paying $5 for a bitter cup of $2 coffee. Side note: the bacon on my Bacon SV Bites was not cooked either.

Overall a solid 1.5 stars (bonus points for the first person, but a lot of negatives for the second) for service and a .5 for food quality.

Avoid...

Before everyone starts flaming me and screaming at me and burning down my house let me just say that I've been to Starbucks in like 10 different countries and all across the US. Yes I know and I agree it's not the best coffee Yes I know and I agree it's not the best of anything but what they do do well and they do better than almost any other place I can think of is consistency. Almost any Starbucks anywhere in the world anywhere in the US you go to the service will be good or great The coffee will be the same The food will be the same The bathrooms will be clean The Wi-Fi will work. You know what to expect and it's consistent and for anyone who's ever operated a restaurant or any type of business like that you know that consistency is one of the hardest things to achieve. So if you're looking for a gourmet experience or unique experience this probably ain't it If you're looking for a nice place to sit outside on a nice little deck area have a coffee chat with some friends and reasonably know what you're going to get every time then...

This was the most frustrating experience. We ordered through the app, and when we arrived the doors were locked and a sign said the cafe was “closed due to staffing”, and they wouldn’t give us our drinks, and the only option to get them was to go through the backed up drive through, which would have made us late getting where we were going, or come back at a later time for a refund. If they don’t have the staff, they should turn off ordering through the app. This was not a good call from their management, which is why they said they were handling it that way when we called. Listen to your employees and customers. Extremely frustrating to have to leave without coffee you paid for, because someone is allowing call ahead orders, but with no way to process them so that it is the time...