I must be in my “try that food spot” mode or something…
Today I woke up rather late for a walk with Maxim, so I was dressing in a hurry and didn’t manage to have breakfast. Since our way to park passes through Starbucks, I thought it would be a good idea to finally try some coffee and eat some sandwich. Starbucks opened a long time ago and I planned to visit it together with Olga, but she got pregnant and than started feeding Maxim, and coffee is bad for babies.
I went in, selected a bacon-egg-cheese-something sandwich and I asked the girl behind the counter about the coffee. I said that I have no slightest idea what they are making here except for Espresso and Cappuccino and that I didn’t want either of them. She looked puzzled. I thought that I didn’t give her enough information and added: “I want black, sweet coffee in a mug.”. She smiled in a way that made me understand that she still doesn’t know what to suggest to me. Than she had a revelation: “Would like to try our coffee of the week?”. I agreed. Coffee of the week was New Guinea Something. It came in a big mug exactly the way I wanted. Maybe with slightly less sugar than I like, but OK anyway.
I liked both the coffee and the sandwich.
I was wondering about the opening hours. I saw Starbucks open pretty early in the morning. And I also noticed that they worked until late at night. I asked the waitress if they were open 24×7, but she said no. They open 7:00am, except for Sunday, when they open at 8:00am. Non-the-less I was enjoying my coffee and sandwich at 7:03am today, which is Sunday. It was very generous of them to let me in, serve me, and not even mention anything until I asked myself.
I liked the place. The bill was a bit too much I think. One coffee and one regular sandwich came out at 4.60 CYP. A small cup of Cyprus coffee, for comparison, costs somewhere from 0.40 CYP to 0.80 CYP. And a ham-and-cheese sandwich is usually in range of 1.20 and 2.00 CYP, so Starbuck is surely an expensive place. But a good one too.
I’ll be passing once in a while, but not as often as I’d like to.
You can add some more sugar if you want to, there is a table somewhere that you can get some.
You need to try Caramel Macchiato (hot or cold doesn’t matter) and Caramel Ice Blended Coffee Fappuchinno. If you are into caramel if not then some other flavour.
Starbucks style coffee shops are quite common for the past couple of years or so in Bangalore, and they’re pretty expensive as well. Outside, a coffee costing maybe Rs 5 would cost Rs 40 here – and of course that would be the simplest one, the ones with all the flavoring or other variations and so on go on upto around Rs 80 to 100.
One key advantage in a place like this is that nobody’s in a hurry, so one can take as long as one likes, a useful place to have a long chat in a pleasant ambience – so that way the price is reasonable I think.
I’ve been to Starbucks in the US – and one of the main plus points of it is that its usually (if not always) associated with a Barnes and Noble bookshop – one can read books while drinking coffee!
Thanks for the suggestion. I’m not that much into caramel, but I’ll try it anyway. Need to broaden my horizons, you know… :)
Sanjay,
noone is ever in a hurry here in Cyprus. And noone is ever in a hurry to get you out of the shop or cafeteria. In most of the places you can sit as long as you wish. Just buy something once in a while and you are fine.
Also, many places these days provide free internet (WiFi). This way you can enjoy your coffee while chatting to the rest of the world. I haven’t noticed anyone any hotspots in Starbucks though. But it doesn’t mean that there aren’t there…