Nero in Milton Keynes

Got served today by store manager who asked if I had the cafe Neuro app. I said I didn’t I was more of a Costa girl. He gave me a large instead of regular I paid for and a stamp card he stamped extra on and said little incentive to get the app. Great customer service, will be switching 👍🏻

Staff friendly and quick unlike other branches.

The staff are always lovely but the store is dirty. The armchairs are in dire need of refurbishment- shiny black arm rests? No thank you!

I arrived at Cafe Nero Milton Keynes centre MK At around 3:30-4:00. I am a heavily pregnant Muslim who wears hijab and niqab. I was visiting this area so I’m not from here, especially with the recent riots I already experience a lot of racism and was looking forward to a good day out. I usually shop at Costa so and thought to try cafe Nero and made an account, but obviously was unfamiliar with the point system. Waiting in the que for 15 minutes already I ordered one coffee and two paninis at around £14.55. The staff member who served me ( no name tag) with blonde hair slightly chubby didn’t advise to scan the app, paid and left. Obivously I wouldn’t know when to scan as I’ve never been here before. I asked if I now scan the app to which she said it’s too late. As i have never used the app I didn’t know you have to scan it before buying, and usually places like this prompt you. Otherwise I would of asked. I then asked is there anything you can do, can you put it on till to scan or provide paper stamps, she replied no and we don’t have any paper stamps, I replied can I refund it and put it through the reward on the app as id miss out on a free drink and it’s unfair to miss out as you don’t have stamps, or atleast refund the coffee, she said yes and spoke to her colleague. She went to her colleague for a while, short lady, short hair fringe with pink streaks in, who approached us and advised they cannot refund us without a valid reason and this isn’t a valid reason. I tried to politely explain I had no idea I had to scan it before as I wasnt even asked, and I’m missing out on a free drink and stamp. She then said for me to go to another Nero to get this stamp, I replied how can I without any evidence. It went back and forth despite pleading she refused. Already at this point my drink was done and my two paninis. She was smirking and talking in a rude patronising tone, and a few times her and her colleague would whisper and talk about us. I witnessed in the Que politeness to other members of the public, and great customer service. The only difference is I wear a hijab. I feel personally discriminated against and have never had this problem before. Please explain to me why, a first time app user, I wasn’t prompted, there was no stamp options and a refund to repay was refused however they was happy to refund under ‘change their mind’ and refuse service. I left very upset, and as a heavily pregnant women also, very tired and hungry. We ended up back at Costa, and food wasted which ideal. It felt intimidating as I felt ganged up upon in front of other people. As a Muslim I’d advise anyone to not go here. There are so many ways to assist a customer, but saying yes, changing your mind, then mocking me is not the way to do it.

I go to this branch often and I always experience great service.

One of my clear indicators of a food outlet is their toilets and frankly this place is down near the bottom, so to speak. (no pun intended). I am aware that it has a massive footfall but with that comes an even more important duty to provide adequate and clean toilets and this place failed on every count. Coffee was good and the customer area was ok but I'll let the photos of what lurked in the gents say the 1000 words.

Just a quick double espresso pre interview- very quiet at 10 in the morning

Like all Caffe Nero's it gets very busy, but I didn't have to queue for long and the staff were very friendly and chatty. I'm in the habit of taking a laptop along and getting some work done in cafes like this, and Caffe Nero seems to draw others like me as there's always a few workers hunched down in front of their screens. Nice food, bustling ambience and a great location to people watch on the corner of Middleton Square and Eagle Walk in MK shopping centre.

Coffee is so bitter, I couldn’t even drink a latte, the worst coffee I have ever tried. Cake was nice but small.

Service is good but the queues for this particular branch are always SO LONG. Really needs better management.

Used to be a 5 star coffee shop, but the last few times have made me downgrade, slow ignorant service, staff just chatting while the queue is to the front door, pastry was stale, and who the hell thinks that when you order 2 hot drinks and two iced drinks, that you prepare the hot drinks first...??? Thet took so long making the cold drinks our coffee was cold, the queue was too long to wait for a fresh one...sorry but rubbish.£25 for cold drinks and a stale pastry and a dirty table...starbucks here we come.

