What’s the worst coffee shop do you think?

[Soubriquet]

I needed to kill some time before my bus and the nearest shop was Starbucks.

I don’t drink coffee but I thought a cup of tea would be fine. Nope. It was horrendous. It was honestly the worst tea I’ve ever had in my life. I couldn’t drink it and I had to pay the pleasure of £5 for it!!

Next time, I would rather walk 10 mins to a greggs

I make the mistake of ordering Starbucks coffee from my local train station when I’m doing an occasional commute to London. It’s a busy shop with an mega queue and I fall for it every time. The coffee is so burnt and acrid it’s undrinkable.

I then spend my journey wondering if all the mugs queuing up and paying £5 feel as conned and pissed off as I do! How are they so successful with such a consistently shit product?

I’ve been repeating this same bollocks for over 10 years now. Same shop, same burnt coffee. Still thinking they’ll sort it out. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Costa is pants. Their shops always seem really dirty and they guard the toilet like it's fort Knox, yet once you go in there it's clearly never been cleaned and there's someone od'ing in one of the cubicles. Their coffee is grim and never ever hot enough.
The Starbuck near me closed down a few years back. It was rubbish too.
I kind of like this pistachio flavoured frappe thing they do at Nero, and the staff in my local one are quite sweet. So I guess as chains go that's the least shite.
The best one near me is an independent. But some of the customers there are stuck up twats!

Not a fan of any of the big chains tbh. I'd always go to an independent if possible. I went to a Starbucks the other day at a motorway services. I asked for tea with soya milk and they gave me cow's milk. I spotted it looked like cow's milk and the server just casually said 'Oh yeah - sorry, I put normal milk in it!' The tea wasn't very nice either.

Gregg's is OK, and much cheaper and I do like a Gregg's cream cake.

Starbucks in motorway services can be the pits. Tired, often dirty, furnishing, disengaged staff, overpriced coffee and a poor range of food.

I understand the chain internationally are in trouble and have just hired a new Chief Exec. He should visit the UK as a priority.

There's a scientific answer to this! They use water which is designed for coffee, not tea. Coffee should be made off the boil, tea should be scalding straight from the kettle.

Pret is the worst for this. A pathetic brew which wouldn't perk up a pixie.

The only high street chain with decent coffee is Cafe Nero - even then it's not great but just about drinkable.

Costa, Starbucks, McDonads, Greggs are all dreadful and Pret a Manger is the worst of them all.

Starbucks coffee is awful.

McDonald's is surprisingly good.

Pret is my go to.

Starbucks is overpriced and their cold drinks are full of ice and watered down (in addition the ice!).

I like the hot chocolate but sometimes they put it in the stupid takeaway cup ffs

Only useful to use a laptop, or take kids to, when you don't want to bother a smaller independent shop.

All the chains are too expensive. Nero always tastes burnt to me. None of them serve coffee hot enough (even given the bollocks about not being able to serve it too hot because it affects the taste - not too hot should not equal barely luke warm).

Not enough places serve a proper large flat white.

Some independents are good but many are not great.

McDonalds and Marks are the best out of the chains.

I've never been in a Costa with a clean toilet. Not once.

For a black coffee Costa worst with Starbucks a close second - rather have a greggs or McDonald’s coffee

Costa is my least favourite.

Starbucks is disgusting. I had a coffee there recently and it was one of the worst I've ever had. I drink it black & it was so bitter. I don't get why people go there.

I don't rate Nero at all. Chain cafes are shit in my experience, although I like the coffee in Tim Hortons, but I'm not going there for the coffee!

Costa is awful in every way in my opinion.

Being honest I've always said I loathed McDonald's but feeling a bit skint last week I had a breakfast special of a sausage and egg McMuffin plus hash brown and a tea (pg tips) for £4.79 and tea was excellent- 3 days later had same food plus an Americano with oat milk for same money and that was totally fine too - actually nicer than Costa or Starbucks- so if surroundings don't matter I would say McDonald's does the trick and at a good price - not the nicest admittedly for say meeting a friend etc

Our nicest coffee shops in Bath in terms of a quality coffee are all independents in my opinion- Rosarios, same same but different, Molka ( Swedish one on the Abbey square- great cinnamon buns too) and Simcox

I can't stand Starbucks. The coffee is vile, and around £5 for even a basic cappuccino at my local. I'm a Coeliac and most of the local ones only sell fucking egg bites as a gluten free option even though they can obtain florentines and raspberry brownies which are both GF but never seem to stock them.

I have a preference for Costa. But pretty much every other chain, even Greggs and McDonalds, is fine for me. Except Starbucks.

I really strongly dislike Costa coffee. Tastes burnt and nasty.

The ones near me are a bit tatty and dirty and always horrific queues and very slow service (DD likes their ice coffee) but I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole

Starbucks was the worst coffee I had, but that was many years ago so may have changed. As some one else said, far too much milk and not enough coffee.
The best was in a small independent coffee shop which has now sadly closed, but we are lucky here and have a few really good independents.
I agree with others that McDonald's do a really decent coffee for not too much money. Always surprises me when I drink them.

All of the chains by us are so grubby I don’t want to go in any of them, I think they just get the staff to wipe down during the day rather than getting proper cleaners in at night.

Starbucks worst by a mile. The coffee is horrible. Then Costa. Caffè Nero is far better but what you get is still very dependent on the barista. I drink flat whites and the best of the chains for that imho is Pret.

I prefer Starbucks over all of them, the chai latte is delicious and OMG that little marmite and cheese roll is the most delicious thing. I’ve been for one a few times with a hangover and I swear it has fixed all of my problems, even the ones that don’t relate to being hungover.

Costa tastes burnt, bitter and just not nice.

Chains are not all the same. The Starbucks that used to be near me served the best coffee I’ve ever had. Then it closed down (greedy shopping centre put up the rent). I ordered the same coffee at 3 other Starbucks and it was awful.

Costa would be ok if they didn’t give you such a big cup. At least at Starbucks you can order a short - at Costa the smallest coffee is big enough to wash your hair in. I find it totally off putting and wasteful to sit in front of a coffee that I can’t possibly drink, knowing I’ll have to leave half. It puts me off going.

My preferred option would be a normal sized Italian coffee such as Illy. But most independent cafes don’t do branded coffee.

I avoid hot drinks in any of them usually. Just get a bun and a cold drink.

My DC went to school in near a Costa and every time she went in there were flies all over the unwrapped cakes. NW London.