Starbucks

Pretty quiet, relaxed place. This could be the one of my favorites starbucks in London.

The Pembridge Road Starbucks deserves gold stars across the board. Not so much for the one around the corner on Notting Hill Gate.
Every morning, my routine includes stopping in the store to get my coffee before getting on the tube. I’m greeted by friendly faces who ask how my day was yesterday. They are always going the extra mile to make sure your drink is what you want. It’s the niceness that really sets them a part from a lot of Starbucks in the city.
The seating space is limited, but if you get there early in the morning, you are likely to get a table with an outlet. Great people watching seats in the front. On the weekends, it can get crowded because of the Portobello Road Market.

Busy, but not as much as the shop closer to Notting Hill Gate tube. It has the usual Starbucks accoutrements that I expect at every UK Starbucks — coolers of sandwiches and pastries and some juices/​water, plus a smiling barista ready to help you with your caffeine jones.
There are also a number of tables with power outlets so that you can use the BT OpenZone wifi (£5 top up to a Starbucks card and it’s free). No outside tables.

This is one of three Starbucks outlets in Notting Hill Gate and has always been my least favourite. Actually, I don’t particularly like any of them but sampled them all in abundance when I worked nearby a few years back — nothing like a frothy caffeine fix when you’re frustrated at the office.
The shop is dark and dingy and in urgent need of a refurb and the staff don’t even understand your order when you are fluent in Starbucks speak (I resent calling small cups «tall»). For some strange reason the coffee tends to be weaker here, too. Today’s cappuccino was a joke and didn’t even have a hint of coffee in it — at £2.15 a go! By the time it cooled down enough to drink I had reached the bus stop and it was too late to complain.
Well, time to wean myself off rubbishy coffee in paper beakers and only take proper tea breaks in local cafes which serve hot drinks in china cups …
Rant over.

Psst… here’s a secret: if the two Starbucks on Notting Hill Gate are busy, come here, the line usually isn’t as long.
I usually stop here once a day to pick up a tall coffee on the way to work, or on the way out. The staff is pretty friendly, but they sometimes get confused by my simple request for tall black coffee, so sometimes I end up with an Americano instead (maybe it’s my accent? American = Americano?). I won’t complain, though, because both are good and cost the same.
My only gripe is that the take away cups are absolute crap, but I think that’s a general Starbucks UK problem. One day I didn’t realize the cup was leaking until I saw a little coffee puddle on the ground and some coffee down the front of my jacket (at least it was a waterproof jacket!). So if you get an especially liquidy beverage like a black coffee or black Americano, grab some napkins to wrap around your cup and catch the spilling coffee.