Santos Coffee & Bar Uptown

The manager at this location is trash. Waited over 45 minutes for two drip coffees, and waited over an hour for a BEC! Not blaming the baristas because only two were staffed. They were clearly overwhelmed by the number of hotel guests seeking coffee from the only coffee shop within walking distance of the Westin. I’ve had extremely disappointing experiences here because of wait times on multiple occasions now. And their lattes did not taste great either.

don’t get the matcha

Day two in Birmingham, and it took 24hours for the other shoe to drop. Santos is a local coffee establishment with 7 locations. The address we visited was adjacent to the Westin, near the UAB stadium.

While the atmosphere was inviting, the service was certainly less so. Yes, I was asked “what size would you like your cappuccino?” If you’ve read my reviews you will know this is a serious faux pas, but I digress.

The 8 ounce cappuccino lacked any effort or even the pretense of effort. Essentially one shot of espresso, with a lot of foamed milk a top.

The service was messy, the presentation was equal, and I honestly believe they care.

Unfortunately I also dropped $9 on a breakfast sandwich. No need to review that, simply reference the prior comments.

Should you find yourself in Birmingham, you would be wise to skip Santos. Head over to Prevail Union, which I also reviewed, and you will be much better off.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 2

Service: 2

Cool place; I was preparing for a hearing at the courthouse. Nice atmosphere for that purpose.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Understaffed with long waits at times. Healthy choice bowl was not available, probably because they didn’t have time to make it.

Very slow and not very good at all.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

Staff is nice location is nice but low quality burnt coffee to cover up the low quality beans- if you’re fine w kerig or foldgers in the morning and don’t know how to tell a good cup of coffee from a poor one it works.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 1

Service: 5

Food and coffee were good.
Service was so so

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 2

For sure, this place went down the hill. The quality of food got worse. The food quality and food preparation got worse, and on top of that customer service got worse. Overpriced items for no reason will be the reason that customers will go to the well-known coffee shops where food quality is consistent and customer service is way better.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 1

Service: 2

Quality baristas serving quality coffee! Conveniently located in the Westin Hotel! Would recommend stopping in.

Atmosphere: 5

Service: 5

This place has great, reasonably priced food, but I had a serious problem with the service here.

The staff here brought the food out to everyone in the coffee shop, **except for us**. I'm not sure what or why this was the case, if it was because we were obviously from out of town or out of state; I had left a ten dollar tip on our order, and spent thirty minutes watching as they brought everyone else their order and had us just pick our order up at the counter. I would've appreciated some consistency.

I don't really ever expect to be served at a coffee shop like at a sit-down restaurant, and I usually tip despite knowing that. And for my sins I got to sit there for thirty minutes while my siblings raged out at me for tipping. And I can't even argue back because this time they were right. Lesson learned I guess.

So personally, while it's certainly got great food and great coffee, after this experience I would never recommend this place to anyone. I'd rather spend 8 hours in an ER waiting room or the DMV than ever come back to be frank.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 4

Service: 1

Coffee shop that has an opening to the outside and the hotel. Decent bacon egg and cheese bagel and good coffee. Friendly and helpful staff.

Dietary restrictions: Lots of alternative milks

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

Good Coffee.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I purchased the 20 Oz Americano with vanilla, Simple Syrup, and heavy whipping cream. It was pretty good. I didn't eat anything, but I noticed someone eating a sandwich, and it looked delicious.

I gave the Atmosphere a 3 star... the chairs are hard with this really long bench, and I would remove that and do the cushioned chairs that they have in place of that.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 4

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Drip Coffee

Drinks are v sweet. Food is meh. Mid.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 2