Starbucks

**WARNING** There are two Starbucks on the Lisburn Road — One on the Lower Lisburn Road (on the corner of Elmwood Avenue) and THIS ONE way up at the top near The Albany!
Make sure when you arrange a meeting at Starbucks on the Lisburn Road you clarify which store! Learn from my mistakes — don’t get soaked while traipsing from one to the other.
Other than that this is your typical Starbucks — spacious, good wifi and great service. There’s plenty of indie coffee shops on this road too — perhaps organise meetings in them?!

Who doesn’t love a Starbucks?! Grande caramel macchiato all the way!!! I love it! From the smell of roasted coffee beans, to the lovely cookies and sandwiches… I’m a glutton for this franchise and buy into the whole multi decision coffee!
Grande skinny caramel macchiato, extra shot, takeaway, and yes spell my name with a ‘gh’ at the end! Don’t hold back on the syrup!

Regardless of the fact that I have probably paid more tax than this entire corporation for all of last year, it would be unfair to judge this branch on that.
It’s Sunday morning so this caffeine hit is to ensure I don’t waste the day, very important!
The format of Starbucks is the same for all branches and all the hallmarks are here the only difference being location and staff.
The location is not handy for parking, but the staff are really friendly.
Let’s just for a moment appreciate how difficult it can be to deal with people pre-​morning coffee. Grouchy, dis-​shelved people file in grunting their orders across the walnut counter top, and these noble baristas serve without prejudice. They do this with a genuine smile and warmth that can be hard to find these days.

Starbucks is Starbucks, I’m sure we all agree. What I found as a delight was their WIFI had a decent speed which allowed for the use of a VPN without any noticeable speed drop. Well done!

It’s a Starbucks. This population is what you’d expect on this part of Lisburn Road — lots of yuppies and well-​dressed children. I spotted a Britney Spears look-​a-​like. The outdoor seating is nice if it isn’t pouring rain. Headphones recommended unless you enjoy the ambiance lent by screaming babies.
Personally I don’t find the coffeeshops on Lisburn Road too compelling, so given the free coffee refill for sitting in, and 25p off if you bring your own mug, I’ll take it over other overpriced coffees in the neighborhood.
And by the way, the bar seating on the front window is perfectly sized for Macbooks.

I am aware Starbucks is a chain store and thus is similar to Starbucks scattered everywhere else in the world. However, I have outlined this Starbucks for one particular reason.
As with every other one, we went in, joined the queue, hmmed and haaed over the menu before settling for our original choices. However this time it was different.
You see, this routine is usually followed by ordering the drinks, recieving the drinks in exchange for the finest money the student loans company can provide, and then onto some inappropriate chat.
Instead we remained in the queue, and waited. Then waited further. And further. And once more we were kept waiting. The staff were incredibly slow. Painfully slow we almost left and headed back towards the city.
Eventually we were served and upon recieving our drinks and with a fake smile, we went on our quest to find an empty seat… Hmm… Haa… Almost every table had cups or mugs or plates on it. I ended up moving plates and mugs in order to forage a little table for us in the corner, away from this horrible experience.
The place is nice and well situated, but the staff just need to hurry it up a little