The Gentlemen Baristas - Union Street

Great little street cafe set up. Fitting exterior and tasteful interior. Friendly staff & efficient service. Coffee - 8.2: a great cup. Flavour is mellow and very drinkable. Their blend is good for day drinking and has well selected fruity notes. The milkwork is expertly done. Highly recommend this place over nearby Monmouth. It’s quieter, more efficient and most important of all…the coffee is far better.

As my hands were undeniably frozen, I was too focused on getting a cup of warm beverage in my hands to take a picture of the beautiful coffee art that topped off the wonderfully brewed and composed flat white this cafe offered me! However, I did have time to appreciate the spacious interior which poses as a good study/work place, a spot to read or even go for a friendly catch up!

I like Gentleman Baristas and since the one in Jerwood Space closed down I’ve been to this one twice and didn’t mind as it looks small and cute from the outside. I went in on a Saturday in July once around 1.30 pm noting they close at 3pm on Saturdays but was told they were closing in 30 mins. Nevertheless I had my coffee and left at 2pm as they told me they were closing. I went again today but had the most annoying experience I’ve ever had in a coffee shop. One of the baristas was SO LOUD. She was talking to customers really loudly and then chatting to her colleague throughout again very loudly. I understand coffee shops are noisy but honestly this killed the vibe so I left. I think the barista just needs to be conscious of her speaking volume as there are others sitting in the coffee shop. I’m not one to write reviews unless I really have some feedback to give (good and bad both) and feel this needs to be fed back.

Unpleasant experience with the barista whose behaviour was not that of a gentleman. I accidentally took someone else’s drink from the serving area. There was nobody else standing by the area at the time, I had ordered and paid and no system of asking for a name was used. The drink was sitting on the side. When I left the shop and took a sip, I realised it was not a flat-white which I had ordered and was not a coffee at all. I took it back to the shop and explained that I had mistakenly taken the wrong drink. Rather than a gracious response, the young male barista, shook his head disappointedly and said “have you now”. He then continued to show a level of irritation and treated me like it was all my mistake and said that he wasn’t obliged to make me another coffee even though I had yet to receive one. He also commented that he would have asked before taking a drink off the serving counter. As I say there was nobody else around the counter and as I had ordered and paid, I assumed it was for me. The baristas were also distracted chatting together and did not notice me taking the drink. This also took a while as I had to take a lid and this involved separating out several lids - I think if he had been a bit more focused he would have noticed that I was taking somebody else’s drink. Perhaps you should introduce a system for calling out the name of the drink that has been made and taking a name rather than being rude to your customers. I often have a coffee at Monmouth and was pleased to have found a less busy alternative around the corner so it is a shame the service was below what I would expect on this occasion. The coffee was fine in the end!