Starbucks Coffee Company, Bicester

Well, Bicester Village has never really been about originality, has it? At least you know what you’re getting with Starbucks. It’s just like every other Starbucks around, but is a welcome break if you’ve been wandering round the shops for hours. They have outside seating in summer, and Bicester, for all its lack of originality, is at least clean and not unattractive. I’m not a big coffee fan, but I am quite partial to Starbucks special hot chocolates, and they do some wonderful muffins, even if they do cost more than the designer outfit you just bought. Consider all the money you’ve just saved by shopping in retail outlet stores and, as johndglynn says, enjoy the show!

It’s always got a huge queue but when you need a coffee to walk with, I prefer Starbucks. Not the best in the world but perfect to relax with as you shop. It is also the first chain coffee you get to from the new parking complex which is just huge.

There is seating on an upper floor as well as the main floor and in the summer, outside.

Right in the heart of Bicester Village, this is a very busy shop, but charming nonetheless. Whoever thought Starbucks could be charming?! The counter is tiny compared to the other coffee shop on the complex, but then the counter and the coffee are both a little better suited to my tastes.

The sweet stuff is nothing to write home about; you’d be better off going to Carluccio’s if you fancy tea and cake. But, if the weather is good, then it’s worth foregoing cake to sit outside and watch the seriously OTT fashion victims pass anyway. Where better to do that than outside Starbucks, with a decent vanilla latte and a copy of The Times to leaf through in the sunshine. Just do it!