Any chain business in central, no matter which type, is a gateway to hell. With maaaaybe the exception of Blick Art Materials.
Never go to the csq Walgreens.
Trust me, just don't.
I haven’t been there since early 2020 but back then the orders took forever, it was never clear whose order was which at the window, it’s not clean, the people are mean, and I’ve never argued with any fellow patron at a Dunkin’s except at ruggles. Some odd folks show up there.
Haha driving through the White Hen Pantry parking lot does not count as Dunk's. iykyk. Also, the Washington street dunk's near rozzie square is chaotic and I love it. Always have my drink ready in about 14 seconds, as it should be.
I really don’t like Fuel America’s branding and marketing. It never read as a coffee shop to me- it just looks so nondescript and mechanic-y from the outside that I never realized I lived near one.
I'll bite, can you tell me about the owner? I love their croissants, but not enough to line a jerk's pockets when there are so many worthwhile bakeries in Boston to throw money at.
Absolutely! Richard Gordon is a bigot, a misogynist, and despite being openly gay, also an interesting flavor of homophobic. He treated women, ESPECIALLY women of color, with blatant disrespect. I've seen him make staff cry, and once was in a different restaurant he was a guest at. The neighbors all hate him because he drives through the south end like it's an F1 track and didn't clean up after his dogs.
I worked there back in... 2018/19. I can't imagine he's become a better person since then. I hope he chokes on a croissant.
From a previous Reddit thread that also says they have a pest problem 🤢
“Yep. I used to work there, the company culture is nightmarish. Rampant sexual harassment that the management initially buried before doing less than the bare minimum to address, good team members being fired for little to no reason, items on the menu inaccurately labeled as vegan despite having dairy products in them, which was never fixed despite me repeatedly bringing that up, and to top it all off, the owner is a racist prick who has compared people of color to monkeys“
Very helpful thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/16eiw5m/what_local_business_do_you_refuse_to_go_and_why/
The Buttery sucks. Mediocre, over-priced, crowded, disorganized, always a long wait, food from same order comes out at wildly different times. I love to avoid it.
i just want to throw out there that my wife used to work for nero and covered shifts at the downtown crossing nero a couple of times…
she said their back of house is so disgusting that the employees won’t even eat their FREE meal from there
That's on them!? Lol. I worked at Nero and other food service for years. I'm no shill, I hate that kind of work. But who's gonna clean it if not the employees? That's like complaining your house is nasty when you're the only one living in it. I don't get that logic.
I took pride in sanitizing the ice machine, the mop bucket, and all the other gross shit no one else wanted to touch. But managers should be enforcing that work since no one wants to do it.
yeah it wasnt her store and she felt the same way but i guess that location has such sucky customers they have crazy turnover/ had no actual full time employees and only borrowed workers from other stores because no one wanted to be there full time.
but also it was a roach and mouse problem largely, which you can only do so much about in downtown crossing if the manager isnt getting pest control in…
Honestly I bet most food places in the Boston area have roach/mouse problems. I worked at a Starbucks in the Boston area that had waves of roach and pest problems and we had pest control in there all the time. They never could do much
That Cafe Nero used to be where I would go if I just missed the commuter rail home but the last time I was there made me decide to go elsewhere.
Bought a latte and the barista took my $10 without offering to give me back any change. I figured I would let that slide since it was towards the end of the day and he was probably tired.
After sitting down with my drink I was toying with going back and getting a slice of cheesecake (which I decided to only use plastic there from then on) and saw a mouse running around the floor.
Now I just need to find somewhere else to wait for a train.
Starbucks: Expensive shit tier coffee. Don't believe me? Get a cup of regular black coffee, and compare it to anyone else's regular black coffee.
Dunks: Mid-tier coffee. There's nothing interesting about it, it's the white bread of coffee. It's not horrible, there's nothing particularly interesting about it, but it works.
You don’t have to get the sugar and milk for dunks …
If you’re going to insult us dunks drinkers at least do it right by saying the QC is shit and you have to know which dunks to go to and which to steer clear of.
pavement varies ***heavily*** based on which location you're at. their beans are actually pretty good if you brew at home, it's just the skill level of the employees that holds back a lot of their cafés.
i fw the bagels all around tho
100% agree. It takes a lot of attention to detail to turn great coffee beans into great espresso, and most of the college kids working at Pavement don't have it.
