This branch of Starbucks is the newest location in the Wembley area of London, it is located next to the Novotel on Wembley Way. It is a stones throw away from the stadium. With queues going to Wembley Park Underground Station basically lasting for the length of Wembley Way, I decided to call in this Starbucks branch to avoid spending time waiting in line after watching my Manchester City defeat Chelsea 4-3 on penalties to lift the Carabao Cup.
This store is a new store which opened since my last visit to Wembley in August, which you can obviously tell with the cool, modern Starbucks with bar-style seating at the glass entrance which I like and find quite cool, and it is a brilliant location for the stadium but it does tend to get busy when there is an event at Wembley Stadium/Arena, like everywhere nearby in the London Designer Outlet and hotels etc. Opening hours are often extended for the events, with the Carabao Cup Final finishing at when this store was due to close, they stayed open to 8:30 which was pretty handy.
After the game the store was packed and it began to be obvious there isn't enough seating to cope on an events day, the store was a mess with people queuing to order, and get drinks but they did handle it quite well considering how large the queues were, but having a runner take orders while people were in the queue or perhaps extending mobile order and pay (it wasn't active at this location) would have been a lot better.
I ordered a Venti Iced Vanilla Latte, it was slightly more expensive than other branches at £3.40 compared to £3.10, but this small surcharge was acceptable as the drink was still a reasonable price, and you're basically paying for the location especially on an event day.
My beverage quality wasn't too great, I did have to ask for cream (they'd forgotten to put it on despite it being clearly written on the cup), after stirring it was okay although it could have done with a pump or so more vanilla syrup, but considering how busy the store was it wasn't a bad attempt at all.
A nice modern Starbucks, and probably the better of the branches in the Wembley area, beating the branch in Cineworld of the London Designer Outlet by far, in a good and much-needed location, I feel it does warrant a three-star rating but due to issues with the order process and even collecting my drink (they didn't shout out name but the order hence causing confusion especially when already busy), issues with beverage quality and perhaps the small amount of tables do let the store down to mean it does not warrant anything higher than a slightly generous three-star rating. read more