Plato in Cape Town is bad. I gave them a second chance and they were even worse!

My first experience at the Irene branch was great; the staff were friendly and the coffee was good. Very good actually ... My second (in Sea Point) was disappointing; while I was waiting in line I downloaded the app and was ready to join the loyalty scheme. When I ordered, I mentioned that I was joining the loyalty scheme and asked for help. The guy wrote my name on my cup, I paid by card and said 'don't forget about the loyalty programme' but the guy said I was too late as I'd already paid. The coffee wasn't great ... the Plato (triple shot) was weaker than my usual flat white ... and my name wasn't on the cup ... hmmm 🤔 Two weeks later I was passing the De Waterkant branch and decided to give them a second chance. While I was waiting to order the guy behind the counter was treating a young American tourist badly; she was trying to pay with a foreign card but it wouldn't go through. He was talking to the barista in vernacular, rolling his eyes and she was getting more and more flustered ...until a different card worked. My turn; I mentioned my experience at the Sea Point branch and again asked for help with the loyalty process. The guy said I must link my card to the app when I pay. I paid and asked what to do next. The guy said 'oh sorry you're too late'. I said 'ok then cancel the coffee and reverse my payment, this just isn't working'. The guy said he couldn't do that (anyone with a POS device can do that surely?) and he would take my number and ask someone to call me. That was over a month ago and ... crickets.

What's sad is that I had a great cup of coffee at Plato in Irene with my son. When I saw Plato in Cape Town, I was excited; I'm Capetonian and was expecting that, if anything, it would be better here. I was wrong. The coffee was not as good and the service was abysmal. And in a market saturated with great coffee shops, you just can't afford to be serving substandard coffee with such palpable contempt for your customers.