Costa Coffee

Costa Coffee the Lowry outlet this Costa Coffee is very busy but there’s always enough seats for the people. They do a wide range of cakes which are very good and a wide range of sandwiches and snacks and variety of hot and cold drinks.

Großzügiges Café mit guter Auswahl an Getränken und Snacks. Viele gemütliche Sitzplätze. Mein Kaffee war allerdings etwas wässrig. Werde aber wieder kommen

This place is usually busy. The coffee is good but it is not great. It has a few chairs and tables out in the concourse. There were three staff working flat out when I was there and they were remaining polite and friendly despite just about coping with the customer flow, but customer demand meant it was taking too long to clean the tables, so new customers were having to sit at dirty tables, although some moved the detritus to tables already littered. Costa is high end pricing, and it was easily picking up at least the equivalent of an hours minimum wage every few seconds so the least one can expect is that it’s sufficiently staffed to give customers a comfortable experience from queuing to buy to leaving again. It also has just one toilet for men, women and disabled people. Like the tables the toilets too get neglected and with the throughput of customers it is inevitable that they become quite scruffy quickly (the design of this shopping centre is poor in terms of toilets — these are in only one top floor location. The wifi is free and easier to join than before but it goes off quite quickly — just do the job right here and provide a sustained, easy to use, free wifi service. Give me Starbucks any day.

Costa seemed to have been pushed aside by the likes of Starbucks and Café Nero, but I’m seeing increasing number of these coffee chains in and around the city and it’s suburbs. Aside from the fact they dominate every other street and it’s corners much to the fright of independent retailers, who increasingly find it difficult to set up shop in our cities, these places are nevertheless pleasant cafes.
More for want of better choice within the Lowry Outlet Mall than anything else, I always seem to pop in here for a quick coffee (and if I’m feeling slightly controversial, a biscotti) whenever I’m shopping here. Given talk of the recession and corner cutting I guess I’ll find myself at this slowly revitalised Lowry Outlet Mall over the next few months. Bargains galore are to be had here and now that the footfall has significantly increased (the BBC are moving departments nearby soon enough) is a better shopping experience than is used to be just a few years ago (tumbleweed often viewed).
Newspapers and magazines are available in the most comfortable of seating: pleasant lighting and décor lull you into another world just for those 30 minutes you spend inside these coffee shops.