Well this is that last official cafescapade we start this a year ago and going well over 100 cafes in the greater Dunedin area. We planned this early on that we would go to Starbucks as our last Cafescapade cafe and that we would do it on Christmas eve basically 1 year since we started this adventure.
The thing here is the last time I went to Starbucks here in Dunedin would have been a good 15 years ago and I wasn't impressed with it back then. So I wasn't holding my breath.
We decided to go early I mean Christmas eve in town, and I not liking people especially crowds and swarms of them :-/ and you think I joke here... We found it opened at 07:30am so quickly walked the dog and and was off for an early coffee.
There were already a couple of dinners there but Starbucks as plenty of seating. We both ordered a sausage roll, I also had a cheese twist thingy, flat white and Xaria and a White Chocolate Mocha... I think.
Our order did not take long but unlike most cafe's where the waitress/waiter would bring the food to your table Starbucks they call your name out and you go and collect it. Which over all does take away that cafe feel to it. However it still felt like a big corporate clonglomerate to me. It look the same as it did 15 years ago and not even repaired a one bench seats that had a rip in it.
Now to be fair the sausage roll was not bad at all, it had soft texture which to honest was a bit of a surprise but we both enjoyed it and we were asked if we wanted sauce on the side or not which was a nice touch. However I wasn't impressed with cheese twist could not taste any cheese and was just bread.
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Now the coffee and since I can not really remember my one I had like from 15 years ago... I just know I couldn't finish it... today's one was a heck of a lot better than my last one I had here. They had obviously have had to up there game to compete with the local cafes and their coffee's. The one thing going for it was the nice size of the cup... or large. I believe Xaria enjoyed you White Mocha
Price wise it was competitive and the service was friendly enough. But to me it is missing something special that the general local cafes have and while some people here may disagree with including Xaria (she will have her own write up soon) It is usually the personal touches the small local cafes do that we enjoy. Would I go back to Starbucks ... that is a 24 million dollar question. It has been at least 15 years since my last visit... so maybe in 10 years for my next... I don't know. Overall I was not as bad as I remembered from my last visit.
