Coffee#1

Nice little concept. I went to work in one of these places and it was a little loud as it is trendy and so all the yummy mummy’s were in there having a good old chin wag. Thats cool as I enjoyed my coffee and food very much and managed to get a ton of writing done for my latest book so all good. The one I went to was in Bedminster Southville and it is well situated on the high street for pretty major trraffic. Nice natural wood looks and good atmosphere. Would go back.

While I usually favour independents over chains, Coffee #1 never fails to impress. I visited the Gloucester Rd branch for the first time last weekend and it just as cosy and inviting as I’d hoped. In need of a caffeine fix, I grabbed me a large latte and, with its lovely thick frothy top layer, it didn’t fail to meet my usual high expectations. I was also eyeing up the Christmas cappuccino that’s being offered at the moment, so no doubt I’ll succumb to temptation and pay them another visit very shortly. It’s now my go-​to place for my caffeine fix on Gloucester Road!

This Coffee 1 Shop is an awesome place to come for a pregame meal or a nice lunch. In the warmer months, its especially awesome as they have lots of seating outside with great views. Overall though, this is a great lunch spot. They have a nice lunch menu with a bunch of different options. Nice place and highly recommended.

A very popular coffee chain that’s popped up around Bristol. Dad and I came here for a cup of tea and a toasted teacake 1.80 UKP (as they were out of pastries.) The service is good, but the space gets busy and you may not find a place to park yourself to enjoy your tea and cake.
If you want to turn away from the tax-​avoiding Starbucks then come here. Get a loyalty card and 10 drink purchases gets you 1 free drink.

Fairly conventional ‘good coffee’ café but a few things that elevate it above the bigger chains. The gloucester road branch is a little compact so I’ll give it a miss at busier times, especially as I now often have kids in tow. It it was more spacious I’m sure I’d be here more often as there’s no faulting the quality of the coffee.
Overall, I was most impressed by once finding welsh cakes here, which was a nice surprise. Welsh cakes. Yum.

I love Coffee #1 as a local chain and this is a good branch. Friendly staff, great location on Gloucester Road, plenty of seats on the terrace, in the conservatory or out front by the road and (if you hover) you can grab the tables by the window which are best when it’s sunny.
The coffee I had was great but it’s a shame they don’t do filter coffee like some of their other branches. I’d love to stop here on my way to work in the morning to get a filter coffee but I can’t and to me an Americano just doesn’t cut the mustard. That’s why this place gets 4 stars instead of 5 but if they do start doing filter coffee I’ll be more than happy to change that up to 5.

I only knew about Coffee #1’s existence because I saw a job application for a barista position about six months ago on Gumtree. Never applied or anything, but it made me want to check out their coffees, from the passion they seemed to have about serving really good quality coffees. I certainly wasn’t disappointed, although I thought they could brighten it up a little in there, because it was quite dim all round, despite it being extremely sunny outside. There was a nice selection of coffees available, and my mocha indeed was very good. A really nice coffee house to relax in (maybe I would sit outside instead), and a chain that’s not got it’s character wiped out and replaced by a generic template.

A pleasant if somewhat none special café up Gloucester Road, Coffee #1 is part of a microchain which includes a branch in Clifton Village along with other South Western locations. The décor is simple yet cosy with wooden tables and leather chairs. It follows the standard high street café format, although I would venture that it has a touch more personality than most.
The food is good, mostly fresh and satisfying, and the prices aren’t as absurd as Starbucks et al. As usual, it’s the predictable café fare but sometimes if you need a quick refuel that’s all you really need. There’s an agreeable atmosphere overall, peaceful and well lit along with a range of seating options including a few tables outdoors.
The coffee’s good even if it’s not quite #1, but then that’s this place all over. For an above average café experience that isn’t quite the best in town, you can’t do much better than Coffee #1.

