Starbucks

Just before you hit the M23. This used to be a little chef but we know what happened to them!
Anyway this Starbucks is always busy with people. There are lots of business people using it for meetings along with the those who like to lunch and drink Starbucks.
The locations is good if you are setting off on a motorway journey and want a caffeine fix before tearing up the miles. The prices are the usual Starbucks prices. The car park is not the biggest and it is clearly signed as 3 hours max stay, you’ve been warned.
The staff were smiley and as cheery as any I have seen. The interior is modern and bright in design. There was wifi available but I was not there long enough to bother using it to see if it was free.

Well, I’m sort of with the other review here. I don’t hate Starbucks, but I do hate the prices. However, this Starbucks has become like a home from home for me — as there are no decent local libraries, this is the most pleasant place I can go with no distractions to read during the holidays and I really love it. I just have to drink slowly to avoid bankruptcy. Parking is never a problem either, as you have two little sideroads parallel to the A23 as well as the sizeable car park.
Sidenote:
How annoying is it when you see someone pay the take-​out price in Starbucks and then go and sit and eat it in there? That really grinds my gears. Yeah, the two-​price policy SUCKS, but come on! We’re in this together!

Let me state from the off that the rating is not based on the quality of the coffee; it’s based on how this particular branch compares to others I’ve suffered. I find the coffee at Starbucks insipid and more like warm milk, but then again, I expect everyone knows the deal with Starbucks coffee by now, so it’s not overly useful to rate that.
The reason this gets a half-​decent rating is because it’s still fresh and new, the staff are really friendly, and it’s very mobile worker friendly.
This used to be the site of a Little Chef, so you can imagine that its location is really handy for road warriors, being situated right near the M23/​M25 junction. Cheap suits are in evidence, although there seems to be a fair smattering of real people as well.
There’s plenty of tables to work at and electrical sockets available, so you can easily spend the whole day working on your laptop here. Weekdays are quiet enough to be comfortable but busy enough not to feel like the staff are just watching you. Be wary of school kicking-​out time, though.
The (big) downside, as with all Starbucks branches, is that you have to pay for the wi-​fi. Oh, and the really bad MOR/​jazz. Take headphones with you and fire up iTunes instead.