Crema Coffee - Victoria Road

Crema Coffee had been on my list of places to try for a while! I decided to go for brunch  and was curious to see how it would be as I had heard very mixed reviews. 

Halalness: Everything here is halal and no alcohol is served. 

Food:

I ordered French Toast, one of the ‘specials’ on the menu that was limited edition and was said to be served with berries, coulis, cream, and meringue. Unfortunately they had ran out of meringue and fresh berries which was quite a disappointment so I asked if I could get lotus biscoff added instead. They messed my order up a few times and by the time I could actually eat my French toast had went soggy with the cream. 

However, apart from this the French toast was absolutely amazing and the best I’ve ever had. The bread was a thick sourdough and minus the sogginess it was an absolute joy to eat with all those flavours coming together. The portion size was also very generous and I struggled to even eat half of it! The cream was clotted so it made the French toast feel quite filling for me personally. If they managed to get my toppings correct before the cream made it soggy and if they had the meringue and fresh berries this would have honestly been exceptional! But nevertheless, I still really enjoyed it. 

Rating: 8/10

Drink:

I ordered an iced caramel latte and they had forgotten to add the caramel! When it came it was bitter and basically undrinkable for me. I was so disappointed, I told the waiter and he said he would sort it out but 20 mins had passed and he still hadn’t even taken my drink away. He claimed he had ‘forgotten’ and another 10 minutes passed by and there was still no sign of my drink. I asked him once again and he had apparently ‘forgotten’ again, so after feeling like I was literally nagging him my drink finally came. Once it was made right I had nothing to fault - it was really nice and refreshing with the perfect amount of sweetness, ice and coffee. 

Rating: 8/10

Ambiance: The shop itself was quite small and there wasn’t a lot of seating available. Luckily a group had left just as we entered so we were able to get seated quite quickly. It definitely had a cosy feel and would probably be quite nice to do work in when it’s not too busy. There is also outdoor seating available so on a nice day dining out there would be really lovely. 

Price:

The French toast was around £9 which I thought was a bit steep but iced latte was more reasonable around £3.20. 

Service:

I was honestly really disappointed with the service after our order taking forever to come despite the cafe being quite quiet and then on top of that having my order messed up multiple times and constantly forgetting my requests the staff were not attentive and hadn’t even given us cutlery with our food, I asked for some and they took a dreadfully long time ‘bringing it’ (they must have forgotten) that I had to go to another table and take cutlery from there instead. The service definitely did not reflect the price of the food and really downgraded my overall experience. 

Overall, I really enjoyed my French toast and iced latte once it was made right but the whole dining process was extremely stressful and I did not have a relaxing time at Crema Coffee as I had hoped.

Would I recommend?: Yes as that French toast was to die for! But I would only recommend Crema Coffee if you have a lot of time on your hands as the service is exceptionally slow - and if you come as a group expect to wait at least 10 minutes between each person’s  food coming, you probably won’t be able to eat at the same time. 

Overall rating: 7/10