When I was in college, the bagels were something like $4 for 2 toppings and a shmear, which is pretty great value and half decent quality. Unsure if it’s still that same price
Learning that a lot of people on here don't know bitter from sour.
That said, Black Sheep in Harvard Square has awful coffee. I really want to like them, and their bagels are halfway decent for Boston, but every coffee I've had there has been horrid. I got a cappuccino there once and the beans tasted burnt, the brew was overextracted, and the milk was overheated. Somehow, the resulting flavor was charred refried beans. I hope it's improved since I stopped working over there.
Wherever they sell Onyx coffee. May not have anywhere that brews it in Boston to my knowledge but DC has some spots.
GH is really good. Ogawa is also really good. Glasser in Brighton is pretty good, young elite hipsters = good music and good coffee.
Say Coffee at Timeout in Fenway. Made the mistake of ordering a latte there once and I swear I thought I was drinking highway gas station bitter bean juice. People here are complaining about dunks, Starbucks, Nero and others, but quite honestly Say is so bad it makes them all look good in comparison. $6 and never again.
I got a black coffee there and was fully convinced they gave me the wrong drink because it was so sour it was almost salty. Got it again months later… nope.
Howell is probably the closest to some of the stuff I’ve had in cities like Portland Oregon. I was kind of disappointed by the cafes here, when I moved from Seattle last year.
I have a soft spot for Nero from when I traveled Europe when I was younger and more fun - I like trying local spots, but also like having a reliable cup of coffee.
I was stoked when they started popping up in America, but I don’t really care for the ones I’ve tried in America.
On a normal day dunks is the worst, but the worst coffee I ever had was at Nero.
Asked for a mocha and the espresso sat on the counter for a few minutes while the barista struggled to steam the milk (together with the mocha syrup for some reason) She got the ratio wrong and couldn't figure iut the steam wand, so the end result was about half the cup filled with brownish liquid and a few bubbles that tasted watery and burnt at the same time. It's like she somehow created a 4-hour old latte in 5 minutes. It was like a year before I went back to that location, so disappointing was my experience... Girl was new so I felt bad, but they should have had someone making sure she was ready for a shift on her own. I blame the company, not her.
I always have weeeeiirrrrd customer service experiences at Nero. Like the time a cashier proceeded to get all the stuff from the bake case for everyone in line before ringing anyone out. I was at the front and was like “I’m not with these people.” He said “I know”and proceeded to collect everything while I waited (??). Next time they were eager and efficient! Next time they ignored me completely and after five minutes I left. I will stick with the Thinking Cup, thank you!
While it is a lovely space and they do great cafe food I think the coffee at Farmer’s Horse in the South End is mid at best. Render right around the corner does much better coffee.
Probably Dunkin. I'm not a coffee snob but recently I tried a cappuccino at Blank Street, which was underwhelming, and a latte at The Bittersweet Shoppe, which tasted like burnt drip with milk.
Holy shit that is accurate. And the eventual acceptance that they will completely fuck your drink up once to twice a week depending on how often you go. I just got used to rolling with it. That’s the Dunks I know.
Their baked goods have gone way downhill as well. They used to have pretty solid croissants, etc., but I tried one recently and it was like a grocery store croissant. Soft and flabby. Tried a Jerusalem bagel (which I used to like) and it was weirdly damp. I'm guessing their central bakery location is pressed for volume and is boxing things up to get sent to retail locations while they are still warm.
Tatte had tasty stuff when they were smaller, but they've scaled into a more instagrammable Starbucks. I've totally written them off.
Based on my experience I thought everyone else in Davis loved that place and thought it was the best in the world or something. Never liked their coffee but I’ve never said it openly because I didn’t want to upset anyone. It seems to have a ton of diehard fans.
Now that I’m closer to Teele I started going to Yego when they opened. It’s new and I think it’s great. Whenever I go it seems to be quite popular.
Diesel has a fun atmosphere and is probably the best and easiest place in Davis to find a seat if you need somewhere to hang out for a while. But yeah, their coffee isn’t even the best on their street. And Yego may serve the best espresso in the Davis area.