I visited today with my family. 4 adults . We ordered iced drinks and hot drinks. The server decided to make up our hot drinks 1st leaving them standing fur over 10 mins whilst making the 2 iced drinks. Once we got them all to the table (hot drinks now like warm) we noticed the latte was a medium when we had ordered a large. I took this back and it was rectified quickly. We sat outside and unfortunately works at cmk Middleton hall made it impossible to chat as the drilling was so noisy. Not neros fault I acknowledge but added to the dismal visit. £20 wasted I feel on something we as a family rarely do. Wont be back.

Why there are always such horrendous queues there? 😖 it’s crazy busy during the weekends, avoid.

I was there today, and my husband ordered coffee and with Blueberry Moss Cake. He brought me a cold dish with an old piece of cake, and the last layer of cake is not there, and I asked to replace it from the short girl, I treated me badly, and I took the dish with full force, and threw it in the garbage basket, and she brought me cake, but I felt that she was giving it to me free If you continue. Nero in this way there will be no customers

We waited 20 minutes to be served. Toilet was out of order but no signage. No plates or saucers available then I wax refused when I went to request them despite other customers after us having received theirs. All empty tables loaded up with trays. Serving staff were nonchalant and couldn’t care less. Cafe Nero need to ensure that their coffee shops are adequately staffed and that staff are trained to serve customers in a polite and welcoming manner. I look forward to a response.

Enjoyed the special espresso single origin Brazilian.

Great pastries and lovely coffee

No respect for the customers, long queues.

Been here twice over past few months. One time staff were rude and this time they didn’t have pastry I wanted which is why I come here and got served wrong coffee. Can’t be bothered with them anymore.

Nice but not sure I was charged the correct price for my drink as came out at £5.35!

Just like every other Nero. The cake was so stale that it felt like it's a week old. Coffee wasn't great either.

Always a great service and a friendly smile from Lucy and the team. Keep up the very good work!

I’d stopped coming here as a regular last year, but wow, I’ve been back since January and you can see the gradual improvement of the place. Everyone including the vibe is great, it feels cleaner too! All the team need a shout out. Nick, the manager, goes out of his way to look after me, and his team do this to other people too. I’m now a regular again!

Great staff lovely cake sdlection and coffee delivered exactly as ordered 👍👍👍

A nice enough Cafe Nero with plenty of seating. It's certainly one of their more modern outlets.

Great friendly staff. I currently have issues walking, they brought my food and drink to the table for me

Seriously slow service, not the place to go if you’re on a lunch break etc as there is no element of speed. Usually one person on the till while the others roam around or “clean” even though everything is usually dirty. There isn’t any apology for how slow everything runs

Cakes and coffe are nice but staff are inefficient and can be rude at times. Long queues and you have to drink out of paper takeaway cups because they are regularly short staffed. Hardly ever happens at Costa.

Great coffee and pleasant surroundings.

Can be a bit too busy. Hard to find a place and noisy. When it's a quiet time it's really nice and you can here each other talk.

Here is always a big queue, but it is worth waiting, their coffee is very good.

Friendly staff and good coffee.

We had a lovely lunch a bit slow getting served but think that is standard in a Coffee shop ha ha had an egg sandwich it was lovely

Never had a bad experience here. I am always served with a smile. This evening I was served by 2 lovely young people just before they closed up, had a good chuckle with them whilst waiting for my drink after a long day at work. Little experiences like this might not seem much, but they really do go a long way to putting a smile on peoples face. Great staff really do make a place, would definitely not want to ever to lose them.

My go-to place for coffee and relaxing. Just reading a magazine or something on the phone, and a latte.

Average coffee, and expensive. A bit cheaper with a meerkat discount.

Great place to always go for hot drink and right in the centre of the Milton Keynes (in the indoor shopping mall). Great spaces as we and visual view of shops and shoppers.

It's not a bad shop in the centre of Milton Keynes. The staff are a little slow at making a drink when you compare to Costa Coffee or starbucks

Another example of lazy hospitality in MK; sitting in but insisted on serving us in paper cups “we don’t have many cups and we close in an hour”. Limited selection of cakes available, seemed understaffed, tables not being cleared

Super super slow despite it not being all that busy. Staff clearly having a domestic at front of house, dishes being broken and very choice language from the staff arguement in front of my child really killed the calm atmosphere of a Sunday morning coffee.

Great coffee and nice surroundings

Slowest service and no apology for a 15 minute wait just to even get served 🙈

Staff talking, eating joking and not at all vithered about customers queueing to be served. 20 mins to get 3 teas

Café Nero in Milton Keynes offers a welcoming atmosphere with a friendly barista sporting an awesome tattoos (444 ❤️). The ambiance complements the excellent service, making it a delightful place to enjoy your coffee.

