Trying the high street coffee chains so you don’t have to!

In every part of the UK, I guarantee you that you’ll find a Starbucks, Costa, Prêt À Manger or Caffè Nero along the high street. They’re 4 of the big coffee chains that everyone recognises and where you go into knowing exactly what you’re getting and what to expect. I decided to put the 4 to the test and see which café served the best coffee and provided the best experience. I ranked each according to price, taste, cleanliness, service, and overall experience. To make this experiment a fair test I ordered the same drink at all 4 cafes – a latte which is my go-to drink, where oat milk was available at not extra cost I did opt for this instead of dairy milk.

Caffè Nero: Caffè Nero takes its influences from Italy and currently has over 1,000 stores across 11 countries.

Price: £3.30 for a regular latte, they charged 45p extra for plant milk which was disappointing considering the amount of people that now prefer plant milk to dairy. The price was on par with the other coffee shops, so my overall rating for price would be 3/5, taking off a point for charging extra for plant milk.

Taste: 3/5 – The taste was ok and I could taste the coffee which was good because I’ve had experiences in Nero in the past where I think they’ve forgotten to add any coffee to my drink!

Cleanliness: 3/5 – The branch that I visited has been there a while, so I feel like it needs a bit of a refresh! It was ok in terms of cleanliness, there weren’t too many empty cups lying around on the tables. I think that what let it down was the need for a lick of new paint and some updated furniture.

Service: 3/5 – The barista was friendly, but the service was a bit slow as there was only 1 till and barista at the time that I visited (around 12.30 pm) so it was quite busy.

Overall Experience: 3/5 – I would go back again, but possibly to a different branch.

Starbucks: I think Starbucks is probably the most recognisable coffee chain, famous for its iconic mermaid logo. Starbucks was founded in Seattle in America, operating in 80 countries and has over 33,833 stores.

Price: £3.35 for a regular latte, no extra charge for plant (hooray!), it was about the going rate for a coffee shop chain, I would give it a 4/5 because you don’t have to pay extra for oat milk which is always a bonus.

Taste: 4/5 – Good tasting coffee, not too weak or strong.

Cleanliness: 4/5 – The branch I visited was very clean!

Service: 4/5 – It has a relaxed atmosphere and I didn’t feel rushed which I appreciated so I could take my time when drinking my coffee.

Overall Experience: 4/5 – I would go back to Starbucks again!

Costa: Costa was founded in London in 1971. According to research, it’s the second largest coffeehouse chain in the world and the largest in the UK.

Price: £3.20 for a regular latte which was the cheapest out of the 4 coffee chains. Like Nero, they also charged 45p extra for plant-milk, which was disappointing, so I had to knock a point off for this giving them a 3/5 for the price.

Taste: I found the coffee to be a bit too bitter and it tasted burnt – 2/5

Cleanliness: 2/5 – I find that with most Costa shops they all need a bit of a refurb and it feels a bit rundown which makes the café feel less clean than it might actually be. When I went in lots of the tables still had empty plates and cups hanging about.

Service: 3/5 – The service was as expected, nothing special.

Overall Experience: 3/5 a fairly average experience, it wouldn’t be first choice of cafes to go back to.

Prêt À Manger: Prêt À Manger was founded by Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham in 1983. It has 434 shops in the UK with 273 of them being in London.

Price: A regular latte was £3.20. They didn’t charge extra for plant-milk which was good, giving them a rating of 3.5/5.

Taste: 4/5 – I think Prêt had the best tasting coffee – it smelt great, the taste was smooth, and it was just the right strength.

Cleanliness: 4/5 – The Prêt I visited was very clean as it’s a relatively new branch. Even though it was busy, there wasn’t rubbish lying about on the tables.

Service: 4/5 – Fast service, served by a friendly barista!

Overall Experience: 4/5 – A very good experience in Prêt, would definitely be going back for a coffee, it’s just a shame that it was very expensive comparing it to the other coffee chains.

Overall, Prêt À Manger wins for me in terms of being the best coffee shop chain on the high street! It's a winner for me because of the quality, of the coffee, the cleanliness and the overall experience I had compared to its competitors. Costa was the looser because of the quality of coffee and the need for the café to have a makeover. Let me know what your favourite coffee shop chain is and why!