Moka

This is a nice enough place but I found it disappointing. It clearly has its fans from the other reviews here, but perhaps it succeeds due to lack of competition in the centre of the city. Yes, there’s Costa and Starbucks but they’re pretty much of a muchness with Moka quality and service wise.
What Preston lacks is a first class independent third wave coffee shop/​diner, where quality of product and service is genuinely high. Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Leeds, York, Bath, Birmingham, London, and the rest have several. Preston seems to have zero and so there’s no incentive for shops like Moka to be exceptional. This is a shop that’s cruising in my view.
I specifically detoured to check out Moka. It is part wannabe brand and part up market tea shop in style. I ordered a flat white which was pretty horrible: wrong size, way too hot, bitter as a result, with no depth of flavour at all. I struggled to finish it. This is a training issue, a machine cleanliness issue and a bean quality issue.
The ‘barista’ banged out the old coffee puck, didn’t clean the portafilter, ground new coffee into it (what looked like a single rather than flat white double shot), left the portafilter on the side while he did something else, letting it cool, then returned. The watery shot told me the machine/​grinder wasn’t calibrated properly and nor was the barista. There is no reason to churn out this standard other than laziness and lack of training. I can get this kind of coffee anywhere. Yuk!
I next ordered a strawberry cheesecake. I watched it being sliced. OK, so don’t wipe your hands down your trousers first to dry them. Don’t then handle the slice with your fingers leaving a print. And when you slice don’t leave a 1 cm nub in one corner. Cut it neatly. So a potentially cross contaminated slice, ill cut with a finger mark, is £3.95. The mango squeezable out of a bottle stuff I dunno what that was about … with strawberry?
Service was Ok. Polite enough. It was all a bit haphazard tho and seemed over staffed when all that’s happening is cake, tea, coffee out front. There did seem to be a kitchen out back and I saw a few things come out looking par for the course. Nothing too exciting. I couldn’t check the menu for more info as it was snatched from the table as soon as I said I didn’t want food. Why do that? Someone will only go back and replace it when I leave!
So, this is an average place for people who want average at a tad above average prices in a convenient location near the station. Preston will do better at some stage hopefully.

Great food. Just visited Preston and came here to see how’s the food, it’s good. Great coffee and amazing fish and chips.

Great choice of food, both at breakfast and during the day. The night menu is also well worth trying and the staff have always been friendly.
Well worth a try for breakfast, lunch and at night!

Not impressed at all anymore. Nothing like it used to be.

Café by day and restaurant by night, both done so incredibly well.
The food is amazing, and as side effect the patience of the waiting staff while you throw the decision’s back and forth in your head is much appreciated.
There is a reason this place has become a staple of Preston, and is starting to branch itself out. (Fishergate centre daytime branch and Voi Café both run by same owner)
Its a brilliant place and you just cant praise it enough!

Food good, coffee good, curly fries great! Theres nowhere like it in preston, real classy, with classy prices though! Feel like you’ve been somewhere when u come out. Strangely, sister café, also called Moka, in Debenham center just across the road, doesnt sell curly fries

Not quite your average greasy spoon by any stretch of the imagination. Set over two floors with a varied menu this is a very nice place to grab a bite to eat or a quick brew whilst shopping in Preston City Centre.
The menu is pricy in preston terms so dont come here if on a budget.