Expectations versus reality
Do you know that moment you see a place, or you have heard about it, or someone recommended it to you and then you go and experience the place by yourself and in the end your expectations were higher and more positive than the reality?
Ellamia was one of those cases for me.
Here I was back in London, after almost 2 hours closed in the train after an amazing weekend down south at my best friends place. When I start thinking that maybe I could stop somewhere and grab a coffee before I head home.
This is the moment when I pass by Ellamia, I looked inside and thought that this would definitely be the ideal place to drink a nice coffee and take a relaxed break after the long train journey home.
I am sorry to say that looks can be deceiving.
The space looks great from the outside
This is a very busy area and a very busy street, with a lot of tourists and locals, but if you don't mind people walking by all the time, there are a couple of tables outside where you can take a sit and have your coffee.
I personally don't think it is the best outside sitting area that I have seen, but it is something and sometimes that is better than nothing.
Nice decoration is not everything
When I have entered the place I was still very satisfied that I have picked this place as my coffee stop before I go home. It was a small coffee shop but quite open and bright. With some sitting areas but not too crowded that would feel uncomfortable.
Everything looked really nice, clean and tidy.
The pastries looked fresh and all the customers that were inside seemed to be enjoying their own time. Some of them were on their laptops, I would say doing some work while the others were just spending some good time with other people.
As I said, and this impressions were all taken even before I have ordered my coffee. At this point everything was going great.
There is a cute little bar
Some nice pastries
This was the biggest disappointment
Let me start with the positives, when he was preparing the coffee and the way he served it, I was still surprised, everything looked good. I was surprised and shocked with the amount of milk on the side I was given, I think the amount of milk I received was bigger than the coffee itself, I really didn't understand why but that happened.
The cup and the way it was presented was cute and very aesthetic but as soon as I had the coffee in my hands I knew this whole experience was about to get ruined.
The moment I have grabbed the cup I could see my fingers through the coffee, this was the most watery and week coffee I have tried since I have started going around trying new coffee shops. It was so weak.
Very aesthetic the way they serve the coffee
Tell me who would need more milk than coffee, specially when the coffee was essentially just black water with no flavour.
This was also a very big waste of food. Because I have used a tiny little bit of the milk and everything else went down the drain. So not only the company is losing money but when it comes to be environmental friendly, it reduces that effect.
I know I am complaining about this small things while I am having out here £3 coffees! But unfortunately it is the world we live and we have to at least try and make the best choices we can in the life we are living so in the end all this small changes we do (together) will make a difference in general, having a positive impact in the world and other people life.
The biggest amount of milk I was ever given
The atmosphere was nice
I know that maybe with the pictures you can't even tell, and the coffee itself had some foam, I was surprised and I still don't know how is that possible because this was the weakest coffee I have ever drank. I could not feel any coffee flavour.
To this day I can't understand how you even could serve a coffee like this.
It happen to me a couple of times, or because I have pressed the coffee too much, or for some reason the pour on the machine messed up that I have prepared coffees like this when I used to work in a restaurant. The difference is that I would throw it away and prepare a new fresh one.
No one can look at a coffee, see through it and think that is a nice thing to give to a customer.
This whole experience and time I wanted to take before I went home was for sure ruined by this bad coffee.
Appearances can really deceive you.
Whenever I try to pick a place to visit I try to pick the ones that look more interesting and nicer (in my point of view of course) to be able to share some cool images with you.
I guess the lesson we can take from this, something I knew already but maybe I needed a reminder, is that not everything that looks good, is good.
In conclusion, I am sure I will never be visiting this place again because I really didn't like the coffee and that have ruined my whole experience that I thought it would be an amazing one from the beginning.
Disappointment, is the word that I can use to describe this place.
I don't like to be negative when it comes to this reviews but if I don't tell you the truth, there is no point on me going around and sharing all this places with you. I would be of no help if I was just lying and saying I love every single place I visit.
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