Hemingways Coffee House

This is a review for the tithbarn street branch.
I went for a coffee with a friend here this morning, first impressions was good! Nice and clean outside and outdoor seating for this lovely weather we had today, walking into the café we where greeted with a smile from the server, lots of seating to choose from we choose to sit inside though, my friend ordered a late and i ordered a cappachino, the server brought it over to us and wow! I am not a coffee drinker but this was a tasty cappachino! Went down very easy, nice and smooth and just the amount of froth! I ordered a bacon sandwich which was average the bacon was slightly fatty and the tomato sauce tasted very processed. I would defiantly return here for coffee! Have preciously been here for a full English which was nice but a bit too pricey to return for another. I give this a good three stars!

What distinguishes this Hemingways Coffee House from it’s sister branch on Tithebarn Street?
It’s populated by students and locals rather than suits.
It has free magazines and board games including Scrabble.
It sells beer and wine as well as coffee, pastries, soups and sandwiches.
Add Havana club rum, ice-​cold coke, cigars, pens, notebooks and pretty waitresses and there’s a slim chance, Hemingway might look down at his adopted coffee house with a smile.

Named after the famous literary icon Ernest I suppose that Hemingway’s is attempting to be some sort of cultural get away within the city centre where the great and the good can enjoy a fancy coffee. To be perfectly honest it went straight over my head and what I saw were a lot of pretentious people paying over the odds for stupidly named drinks.
Don’t get me wrong the place is pleasant enough but it has an air of self importance which I really did not appreciate and on the whole I felt quite uncomfortable.
The prices here are too high and the quality doesn’t really match up to this and I also found that the service was quite slow and the staff were not the most attentive I have ever come across.
On the whole I can’t say I enjoyed my trip here or even my drink and I prefer the more simple type of coffee shops rather than this arrogant establishment.

The biggest drawback of Hemingways is that there is little to make it stand out from the rest of the larger chain coffee houses in liverpool.
Its location of the main streets makes it even less useful and it doesn’t offer anything that makes the extra walk worth it.
Its standard selection of coffee and sandwiches is fine if you pass here on the way to work, however i wouldn’t recommend you make a special trip here.

Being the sole customer in a café at 9am doesn’t really bode well for an outlet during what should normally be peak time for the trade and therefore doesn’t really help a review of the place.
Sometimes, admittedly, there are times you know will be an unfair reflection on a place — like say to review a bar with a bouncing reputation from a time you turned up at 11am on a Monday when the smell of vomit and disinfectant still hangs in the air on the street outside or the time the entire staff of a clothes shop were giving you evils as you stepped out of the changing rooms because it was 17:55 — but think well that was my experience and go ahead and write it anyway.
There is nothing wrong with Hemingways, but it is a fairly standard café with few discernible features and maybe with the new shiny Neros and Starbucks of Liverpool1 on its doorstep that’s enough to lose it amidst the rapidly changing landscape of that side of town.
The staff are very friendly and there is a good selection of sandwiches plus with the availability of some wines and beers it’s perfect for grabbing a swifty with lunch — you can’t do that at your nearest well known chain of coffee shops.