What a great location on the way to Edge Hill University!! Use the postcode L39 0EZ and you will…read morefind it next to the motorway on ramp (petrol station) for going eastbound M58. Car parking would be an issue in busy times as its not exactly on a walking route! It does looks like a converted old little chef building, to which they have done a great job! Inside is spacious with a business area large desk and ample seating and great bar style seating even some up at the end of the coffee bar/till area. As usual with Starbucks current business plan, comfy seats a minimum. They take the app for payment and rewards which is an important feature of this franchise store which opened its doors mid summer 2014. All staff were friendly but there were lots if dirty mugs on tables and no napkins in the well used condiment bar area, in fact as I now finish writing someone has at last come out to clean up the place (but didn't replace the napkins) Overall a great store, despite it being a franchise and charging a little more for everything compared to a starbucks owned store, thats one of the immediate tell tale signs, and the location is good as there is no other Starbucks around for miles.

Cleanliness of the cafe not good, no soap and towels in the toilets and broken hand dryer. No…read moreoption for soy milk for a hot chocolate or coffee. Got our order wrong. Not a good experience I expected from a Starbuck.

Nice cafe.. the breakfasts are great!read more

A very good cafe with indoor and outdoor seating areas. Good offer on coffee or tea and scones in…read morean afternoon or tea and bacon butties in a morning.Worth a visit.

How do I love thee Pippins, let me count the ways. First of all I always have and always will love…read moreyour quiches. They are amazing. They are served warm or cold (and warm doesn't mean soggy, they somehow stay crisp and light) with gargantuan side salads full of pasta and coleslaw and Waldorf and all sorts of lovely things. Varieties include broccoli and tomato, mushroom, cheese and onion, Lorraine, you name it, they've put it together. The sandwiches always taste fresh too. Prawns, egg, cress, all lovely with a cup of tea. The soup is always hearty and warming. The cakes, pies, slices and pastries are astonishing. But the most impressive fact about Pippins is that all this is homemade. Even their salad cream. I've been coming here for a bite ever since I was a little girl, and it hasn't changed a bit since then, apart from extending its opening hours to Sundays (perhaps a symptom of the recession but the fact that it's survived has made me woop with joy, it being open on Sundays just makes it even better). The same orange design, same cute apples with faces, same terracotta tiles, same trays, same kinds of things on the menu (but a wider drink choice and more options for veggies) all at the same great prices. In Pippins, there is a table full of magazines and newspapers to choose from while you eat. They always have a copy of Private Eye. This was our routine, my father and I, we'd grab Private Eye and a few supplements and settle down for lunch or a cake and a cuppa, him with a scone with clotted cream and jam (all homemade) and me with a slice of their stonking lemon meringue pie, their chocolate cake, a Millionaire's shortbread, an almond croissant, a giant cookie... there's just too much to choose from and I'd have them all if my body wasn't bound to reject that much sugar. The staff at Pippins are lovely, always accommodating and cheerful. When I was little I always had a glass of fresh milk with my lunch, it was the only thing I'd drink, and Pippins still to this day has a brilliant milk cooling machine with a poster on it encouraging kids to drink up. It worked on me. I might have switched to caffeine since but it's a great touch. Proper large pots of tea, enough for about two and a half cups accompany a really relaxed, quiet ambience. You could quite easily stay in here all day and it has a lovely view of Southport's main shopping street. It's a stone's throw from the station too, and make sure you walk straight past Nero because when Pippins is on the same street it might as well not even be there. This isn't just one of my favourite places in Merseyside, it's one of my favourite places in the world thus far. It might look a little dated, you might think you're the youngest person in there, but trust me, this adds to its charm. Gorgeous.

I went in here on a recent visit to Southport with my mum and sisters. Usually I would have walked…read morestraight past and ignored it. From the outside, Pippins looks really old fashioned and like somewhere only your grandparents would venture! There's nothing to entice you in, the café is actually up on the second floor, the entrance is tiny and is squeezed between Phones4U and M&S. After going up a big staircase, you enter the café. It's actually a large sized place, although it still feels quite old fashioned. The decor and ambience are more suited to old people! However they had a great selection of hot and cold food on offer and the prices were very reasonable. It was much busier than I expected, I had visions of us being the only people in the place, but it we were lucky to find a free table! Good place for a bite to eat at lunchtime, or a hot drink.

As much as I complain about the homogenisation of our town and city centres I must admit that I…read morereally do love a good cup of coffee and you always know that at Caffe Nero you're going to get a good cup of strong, black coffee. This branch looks, of course, almost identical to every other branch of Caffe Nero - all the decor, the faded photographs of wizened, Mediterranean-looking hands grasping an espresso cup, the sturdy Van Gough-bedroom wooden chairs, the beaten leather couches, all of it comes from a warehouse on the outskirts of Crawley or somewhere. What separates this branch out is the quality of service. Maybe it's that it's in a relatively small town but there is always extra care and attention put into making sure you're satisfied with your hot drinks and/or food (although why anyone would pay almost £5 for a pre-packed chicken pesto salad is beyond me). This being Formby the copy of the Guardian on the newspaper rack is usually completely untroubled. Lovely stuff.

