Bea's of Bloomsbury

i quite agree with all that is said in the last review. This place as a reputation that unfortunately it mo longer earns. They have taken their eye off the ball and think they are actually above their customers. Oh and the coffee... its nowhere up to the likes of St Ali up the road
View/Add comments (1)

Em
2 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 1
Thursday, September 01, 2011

Huge dissapointment to be quite honest!! After reading lots of reviews i was quite excited to visit this exciting tea shop, heard the cakes were fabulous & also the atmosphere.

my take on it was, you enter the shop take a seat, there was no instructions on the table what we should be doing - should we read a menu, order at the counter, will someone come over- who knows!

so firstly not good customer service. after maybe 5 mins or so it was apparent no-one was going to come over so we went to the till, i ask the lady where is your menu - she didnt speak but pointed behind her to the mirror with a bit of a menu written on it.(not much choice at all). So i ordered a cupcake & tea & a herbal tea we wanted lunch but they didnt do anything other than afternoon tea. after the first impression we weren't prepared to spend £15 each on a few sandwiches & cakes. In the end the cupcake was a bit boring to be honest chocolate with pistachio, buttercream was gooey on a hot day - think it was melting.

Dont get me wrong the decor is fab, the afternoon stand looked lovely, like the open kitchen look (although it did look quite messy)

Thought the prices were ok guess you'd expect to pay £3 odd for a cupcake in london i suppose.

The one thing i was most disgraced about were the toilets, you go down some stairs & you can smell them immediately, i opened the wrong door (of which had no sign telling it was a cleaning store) the smell was horrendous, old cleaning materials & bins & old paint & building materials in there, if id of had my children with me &allowed them to the loo on their own this would have been a seriously dangerous discovery for them)

All in all the toilet were very old & unmaintained, no care & attention to a premises toilet shows what their other back of house could be like. you have a great shop front, lovely display counter, nice looking produce, trendy seating but it makes me wonder what the kitchens are like with the state of the bathrooms.

Shame as it was my husbands birthday and i dragged him all the way across from notting hill to show him this place.
View/Add comments (1)

5 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 6
Sunday, July 03, 2011

Can't understand the last two reviews at all. The baked goods at Bea's speak for themselves and I had a selection of salads for lunch there last week and they were superior to most in London cafes. Very good tasting ingredients, good taste combinations, lots of fresh garlic - what's not to like?

As to the coffee, I've spent a lot of time searching out the best espresso-based coffees in London and have a blog and a map reviewing them. I've been asked to judge barista practice sessions for the UK championships and I have to say the coffee at Bea's is lovely! I've know idea whether the previous correspondent drinks coffee normally but I'd like to know - maybe he'she had a one-off bad cup but I very much doubt it - I've not had one.

Bea's takes coffee seriously, the owner previously helped Gwylim Prufrock train to become the UK barista champion and they spend a lot of time getting their coffee just right. Using the renowned Square Mile beans certainly helps. Bea's has a barista entered in this year's UK Barista championship too.

As to service, Bea's has an American attitude to great service; dealing with the front of house it's hard to tell who is in charge and impossible to guess who Bea actually is.

It's a great addition to London!
Comment on this reader review

Philip Wain
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, February 17, 2010

I must agree with the previous writer. I went to Beas this week for lunch and it was a totally dreadful experience. Soggy slimey vegetable salad (well onion mainly) whose juice dispite filling my very small plate, didn't even manage to soften the concrete-like pastry of the quiche.

We sat for 10 mins totally ignored by the staff and there weren't any other customers in there. When we asked for a menu we were told to get up and order at the counter. Then we sat and they brought the ice cold food over to us. When we asked about cutlery she said "its behind you over there - help yourself" so we had to get up to get it. I don't mind self-serve but why be like this when there is three times more staff than customers and they have nothing more really to do? Suprising as I thought the owner is American and would have insisted on a tip top service. I think I will pass on Beas of Bloomsburys interpretation of an English Afternoon Tea!
View/Add comments (1)

Jen
1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Friday, February 12, 2010

Proud servers of the most insipid coffee in London. I passed the coffee I just bought around the office to make sure it wasn't just me, but sure enough the coffee is burnt. The bitter aftertaste is still hanging on in there! Honestly the worst coffee I have ever had in London which is quite an achievement.
View/Add comments (1)

Andrew
4 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 1
Friday, February 05, 2010

Can't talk this place up enough, if you manage to get a booking the afternoon tea is excellent giving you the opportunity to try all of their excellent cakes. The scones are beautiful, everything has a fantastic homemade taste, you can see straight into the kitchen and watch as tray after tray of just baked goodies go out into the shop. Great service, reasonably priced, for me this is the best bakery/patisserie in London.
Comment on this reader review

JK
8 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Friday, October 23, 2009

Just lovely. Bea's has that cosy independent cafe vibe that makes you want to stay all day. I work near Chancery Lane so often pop in for mid-morning pastries and coffee or soup and salad at lunch. I love that you can check the menu every day on their website so if there's nothing you like you don't have a wasted trip!

Can't recommend highly enough.
Comment on this reader review

Tara
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Simply one of the best cafes in London. If you like places like Fernandez & Wells then you'll love it here. The menu changes daily and has perfect lunch food like homemade soups, pastas and massive sandwiches made with gorgeous sourdough bread. The cakes are dreamy but not good for my waistline! Can get busy midday but mid-afternoon it's an oasis of calm. Seriously, I must spend half my life in this place. Go, go now!
Comment on this reader review

8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, May 26, 2009