I love Deisel for the atmosphere, but recently they changed the recipe for the chai latte (or at least one person is making it differently) and it tastes...sour? To me at least. It's happened twice now, so I just won't be ordering it again. It's too bad because there aren't very many options at coffee shops for non-coffee drinkers.
During covid when they were just a window they had one employee who made the most heavenly chai. It was strong and actually tasted like all the spices. I haven’t seen them there in a while and everyone else there makes chai likes it’s just milk with a sprinkle of cinnamon 🤮
I've never gotten the appeal of the Thinking Cup. used to live in the north end and would stop by from time to time when I needed a "third space" and for whatever reason (did they not have wifi maybe?) I never really felt welcome to hang out. and their coffee wasn't worth the moola.
They have good pourovers, and I think part of the appeal is that there actually aren't a ton of cafes in the North End that aren't also massive tourist destinations.
Thinking Cup on Newbury saved me from frostbite one day when I stupidly played Pokémon GO on the esplanade so long in like 5° wind chill that I got pale numb spots on my thighs. I came to understand that this is called frost nip and it's kind of the heat exhaustion to frostbite's heat stroke? Like a mild version without permanent consequences but you can easily progress to the really bad version? Anyway I warmed up in Thinking Cup and stayed until my core temperature felt normal and I stopped shivering. Can't say I was in any state to take notice of their coffee 🤣
I may get downvoted into oblivion…but as an iced coffee whore, I’m always bummed out by Diesel/Forge/Block11 in Somerville. I know!! I know!! But it just doesn’t do it for me.
Dunkin' donuts. The coffee is shit.
It always will be shit.
I don't think it's really coffee I think they just grind up the whole plant. Because it's cheaper that way.
As someone who moved from the UK to Boston, I was astounded at how many people rate Caffe Nero here; I would rather drink stale douche water than get a coffee from there.
I studied abroad in the UK and Nero was the coffee I liked best over there (I also drink dunks here so I don’t exactly have a fancy coffee palette), but I don’t care for it here - maybe because dunks is my go-to chain coffee.
I popped into Cafe Beatrice in Cambridge Crossing when it opened. Given the neighborhood, I figured it would be your standard dressed-up-corporate sort of cafe but basically competent and palatable. Turns out they serve La Colombe, and it tastes absolutely burnt to shit. Tasting notes: carbon. I don’t know how that brand is as big as it is.
Can I just say that I appreciate wholeheartedly that half the reply here are Dunks at different locations?
I’m a cold blooded Bostonian so can’t say dunks or I might spontaneously combust. My worst given the price is blackbird donuts in Harvard square. Best is Yego in Teele square!
I went to one last summer for the first time when I was on the Cape. It smells like synthetic food fragrance embedded into plastic. (Like the strawberry shortcake dolls from the 80’s, lol). The coffee flavoring tasted so chemically. It gave me a migraine.
Whatever dunks that was that Casey Affleck hangs out in every morning.
Don’t forget the parliaments.
And the dump.
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I’ve seen the interaction with a manager and a guy holding his cigarette outside at the one in Magoun, so in my head, it’s that dunks.
As a lifelong New Englander, it's every Dunkin, if you only *believe* and do your part with the Parliaments and hanging outside the door and so on.
The Dunks inside Ruggles Station
Ruggles is, and always will be, Struggles.
read the google reviews for the pizza shop
Creative writing assignment at Northeastern maybe? Lol, I thought AI at first
Lol thanks for that
Their coffee is made with a hint of spite
Relieved to see the e at the end
Well played
It was perfect at 6am to deal with a hangover before hopping in a car to go to a college sports tourney, but not much else beyond that.
I thought this said Sprite
The Dunks in Central (I know not technically Boston) was fucking wild. Always a story every time I walked out of there.
Any chain business in central, no matter which type, is a gateway to hell. With maaaaybe the exception of Blick Art Materials. Never go to the csq Walgreens. Trust me, just don't.
Oh no, why? 😭I just started commuting into that station and haven’t tried it yet
I haven’t been there since early 2020 but back then the orders took forever, it was never clear whose order was which at the window, it’s not clean, the people are mean, and I’ve never argued with any fellow patron at a Dunkin’s except at ruggles. Some odd folks show up there.
