Wifi Cafes in Inverness

Having only been in Inverness for under two months and often enjoying a spot of web design or SEO outside of the office I decided a little tour of local coffee shops offering wifi access was in order.

It must be pointed out that the purpose of this was to look for wifi cafes in Inverness for the purposes of working there for a few hours, therefore my scoring must be viewed with that purpose in mind. If you want a social coffee or a quick coffee, don't judge these local businesses on my scores. Thank you.

Independent Coffee!

We are a big fan of local businesses and so to decided to ensure that the cafes we visited were independent/non-chain.

Keeping it consistent

To ensure that all cafes were tested fairly, I kept the following conditions the same:

I bought at least one large latte
I tested the connection three times for upload and download using Speedtest.net and the percentage score was adjusted throughout the test based on the best speed.
Each factor was marked out of 5
They were all visited on traditional 'office days'.

And the results are: (drumroll)

	82.0%		Riverdale Cafe Service: When you walk into this lovely little cafe you are greeted with a smile and you can order your drink at the counter and still be served at your table. Coffee: lovely organic latte at £2.20 (my follow-up Americano was £1.85), so £4.05 for the trip! Comfort: the lighting is easy on the eyes, which is great for working on the laptop and the windows let in natural light too (except on these early winter nights!). I sat at the window, which has hard, bar-stool style seats. But if you're trying to work, a hard seat is not necessarily a bad thing. Wifi: the login details were provided and access was quick and easy. Average download speed was 11.4Mbps and average upload speed was around 1Mbps, ideal for my purposes. The Scores! Service: 5.0/5.0 Wifi: 4.5/5.0 Coffee Quality: 4.0/5.0 Price: 4.5/5.0 Workability: 4.0/5.0 Power Socket: 1.0/1.0 Comfort: 2.5/5.0 Photo c/o Local Data Search
	77.5%		Dunbar Cafe Service: Staff were very friendly and chatted with me for a bit, but also let me get on when I buried my head in the laptop! I was served twice at the table. Coffee: good quality latte at £2.30. I had two (I'm a sucker for coffee!) so £4.60 for the trip Comfort: the seats here are lovely, you can pick a sofa if you like. I needed a table (sadly)! The lighting was pretty atmospheric, so if you wanted to read while using the computer you may have needed a bit more light. Wifi: No logon was needed, which is always a bonus. Average download speed was 7.0Mbps and average upload speed was 0.84. A little slow for my liking, but didn't cause me any problems while working. The Scores! Service: 5.0/5.0 Wifi: 3.0/5.0 Coffee Quality: 4.0/5.0 Price: 4.0/5.0 Workability: 4.0/5.0 Power Socket: 0.0/1.0 Comfort: 4.0/5.0 Photo c/o Gertie_DU
	72.5%		CQ's Cafe (Eastgate Shopping Centre) Service: I was served by a friendly lady who offered me the discounted standard-sized coffee offer, but to keep things consistent I had a large latte. Coffee: A good latte for £2.55 - which although fairly average for a coffee these days was still higher than the others I had visited. Comfort: If I had wanted to sit in the main body of the shopping centre I could have chosen some plush looking sofas, but the chairs inside were fine. Wifi: Their wifi is powered by 'Walk-In Wifi', which you have to register for. If you haven't used this before it may take you 5 minutes to log in. My experience after that was simple. After feedback from CQ's themselves, I revisited the café to re-test the Wifi connection again (with another large latte!). Average download speed was 8.21MB and average download speed was 0.71MB. The Scores! Service: 5.0/5.0 Wifi: 3.5/5.0 Coffee Quality: 3.5/5.0 Price: 2.5/5.0 Workability: 3.5/5.0 Power Socket: 1.0/1.0 Comfort: 3.5/5.0 February 2012: We revisited CQ's after being contacted by a representative who informed us that there has been a problem with their Internet Connection, which is now resolved. To keep things fair I just re-graded the Wifi connection (and the workability, which in my case is linked to the Internet connection)
	71.0%		Leakey's Cafe & Bookshop Service: Staff were pretty busy during my visit but were still friendly and served me at the table. Their cafe is situated above the bookshop, which makes for a pleasant atmosphere. The relaxed environment meant I was working, some were reading and one couple played chess! Coffee: This was delicious and served wonderfully hot, a great relief on this cold day. Just £2.00 per latte, so of course I had two! £4.00 for the trip! Comfort: The seats were a little on the hard side, as the cafe has a more traditional feel to it. It was also rather draughty - probably due to this article being writtin in winter and the open-plan layout of the building. No doubt this coolness is a relief in Summer! Wifi: This was really slow and is probably ideal for the news browser or Facebook user, but not a geek like myself who needs to transfer larger files both onto and from the Internet. Average download speed was 2.2Mbps and average upload speed was 0.06Mbps. No logon required, however. The Scores! Service: 5.0/5.0 Wifi: 1.0/5.0 Coffee Quality: 4.5/5.0 Price: 5.0/5.0 Workability: 3.0/5.0 Power Socket: 1.0/1.0 Comfort: 3.0/5.0 Photo c/o Inverness Information

Some Conclusions

Many cafes in Inverness don't offer Wifi. I spent a while wandering around to review more but couldn't find them. If you know of another non-major-chain cafe that offers it please get in touch and we can review it!
Independent cafes save you money. Being served a good coffee doesn't have to cost me the Earth. Often we miss this by going to the major chains. Give the independent cafes a go.
Service is great in Inverness! I had no complaints about the people who served me at any of the above establishments. Doing business and trying to meet client demands can be hard and knowing you can be treated as a human being with a smile goes a long way and all the above should feel pleased on that score!

The Awards

I had hoped to give an award to each of the ones I had tested. In the end I am pleased to give away:

Best Coffee: Leakey's Cafe - for a piping hot coffee that stayed hot for some time!
Best Internet: Riverdale Cafe - for a connection faster than our own!
Most Comfort: Dunbar Cafe - ace sofas and would make a great place to meet clients.
Dealing with Issues: CQ's Cafe - I did not feedback to the Café themselves, but they proactively got in touch to let me know the Wifi connection had been fixed. For that I am grateful - a good show of putting the customer first.