Here's the plan; You get a vacant ex off-licence site in the centre of a busy and lovely village…read moreshopping area and you remodel it into a venue that knows how to make espresso coffee when all about either haven't got a machine or don't know how to work it. It was and is a good idea and rightly popular causing the opposition to convert to a charity shop or up their game. The room is fairly spacious, both it and the staff are child-friendly and the iced water is topped-up regularly. The decor posters of the leathery old dudes playing cards provide comfort as they remind me, a) of the sofas. b) that I am nearly a part of that peer group except I bet they don't lose at Snap and c) I am emulating the kind of thing other blokes do in a country that has the Uffizi Gallery so can't be THAT bad: Namely, sitting about. There are a couple of flies in this corporately themed ointment however. One strategic and the other tactical. Firstly, the few pavement seats face North and so are condemned to be for the hardy tobacco users pretty much. They get the often enviable view of the sunlight casting short shadows on that dappled terrace across the street which has the wider pavement. Temperature differences, and I have measured them, can be at least 10deg C. on the same day. (I do remember that day when we needed to be in the shade). So, the old conundrum applies....Is it better to sail on the ugly boat looking enviably at the more beautiful or to....etc.? The second problem is this; oops can't explain, not allowed to rant.

My daughter and I were taking her brother for a Raf test and had a couple of hours to wait so we…read moregoogled the nearest cafe and Belles came up ! Only one review but it was good so off we went. Two ladies working there were very down to earth and friendly and we felt more than welcome. The surroundings were modest but the good food and cuppa were fantastic and next month when I return belles will certainly be on my agenda Tina and Paige (Lancaster)

The breakfast is very good and the staff too .Nice place to enjoy a cup of coffee with friends…read more Great atmosphere and music!

I called in Costa Coffee today to grab a gluten free cake for my journey home from Wigan…read more I picked up 2 GF Cherry Bakewells for £1.55, Costa is normally good for Gluten free and also sells a brownie. I asked the man if I could use my loyalty card, and indeed he let me and I did, I had 95p on my loyalty card and I wanted to use that on my transaction but he told me, it had to cover the whole item which I know from past experience and the Costa website isn't true. It is hard to review a place where you only went in for pre-packaged food which wasn't made on site, a flying visit like this one but it looked like a nice store as you come in from the Crompton Street car park. It certainly isn't the best cofee shop in this shopping centre and on the streets just outside, I much prefer Starbucks and Caffe Nero to Costa and would rather visit smaller businesses like Muffin Break, rather than the UK giant as they have better cofee, a wide array of gluten free muffins and they are a smaller giant, with under 50 stores, I am sure Costa has this many in Greater Manchester. I feel it is unfair to give this store 1 star, but I don't want to give it higher than 2 because of the following reasons - They is much better a short walk away from here in the Arndale, or on the surroinding streets - Barista could of appeared to be more friendlier - He could of gave me the 95p off that really should of been used on my loyalty card - No Gluten free sandwiches avaliable which really upsets me as Costa and Starbucks used to have a GF wrap until the Christmas period, where they changed for a festive one and since then, not one store has reverted back to an old or different non-christmas wrap based on my numerous visits, if you read my reviews you know how often I go Starbucks so I am surprised to see this is also happening with Costa.

Great skinny flat white and costas brown toast is amazing! Great way to start my day . Lovely…read morerelaxed atmosphere and right near the loo's .

Plumley's is such a charming little cafe. It looks old fashioned it's very traditional; it's…read moreperfect. The few tables outside always look so appealing. Inside there is much more seating available and there is always an agreeable atmosphere: pleasant staff, pleasant customers, you could sit here for hours. Plumley's serves hot and cold drinks and a good range of breakfast and lunch food, all cooked to order, as well as desserts and snacks. The service is faultless. What more could you ask for?

This Starbucks location is next to VUE, at Middlebrook Retail Park, it is slightly tucked away but…read moreis easy enough to find, using the signage from the retail park. This is a franchise location, so pricing does differ from corporate-owned stores, they do support mobile ordering though, which is handy. I've visited this store often throughout the years, mainly due to its' location, I have frequently had issues with the service, on the past two visits, I had a staff member argue with me after making a drink that I ordered to be iced, as hot, on my most recent occasion, where I visited in August 2022, it took a whole team of three baristas to work out how the Cold Brew was made, and they still forgotten to add ice, which could be down to poor training. The interior is dark and well in need of a refurb, as it hasn't changed much in years, and even the seating isn't too comfortable. I think they also need to take care, as many of the tables were blocked by a huge stack of boxes, which were just all over the place, with no sign of anybody unpacking them, not only did this block off a good 2/3 of the seating area but had the potential to be a safety hazard. My guests mentioned their beverage quality was fine, and I would agree with that, after having to explain the process of making the Cold Brew to the staff (To be fair, they seemed friendly enough and apologised, so it must be a training issue) 2* - This Starbucks has a lot of work to meet the regular chain experience and really does show the vast contrast between chain and corporate-owned Starbucks locations.

Ok independent coffee lovers hit me now. I'm hitting myself as I love the niche independent coffee…read moreshops and Manchester is not short of options. BUT and its a big but, we're not talking Manchester here were talking Bolton and I think it's unfair to compare a business in a town that (even though I love it with all my heart) is 5 years behind the city! The other side of this is that I love Starbucks, I'm sorry I just do! Any other chain coffee shop would be lucky to get above a 2 star however my American friends do something that just makes me love them. It could be my years in the states or it may be my childish mind that gives in to their Christmas marketing but whatever it is, I'm a Starbucks fanatics. This particular branch is very spacious for its location, it's inside the complex for the cinema - which restricts opening hours, however if you're between shopping (does anyone still do that in person?) or on your way to the Bolton match (does anyone still do that either?) it's a perfect spot!