I always found Joe and the Juice absolutely unbearable because they always seem to play annoying music far too loud. Not at all comparable to Costa Coffee or other places where you can drink a relaxed cup of coffee, let alone work.

J&J have started moving into the Netherlands lately too... they have opened four or five stores just in Amsterdam (annoyingly kicking out some really great local places in the process). The coffee scene there is crazy compared to the UK... way more independents. I could see Costa popping up here soon as Coke take on Starbucks at a global level.

Agree about the overloud music, but I find J&TJ's coffee absolutely the best you can get on the high street.

Fantastic stuff, but totally agree with your point about the music. I would love to be able to post up there and work, but I unfortunately need almost complete silence to focus.

Noise-cancelling headphones? The volume seems to vary by city, it was low/background in a city location with plentiful floor space when they were at 20% capacity, super loud in another city where the location had much less square footage and were at 90% capacity. Could be a crowd control mechanism.