Awful rude service. I saw really unpleasant members of staff mocking and sniggering at customers. One of the servers looked a little bit uncomfortable but I have NEVER seen anything like it. Completely underhand / under breath but never the less obvious. I am just glad that the customer themselves appeared not to notice. I did and was appalled. What I f the customer themselves had realised? The staff wouldn’t know if going out was a challenge. This was shocking. This cafe is local and convenient to me but I will never set foot again. Passed by a few hours later and the table where we had sat hadn’t even been cleared. We were sat about 10:45 and we passed by at 4pm.

This particular Caffé Nero is always a mess with dirty tables and ridiculous queues. The staff don't seem to have a sense of urgency. To be honest it just needs to be managed more effectively.

The staff do great but the queues are always long especially around lunchtime. Great coffee and snacks though.

Coffee and chai latte.... nice but expensive really for what it is. But will return nevertheless.

Long wait for service could do with extra stuff at the weekend.

Food is good, plenty of seating on a prechristmas busy day, shame that with only 10 people in front of me in queue it took 20 min to get served, with all having fairly simple orders.

I had the festive plant ciabatta with plenty of red cabbage, and it was quite tasty. Two of my family had cheese and onion slice, both warm, a little burnt, and they found it quite spicy. Popular place.

Very untidy, tables not cleared and service slow !

Quite busy today. Didn’t have enough waiters to clean the tables. So yeah I would only go on a not so busy day.

Place was dirty, staff rude and rhe cost of drinks extortionate. Go to Greggs, it's cheaper!

Used to be in love with their coffee, now I very rarely get their Christmas blends.

Good standard Caffè Nero with a nice atmosphere. Friendly staff.

Quality service cleaness,and value for money

Pathetic service. Avoid that store

Great place for a hot drink while the better half is shopping.

Nice coffee shop with good food and a really nice atmosphere. Nice to take the weight off during a shopping trip but tough to get out of the comfy chairs!

Ordered a coffee with cream, the batista gave me a hot chocolate with cream. Not impressed.

Very friendly staff and really fine, aromatic coffe choices. Unfortunately, the staff is overwhelmed and can hardly catch up with the service, like collecting used cups or plates from the tables.... Nevertheless, Cafe Nero remains recommended!

Had to give up waiting after 25 minutes. The queue was not that long, but moving at a snails pace. However, that gives you a chance to look around. Just don't look up. Everything above 6 feet is filthy and covered in what looks like greasy fluff!

Coffee is great but tables are not being cleaned

The coffee was fine but I have never in my life been to a coffee shop that was slower at making coffee. Despite having three baristas and a queue of approx 12 people, only one of them was making coffee ?

The queues are always long when I go (which is a Saturday around lunchtime), have usually waited 30min just to place my order, so it's not a quick process.

Disappointed with availability of ingredients of the coffees ordered. More than 10 dirty tables, slow service in general. It really needs help.

When I went here it was quite early so you'd expect to find free clean tables, but No apart from slow service tables are full of cups glasses and trays. I have to clear one table to be able to sit with my food and drink. Very inconvenient.

Seems to have long lines and a long wait the last few times I have been in. Coffee itself is decent though! Just wish it were a bit more consistent in terms of service.

We did have to wait quite a while in a queue to order our drinks, but once they were made they were very good, so worth waiting for.

We use this Caffe Nero branch most times when we come to Milton Keynes. There's often a queue at the counter, as is usual for most coffee shops but mostly it goes down quickly and service is pretty efficient. Good coffee and tea, nice goodies and sandwiches. Great place to have a break but, it can sometimes be very busy, with most tables taken. Must admit, they sometimes struggle to keep the tables clear of used plates, cups and debris but usually catch up when the queue goes down.

Not great......Caffè Nero seems to always be a bit of a let down. Staff seem deflated and come across like they just don't want to be there (I know this line of work is tough through my own experience working in a different popular coffee shop) but, you still need to maintain some sort of positive customer experience. The tables are sticky and chairs are dirty (and no, they were not busy at the time we went in) the coffee I had ordered was heated to the point it tasted burnt (the Milk) and the baby chino again was over the temperature it should have been.

My partner and I prefer Nero to most other coffee houses but this one let's them down, the staff are not very friendly at all and the drinks are poorly made. We have given this place 3 tries on different occasions and each has been a bad experience.