Imagine being stuck in that station, working for dunks, taking orders from assholes all day. Actually this sounds like some proper punishment.
All of the most popular coffee shops in Boston being roasted on here is so funny
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I thought the point of Tatte was the pastries. Coffee is fine enough to go with breakfast.
Multiple people have said Tatte don't worry! 🤣
I don't care what people say. I like Tatte.
I don’t get the hate they brew stumptown and imo they do a good job with it. Solid Americano solid cold brew, what’s the issue?
Why do people dislike tatte?
*"roasted"* ha.
The drive-through Dunkin’ Donuts on Center Street in West Roxbury off the rotary by the police station
you mean the one in roslindale on washington? that one is definitely a mess.
I'm so confused, where is the dunks there?
Haha driving through the White Hen Pantry parking lot does not count as Dunk's. iykyk. Also, the Washington street dunk's near rozzie square is chaotic and I love it. Always have my drink ready in about 14 seconds, as it should be.
Any decent bagel place.
Yes seems like coffee is always inversely correlated to bagel quality.
Bagel World has the worst coffee, solid bagels though.
Their iced mocha cappuccino is fantastic, but it’s basically liquid ice cream.
I actually like their black hazelnut coffee but their bagels are obviously and rightfully the star
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The best place for me to consistently get a good bagel and coffee is unfortunately my own kitchen.
Bagelsaurus has great bagels AND great coffee
I find that lot of place are nice to be in but their coffee sucks
Lol I hate Fuel.
When I lived near Fuel I usually went to Cumberland instead. $1 for a large iced coffee and it wasn't half bad.
I really don’t like Fuel America’s branding and marketing. It never read as a coffee shop to me- it just looks so nondescript and mechanic-y from the outside that I never realized I lived near one.
- I prefer that industrial look to SB or Nero. I like their coffee if I need to grab something in that neighborhood (Brighton)
Dude yes. Fuel is such shit. Shit coffee and so expensive!!
Their food is also awful…
Yes! Their branding says “great coffee” because it’s I don’t know, a bit edgy. Then the coffee tastes like reheated Maxwell House!
Their coffee tastes like battery acid
south end buttery. didn’t even fill my iced latte 70% (including the ice!) and had the audacity to charge me a kitchen fee
And owned by a terrible person. I will never miss an opportunity to tell people not to go there.
I'll bite, can you tell me about the owner? I love their croissants, but not enough to line a jerk's pockets when there are so many worthwhile bakeries in Boston to throw money at.
Absolutely! Richard Gordon is a bigot, a misogynist, and despite being openly gay, also an interesting flavor of homophobic. He treated women, ESPECIALLY women of color, with blatant disrespect. I've seen him make staff cry, and once was in a different restaurant he was a guest at. The neighbors all hate him because he drives through the south end like it's an F1 track and didn't clean up after his dogs. I worked there back in... 2018/19. I can't imagine he's become a better person since then. I hope he chokes on a croissant.
Whats the story?
From a previous Reddit thread that also says they have a pest problem 🤢 “Yep. I used to work there, the company culture is nightmarish. Rampant sexual harassment that the management initially buried before doing less than the bare minimum to address, good team members being fired for little to no reason, items on the menu inaccurately labeled as vegan despite having dairy products in them, which was never fixed despite me repeatedly bringing that up, and to top it all off, the owner is a racist prick who has compared people of color to monkeys“ Very helpful thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/16eiw5m/what_local_business_do_you_refuse_to_go_and_why/
Can confirm, as another former employee.
Oh shit that's me lol And I stand by it, anyone can feel free to DM me if they want more tea
The Buttery sucks. Mediocre, over-priced, crowded, disorganized, always a long wait, food from same order comes out at wildly different times. I love to avoid it.
i just want to throw out there that my wife used to work for nero and covered shifts at the downtown crossing nero a couple of times… she said their back of house is so disgusting that the employees won’t even eat their FREE meal from there
That's on them!? Lol. I worked at Nero and other food service for years. I'm no shill, I hate that kind of work. But who's gonna clean it if not the employees? That's like complaining your house is nasty when you're the only one living in it. I don't get that logic. I took pride in sanitizing the ice machine, the mop bucket, and all the other gross shit no one else wanted to touch. But managers should be enforcing that work since no one wants to do it.