I often get Coffee #1 mixed up with Pronto Coffee. They have the same look about them — dark stained wood fronts with a scattering of tables and chairs on the pavement. To make it worse, they are only a few doors away from each other, making it entirely feasible for people to end up in one when they’re meant to be in the other. Needless to say this has happened to me on several occasions. I have been late for meeting friends more times than I like to remember, and have sometimes ended up phoning them to find out why they are late, only to find that they are sat drinking their coffee where they are meant to be, and I’m mistakenly munching on a copy-​cat cake and clutching an imposter latte. Oh the embarrassment!
There are, if you look properly, distinct differences between the two cafes. Pronto Coffee is indeed stained wood fronted but Coffee #1 is actually a deep charcoal grey, and has metal framed chairs painted white, with slatted wood tops. The shame of my folly is unbearable!
I prefer Coffee #1 to Pronto when I have my wits about me, and am rendered discerning enough to tell the difference. It’s slightly bigger, with a better layout, and the finish is superior, even if the coffee is apparently identical!?!
Coffee #1 seems to have more originality and a better vibe to it than Pronto. Strange really, considering that Coffee #1 is one in a chain of cafes that originated in Cardiff.

Well with a name like Coffee number 1 I had to see for myself… I’d say they are more like coffee number 15. The coffee is not the best in town, it is not bad. It is served well, by that I mean the milk was just the right temperature, but taste-​wise it was lacking something and the coffee was quite bitter.
The service was polite and efficient, as is to be expected, the staff (who served me) weren’t English. They stayed friendly even though it was an extremely busy lunchtime shift.
I had an overpriced Panini/​sandwich thing with ham, cheese and mustard that was clearly not made on site, but although small was tasty enough.
They have done brilliant things with an oddly shaped site and the space inside stretches all the way back into a garden that was very cosy and inviting. I sat out the front, next door to a fruit and veg shop and watched Gloucester Road go by in the sunshine.

It’s awfully hard to get excited about high street coffee shop food: always the standard unimaginative muffin selection, some sad-​looking panini, maybe a caramel slice. But there’s something about the way this fare has been reinvigorated by Coffee # 1 that makes it all feel so much more appetising and more homemade. The staff don’t just flop some boring tuna melt on a plate and say «there you go» as in other, larger coffee chains; they make friendly conversation about the food you’ve ordered, which might be something extraordinary made with focaccia, and ask if you want any extra sauces. I ordered their humble but totally scrumptious bacon bap, a steal at £1.95, and was offered brown sauce and ketchup.
That’s the great thing about this coffee house: its atmosphere is an inspired combination of slick city coffee shop and local corner caff. The fact that it’s a small chain of shops just covering Bristol, Wales and the surrounds, and quite a new business at that (open since 2001), is evident in the little homely flourishes: when you order food you’re given a wooden spoon with the order number painted on it, and there are jugs of tap water dotted around, inviting you to help yourself. It’s refreshing not to have to ask awkwardly for tap water to avoid paying for bottled; this café just offers it to you as your right. They give their signature «Coffee # 1 swirl» to the surface of every frothy drink — so pretty you almost don’t want to disturb it with a spoon.
This is the café to choose if you don’t want to feel rushed through your sandwich and coffee. «Come in and stay a while» is the message Coffee # 1 is trying to put across, and the number of people relaxing for several hours with newspapers, laptops, partners and families shows the message is getting through.

Coffee One is probably the best coffee shop on Gloucester road, and serves a brilliant cup of coffee! In many ways this is your typical coffee shop, with cakes and other snacks on offer, but there’s something about this place that makes you feel you could just sit here quite happily all day long!
The staff here are always so friendly and chatty, and the seating area is really comfortable — nice leather seats that you sink into! As with many places offering good quality goods, the prices are slightly on the higher end for coffee shops — you can expect to pay around £3 for a luxury coffee, and around £2 for your basic filter coffee. However, you get what you pay for and have somewhere really nice to sit down for a while.
I personally love this place, and when heading out to meet a friend we often stop off here for a break just because its so chilled out and has a great atmosphere. I would definitely recommend this for coffee lovers — and check out their wall for local information if you’re interested in what’s going on in Bristol!