Only go here if you don't mind extra slow service. 45 minutes to get a coffee . Not good at all .

My go-to place for a coffee and enjoy some peace quite me time with my books. Being a regular to this coffee shop 😋.. I like how they bring new flavours and different types of coffee. Very nice and highly recommended.

Love their fruit boosters very refreshing my 2nd time with my mum. If only they could more savoury food and more veg variety then I would consider eating there too. Otherwise great place to go and chill

We didn't stay, the 2 ladies took a very long time to take our order and prepare it considering we only had 2 hot chocolates. At a quick glance unfortunately customers were piling old staff on another table so they can sit down. Out of the Nero we have been to this was the worst one.

Ho ordinato un caffè ristretto come da loro menù scritto ma non sapevano cos'era...

Always great coffee, with quick and friendly service.

Food and drinks were ok, but the service was slow. The place did not seem very clean, ie sticky tables.

Finally pastries that are baked off correctly, not burnt to a crisp or underbaked & limp - better than the other local branch

The employees were stressed, nevertheless I didn't have to wait long.

Just as I like it , not too busy.

Great cup of coffee and friendly staff.

Just love their coffee and food ! Only thing is that sometimes I need to wait in the queue for 20 mins even

I was very pleasantly surprised that the taste of coffee I expected was strong And my coffee was well balanced, delicious cakes, me and my friend bought a few flavors and they were delicious and fresh, very affordable prices, better choice than Costa, I was here for the first time and certainly not the last one, clean place, lots of space to enter with a pram or a child, friendly service with a smile, very atmospheric decor, calm, I recommend going here for a coffee and rest from shopping

Chain Atmosphere, nevertheless it was good.

Staff rushed off their feet. It was chaotic. Won't be going again.

Based on my experience this weekend, I will not be returning to this Caffè Nero. The cafe was unclean with chairs that have clearly never been wiped down as there were coffee drip stains running down the sides of them and food crumbs down the sides of the seating pads. The cafe looks tired and when I went to the toilet, there was no toilet roll. I asked for some and rather than the worker fitting it in the holder, they handed me a massive roll to use (which I then had to leave on the back of the toilet cistern). When a worker walked past our table with a plastic tub, a piece of dirty, blue kitchen towel fell to the floor and this was walked past several times by workers (who didn’t have anything in their hands and so could have easily picked it up). Furthermore, there was a very odd flavour to the English breakfast decaf tea (felt like it was lemon disinfectant?). It was horrible and my husband and I couldn’t drink it. Our friend had a cappuccino and the mug had a chip in it but it was still served to him. Very disappointing.

1st time I have visited this Caffe Nero. It was an okay experience. 1st impressions were a lot of tables needed cleaning, the food was expensive and the coffee was too strong.

Worst cafe Nero I’ve been to. The staff there are always in a bad mood, never helpful and rude. The customer service is nil ! I don’t know if it’s management or the staff members themselves but this has to change !

Great seating, lovely atmosphere. Service was good and genuine. Friendly staff. And food came quick!

Queuing system could do with improvement,

This seems a bit mismanaged. The tables are not cleaned in time. Place is abit outdated and the dessserts are expensive.

Cup of tea, coffee and cheesecakes...

Been having quite a few visits lately whilst studying for exams. Tried most drinks on their menu, and the majority were disappointing. Iced coffee was warm. Milkshake was badly made and "chunky" with ice and whatever they use to flavour. Fruit drinks tasted the best, but still artificial. Food is good. Similar quality to Costa. I always go in the evening so it's quiet and the tables are relatively clean. We were told one week that they now close at 7pm, but the Google page was updated after this to show 8pm. So honestly don't know if they're meant to close at 7pm or not.

WAITING FOR MY REPLY FROM CUSTOMER SERVICES. Very poor !!!

Bad experience here when we visited last Saturday. Staff all huddled together chatting. Wasn't particularly busy, but service was so slow! Stood waiting ages to be served because staff were talking. Eventually got served by a man with a black top on - assume to be manager on duty. Who then took an absolute age making our coffees as he kept wandering off speaking to staff. I've been to a lot of cafe Nero's and this one fell short of the experiences I've had in others by quite a lot.

Good, but why does it take so long to fix the toilets? They have been out of action for weeks. It's time for someone in the management team to get this sorted

An average coffee and average staff.