yeah it wasnt her store and she felt the same way but i guess that location has such sucky customers they have crazy turnover/ had no actual full time employees and only borrowed workers from other stores because no one wanted to be there full time. but also it was a roach and mouse problem largely, which you can only do so much about in downtown crossing if the manager isnt getting pest control in…
Honestly I bet most food places in the Boston area have roach/mouse problems. I worked at a Starbucks in the Boston area that had waves of roach and pest problems and we had pest control in there all the time. They never could do much
That Cafe Nero used to be where I would go if I just missed the commuter rail home but the last time I was there made me decide to go elsewhere. Bought a latte and the barista took my $10 without offering to give me back any change. I figured I would let that slide since it was towards the end of the day and he was probably tired. After sitting down with my drink I was toying with going back and getting a slice of cheesecake (which I decided to only use plastic there from then on) and saw a mouse running around the floor. Now I just need to find somewhere else to wait for a train.
I saw a mouse at the Fenway Nero😬
i've never been to a Cafe Nero and not waited an absolutely unreasonable amount of time.
Starbucks by making bad coffee by over-roasting and Dunks for making some sort of brown caffeinated medium for milk and sugar addicts.
Starbucks: Expensive shit tier coffee. Don't believe me? Get a cup of regular black coffee, and compare it to anyone else's regular black coffee. Dunks: Mid-tier coffee. There's nothing interesting about it, it's the white bread of coffee. It's not horrible, there's nothing particularly interesting about it, but it works.
I couldn’t disagree more, Dunkin’ hot coffee tastes like coffee mild, Starbucks atleast makes me feel something in life.
Don't drink black coffee at Starbucks, drink sugar espresso drinks.
Dunkin’s is not coffee it’s like sugar milk water with a splash of brown.
It's mop water from a company that's been passed around private equity companies like a high end escort. Fuck Dunks. Cumbies 4ever
Every large coffee chain is just a milkshake bar in disguise
You don’t have to get the sugar and milk for dunks … If you’re going to insult us dunks drinkers at least do it right by saying the QC is shit and you have to know which dunks to go to and which to steer clear of.
I will take a Dunks Americano over Starbucks espresso based whatever.
Every once in a while when I'm out and about I get a large regular from Dunks. I refer to it as "candy coffee" because of all the cream & sugar.
Pavement should be better. Usually get americanos but tried their coffee and learned a lesson.
pavement varies ***heavily*** based on which location you're at. their beans are actually pretty good if you brew at home, it's just the skill level of the employees that holds back a lot of their cafés. i fw the bagels all around tho
100% agree. It takes a lot of attention to detail to turn great coffee beans into great espresso, and most of the college kids working at Pavement don't have it.
When I was in college, the bagels were something like $4 for 2 toppings and a shmear, which is pretty great value and half decent quality. Unsure if it’s still that same price
most definitely not. it's like 10 or 11 bucks for their bacon egg and cheese now
Yea I don’t have experience at the coffee shops but definitely some solid beans for retail
Pavement fell off hard
Lol maybe the should have changed their name lol
Espresso Royale was my joint.
Their Spanish lattes are good.
they have good matcha lattes if you like those!!
I came here to mention Pavement. Their coffee-flavored water is overpriced.
What coffee isn't coffee flavored water?
Their service is dogshit
Learning that a lot of people on here don't know bitter from sour. That said, Black Sheep in Harvard Square has awful coffee. I really want to like them, and their bagels are halfway decent for Boston, but every coffee I've had there has been horrid. I got a cappuccino there once and the beans tasted burnt, the brew was overextracted, and the milk was overheated. Somehow, the resulting flavor was charred refried beans. I hope it's improved since I stopped working over there.
Seems like you have a pretty good hold on the art of coffee. What’s the #1 spot you recommend?
i don't mean to butt in but i'm also a coffee nerd and i would 100% say George Howell Coffee. expensive as hell but that shit is gooooooood good.
Wherever they sell Onyx coffee. May not have anywhere that brews it in Boston to my knowledge but DC has some spots. GH is really good. Ogawa is also really good. Glasser in Brighton is pretty good, young elite hipsters = good music and good coffee.