When I lived in Cardiff, I loved nothing better than seeking refuge from my draughty and smelly student house in Coffee No 1. When I moved to Bristol, my first reaction was disappointment that this was in fact a chain– if a south-​west and Welsh based one. However, that feeling soon melted away into utter joy that the standard was in Bishopston was just as high. Their baristas sure know how to make a great coffee and the cup sizes are very generous, meaning a large latte will have you sipping away with a foamy top lip to your heart’s content. It can get busy and queuing takes a while (perhaps a subtle ploy to make sure you ogle the cakes) and you usually have to wait to take your coffee with you, which makes darting between the counter and trying to save one of the few seats a bit laborious. However, the atmosphere is lovely and lazy and there is a little sun-​trap of a garden out back as well as seats watching the world go by on Gloucester Road. The carrot cake is a crunchy extravaganza of taste and the paninis are scrummy too. Being able to frequent Coffee No 1 during the week makes being out of work a blessing rather than a curse.

Is this place a chain? Is this place real — am I in the countryside?
I think finally I have found what so many have been searching for: the warm and snugly big-​mug coffee house synonymous with Starbucks, in an environmentally (and indeed globally) conscious environment.
Not least by the demeanour of the waitress, I was very pleased I stumbled upon this easy-​to-​miss local gem. This Coffee No 1 is the next in a chain of a very successful South West coffee movement, providing customers with fresh, original beverages.
Frappes and cappuccinos jostle for position on the hand written chalk boards above the bar where scrummy cakes and a selection of all day breakfasts are on offer for eats. My personal favourites are the delicious bananarama smoothies and the hot chocolate with marshmallows (and not the silly pink bulbous ones, but the delicate little white ones — yum!)

If you love your coffee served by passionate people at independent outlets, then Gloucester Road is the place for you! You will spoilt for choice. But one of my favourite places to go for a steaming Americano and a huge wedge of cake is coffee #1.
This coffee shop’s name is pretty bang on the money — there’s a happy vibe, tasty drinks and deliciously sweet treats on offer here. It often gets quite busy in here, but stick with it — remember: it’s popular for a reason!

great atmosphere always plenty of people, great too for people watching. good coffee beans, fantastic mochas and the deluxe hot chocolate with marshmellows is superb. also the small raspberry cheesecake is a lovely treat.

Positives
Makes the very best Capachino in Bristol — bar none.
Warm intimate atmosphere
Feels spacious
Great for people watching — very interesting clientel
10 stamps on the card entitles you to a free coffee — ask for a large one.
Prices are no better but no worse than anywhere else but the coffee’s far, far better
Negatives
No newspapers
When it gets get very, very crowded (which it often does) the interior becomes steamy and uncomfortable.
The Clifton branch is the preferred meeting place for the areas ‘yummie mummies’. Prepare yourself for gangway obstructing pushchairs and unselfconsious ‘Friends’ style hyper yaper, yapper. Oh my God !
A very, very high turnover in staff. Some are friendly and welcoming. Some could’nt care less.
The old staff delivery to the table system was far preferable to the new ‘get it yourself’ system. The new system just clogs up the ordering area and eliminates the friendly personal touch which was great in the past.
Summay
Unless you are a YM or enjoy crowds get there early — especially at weekends and despite the negatives — THEY SERVE THE BEST COFFEE — BAR NONE — IN BRISTOL

A small, independent chain doing what the big boys do with loads more character and charm. Great coffee, in all the usual variations, tea, hot chocolate, and lots of yummy cakes and biscuits on the counter to tempt you. Both the Gloucester Road and Clifton Village establishments are good places to while away an afternoon.

Nice friendly place to get a good cup of coffee. Really yummy cakes and paninis too! The smoothies are also very tasty and you can tell yourself the goodness of the fruit counteracts the badness of the cakes!