Cafe Zest House Of Fraser - Cardiff

Place was cold as was the whole store, had to wait for girl to serve and then servile. Coffee not tasty and latte was cold. Give this place a miss. Better conversion to boutique hotel.

I like to try different cafes and coffee shops in town when I have to go in, so I took the trouble to seek out Café Zest having seen the name on an advert on the back of a bus ticket. This in store café concession, which is owned by an Italian family named Massarella, is hidden away right at the front of the first floor of Howells store. There’s little or no signage to help you find it. That’s probably why it was almost empty. But having found it, great, just fancied a larger cup of coffee to pass some time, so ordered a large latte. Bad mistake. If you order a large latte, most places put in two shots of espresso, and in some places you even get three. But it seems not in Massarella Catering Group Zest Cafés. One puny shot of weak nasty coffee, so you basically get a mug of light brownish milk with a bit of a bitter edge. The lady behind the counter was really nice and even put another shot free of charge into a separate little cup – and that’s how it was possible to tell just how thin, weak and nasty the coffee in Zest is. Even with the second shot of weak see through coffee poured in, the latte was to my mind undrinkable. I was more than happy to put it down to experience and just go but the very pleasant understanding manager was insistent on giving a refund. Didn’t buy any food so who knows, it may be good. But I’ll never find out because this is not a place I’d come back to. Based on the poor coffee served in Zest, we’ll probably try and avoid all other Massarella Catering in store café brands (Angelica’s, Botanico and Wild Mint) as well in future. Such a shame really because coffee in Italian owned cafes is usually very good.

The service here was friendly and the eggs for the 5 item breakfast were made to order, which I found better than when they are usually left under the heat lamps to dry out in other cafes!

Long wait for Disappointment. Waited ages to find out they had no hot cross buns prior to Bank holiday Easter. Coffee could have been a lot hotter. I won't be rushing back, SORRY. Not only me but others waiting were not impressed.

I’d like to say something nice about Cafe Zest, but I’m struggling to do so. First of all, Lipstick on my glass. Not replaced, despite an apology, I then had to drink from the bottle. My tomato and basil soup was tasty enough, but warm at the best, not hot. There were no home made croutons as advertised, neither was there a fresh roll, as per the menu. Nobody mentioned it. My toasty was nice but accompanied simply by brown edged lettuce, looking as though it was far from fresh. My partner had a coffee and jacket potato which he said was ok, nothing special. The total bill £19 but I’d had a 20% discount voucher sadly this had been overlooked and was not deducted. I pointed it out to staff who with the aid of a calculator handed back £3.30. It should have been £3.80. I never had the extra 50p. It wasn’t busy there, that was no excuse. All I can put it down to is lack of management on the day together with uncaring staff, showing no pride in what they do. Sorry about being so blunt, but that’s what reviews are all about....