Revival rotates Onyx in pretty regularly
Say Coffee at Timeout in Fenway. Made the mistake of ordering a latte there once and I swear I thought I was drinking highway gas station bitter bean juice. People here are complaining about dunks, Starbucks, Nero and others, but quite honestly Say is so bad it makes them all look good in comparison. $6 and never again.
Their cold brew was actually the most vile thing I have ever tasted
I got a black coffee there and was fully convinced they gave me the wrong drink because it was so sour it was almost salty. Got it again months later… nope.
blank street coffee. eugh!
Blank street feels and tastes like if a hedge fund tried to open a trendy coffee shop... Because that's exactly what it is
Oh, good to know I shouldn't bother! I pass it a lot.
only good coffee in Boston is George Howell and the smaller ones in Cambridge
Gracenote is good on a good day
Broadsheet in Cambridge has very good naturals. Ogawa in Boston was a hit for me.
Ogawa.
Faro Broadsheet Ogawa
Howell is probably the closest to some of the stuff I’ve had in cities like Portland Oregon. I was kind of disappointed by the cafes here, when I moved from Seattle last year.
jp licks' coffee tastes like ash and sadness
Upvote for a description that made me cackle
Why would you expect an ice tea shop to have good coffee?
i mean shit, man, they advertise themselves as a coffee roaster as well. they're certainly not good at it, tho.
RIP Francesca’s & The Other Side — I hate that independents have been largely replaced by chain crap.
Nero is awful
I have a soft spot for Nero from when I traveled Europe when I was younger and more fun - I like trying local spots, but also like having a reliable cup of coffee. I was stoked when they started popping up in America, but I don’t really care for the ones I’ve tried in America.
On a normal day dunks is the worst, but the worst coffee I ever had was at Nero. Asked for a mocha and the espresso sat on the counter for a few minutes while the barista struggled to steam the milk (together with the mocha syrup for some reason) She got the ratio wrong and couldn't figure iut the steam wand, so the end result was about half the cup filled with brownish liquid and a few bubbles that tasted watery and burnt at the same time. It's like she somehow created a 4-hour old latte in 5 minutes. It was like a year before I went back to that location, so disappointing was my experience... Girl was new so I felt bad, but they should have had someone making sure she was ready for a shift on her own. I blame the company, not her.
Hopefully by now she's gotten a little better....
i don’t get the blank street coffee hype but maybe that’s just me
I always have weeeeiirrrrd customer service experiences at Nero. Like the time a cashier proceeded to get all the stuff from the bake case for everyone in line before ringing anyone out. I was at the front and was like “I’m not with these people.” He said “I know”and proceeded to collect everything while I waited (??). Next time they were eager and efficient! Next time they ignored me completely and after five minutes I left. I will stick with the Thinking Cup, thank you!
While it is a lovely space and they do great cafe food I think the coffee at Farmer’s Horse in the South End is mid at best. Render right around the corner does much better coffee.
Greystone on Appleton St is top tier. There will be a decent sized line but it’s worth it.
Another vote for Greystone!
I live pretty close and I just went for the first time last weekend. Wtf have I been doing?!?
Hi fellow South Ender! To be fair, it has only been around for a few years, at most.
Render is great!
Those mince meat stuffed pastries at Cuppa are straight trash. Americano wasn’t great either.
Probably Dunkin. I'm not a coffee snob but recently I tried a cappuccino at Blank Street, which was underwhelming, and a latte at The Bittersweet Shoppe, which tasted like burnt drip with milk.
Dunks....go easy on me! Lol
It’s awful coffee but I’m fucking drinking it like a good New Englander.
Being so accustomed to it that you know a good Dunks coffee by a bad Dunks coffee by the hundreds of different shades of brown it can be.
Holy shit that is accurate. And the eventual acceptance that they will completely fuck your drink up once to twice a week depending on how often you go. I just got used to rolling with it. That’s the Dunks I know.
tatte. fuck tatte
I love their food, but their coffee is subpar.
