A North Berwick café has hit back at reviews, receiving praise from locals for their ‘frank’ approach.
Steampunk Coffee, which operates on Kirk Ports, is also running a van at the heart of the Fringe by the Sea festival site. While most have been impressed by the establishment, some have taken to social media to express disappointment - which the café was quick to respond to.
In one review made over the weekend, a customer bashed the outlet - saying: “These guys are at Fringe on the Sea, I don’t drink - so went to the only coffee van and was charged £3.50 for a latte in the smallest cup.
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“You should be ashamed with the sizes. Ripping off the non-alcohol drinkers giving North Berwick businesses a bad name.”
Steampunk soon responded to the complaint, stating: “Maybe consider the hard manual labour that goes into every stage of producing that coffee before you comment.”
Since opening in 2012, the business has expanded from a roastery warehouse into a busy café and travelling campervan - continuing to roast their own coffee beans. Another review made this week slammed the coffee shop on Kirk Ports, adding: “From photos it looks like this place does savoury bites and toasties however when I came they only did cakes and drinks.
“The space is large with unused space near the back area, and there were five staff behind the counter - more than equipped to do simple sandwiches and bites. Coffee was sour unfortunately and banana bread was very standard, like from the supermarket. This place leaves much to be desired with mediocre drinks and food.”
Steampunk was again quick to clap back, stating: “That ‘empty space’ at the back - that’s the coffee roastery. It’s where we roast coffee - the clue is in the name.
“Photos of toasties etc are from what we did pre-pandemic and we can’t take them down off of Google, sorry. We do give a full description of what we currently do on our website, can’t be responsible for whatever else is floating around the Internet from years ago.
“The staff you saw were probably coffee roasters or people involved in other activities like the record shop upstairs. If you knew anything about hospitality just now the idea of finding five staff to chill behind a bar is laughable. Hope you find a café that suits your needs better, we are obviously not it.”
Despite these reviews, Steampunk has an average rating of 4.8 on their Facebook page - with an array of glistening recommendations. One customer wrote: “Such nice staff, and wonderful coffee - thank you so much.” Another said: “Best banana loaf ever. Amazing coffee, and really friendly staff.”
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