Muffin Break - Sunderland

My wife and I were having a drink, sitting in front of us was the area manager and the manager, I asked the manager politely if she would stop Vaping as I have lung cancer and that Vapes affect my breathing, she point blank denied that she was Vaping, I said that's not true as we both were watching you Vape, she denied it again, this time with attitude, I told her that she was lying, and a bare faced liar at that. The next thing was the area manager standing in front of us and said, right that's it, you are now barred from this establishment. We have been coming here one to three times a week from the day it opened, spending over £1000 a year, our friends who we meet up nearly every week say they will never come back. To get barred at the age of 75 for complaining about staff Vaping in the cafe, unbelievable, disgraceful, she was definitely out of order. But, there loss, Costa's gain,

Went for tea and cake, server was unfriendly and unhelpful, couldn 't remember order and plonked everything haphazard on the tray. Cups were filthy so politely asked for replacements but endured an unnecessary argument from same server to get fresh cups, insisting that I must have tea cups (I couldn 't possibly have one of the bigger, cleaner cups exclusively reserved for coffee yet also insisting said tea cups only looked dirty but were actually permanently stained with coffee. After pointing out the black flakes in addition to the coffee rings she flounced off and hand washed the cups, giving them back clean(ish (so much for them being permanently stained! but with the dirty brown dishwater dregs in! After all that the cake was rubbish dry and tasted herby so must have been cooked or stored with the cheese scones! Won 't be returning!

Stopped off for coffee and muffin whilst my Brother, Boyfriend and I waited for our bus and tbh I wish we hadn't. Having to repeat my coffee order several times. The staff seem ditzy and clueless. Had to order coffee and food separately as the assistant was confused (apparently two cappuccinos and a black coffee is extremely puzzling) then asked for two chocolate muffins and a piece of carrot cake was equally confusing and had to actually point them out to her. Then also had to point out it wouldn't all fit on one tray. An anxiety induced ordeal. Quite expensive for low quality. Coffee had a strange dry taste and cakes were undercooked. Waste of time and money.

Lovely coffee and tea. Great service. However, it is looking a little grubby now, and no covers over the food display on the servers' side, do glues had access to the food.

Great service, lovely coffee, tea and hot chocolate however, cleanliness standards have dropped. Grubby today and flies all over the cake and scones! Hence we only had drinks, no food!