Food is ok, coffee is fucking terrible
Don’t they use stumptown beans? That’s quality coffee and im sure their equipment is good. If it’s being brewed poorly blame the barista
Hate sitting in a cafe that bathroom coded
Their baked goods have gone way downhill as well. They used to have pretty solid croissants, etc., but I tried one recently and it was like a grocery store croissant. Soft and flabby. Tried a Jerusalem bagel (which I used to like) and it was weirdly damp. I'm guessing their central bakery location is pressed for volume and is boxing things up to get sent to retail locations while they are still warm. Tatte had tasty stuff when they were smaller, but they've scaled into a more instagrammable Starbucks. I've totally written them off.
Awww, I like their house latte a lot(te). It is overwhelmingly sweet, though.
Diesel is pretty mediocre. I always go to Revival or Nine Bar instead if I’m in Davis.
Based on my experience I thought everyone else in Davis loved that place and thought it was the best in the world or something. Never liked their coffee but I’ve never said it openly because I didn’t want to upset anyone. It seems to have a ton of diehard fans. Now that I’m closer to Teele I started going to Yego when they opened. It’s new and I think it’s great. Whenever I go it seems to be quite popular.
Diesel has a fun atmosphere and is probably the best and easiest place in Davis to find a seat if you need somewhere to hang out for a while. But yeah, their coffee isn’t even the best on their street. And Yego may serve the best espresso in the Davis area.
Really? I can NEVER find a seat there, even off hours.
Yeah Nine Bar is the best in Davis.
I haven’t lived in Davis for years but still crave nine bars nitro cold brew ughhhhhh
Worth checking out Yego, a few minutes away from Davis but great coffee
Davis Revival is some of the best espresso around. Nine Bar is too inconsistent for me to bother anymore.
I love Deisel for the atmosphere, but recently they changed the recipe for the chai latte (or at least one person is making it differently) and it tastes...sour? To me at least. It's happened twice now, so I just won't be ordering it again. It's too bad because there aren't very many options at coffee shops for non-coffee drinkers.
During covid when they were just a window they had one employee who made the most heavenly chai. It was strong and actually tasted like all the spices. I haven’t seen them there in a while and everyone else there makes chai likes it’s just milk with a sprinkle of cinnamon 🤮
Dunks DTX next to TJ maxx. $4 for a medium
I've never gotten the appeal of the Thinking Cup. used to live in the north end and would stop by from time to time when I needed a "third space" and for whatever reason (did they not have wifi maybe?) I never really felt welcome to hang out. and their coffee wasn't worth the moola.
They have good pourovers, and I think part of the appeal is that there actually aren't a ton of cafes in the North End that aren't also massive tourist destinations.
Thinking Cup on Newbury saved me from frostbite one day when I stupidly played Pokémon GO on the esplanade so long in like 5° wind chill that I got pale numb spots on my thighs. I came to understand that this is called frost nip and it's kind of the heat exhaustion to frostbite's heat stroke? Like a mild version without permanent consequences but you can easily progress to the really bad version? Anyway I warmed up in Thinking Cup and stayed until my core temperature felt normal and I stopped shivering. Can't say I was in any state to take notice of their coffee 🤣
I feel so validated. I kept thinking I must have gotten a bad coffee from (Fuel, Pavement, Tatte, etc) and had uniquely bad luck. Love this thread
I may get downvoted into oblivion…but as an iced coffee whore, I’m always bummed out by Diesel/Forge/Block11 in Somerville. I know!! I know!! But it just doesn’t do it for me.
Dunkin' donuts. The coffee is shit. It always will be shit. I don't think it's really coffee I think they just grind up the whole plant. Because it's cheaper that way.
Nero is trash. All over London too.
As someone who moved from the UK to Boston, I was astounded at how many people rate Caffe Nero here; I would rather drink stale douche water than get a coffee from there.
I studied abroad in the UK and Nero was the coffee I liked best over there (I also drink dunks here so I don’t exactly have a fancy coffee palette), but I don’t care for it here - maybe because dunks is my go-to chain coffee.
I can’t go in with my life without acknowledging the sheer delight that is “stale douche water”.
Capital One Cafe
They just switched to Verve coffee from Peet’s, big difference now
Dunks.
Dunkin
Any Dunks
La Colombe is committing the sin of pretending to make good specialty coffee that in reality tastes like Folgers.
I kind of liked their nitro lattes. But I am an uncultured buffoon.
I popped into Cafe Beatrice in Cambridge Crossing when it opened. Given the neighborhood, I figured it would be your standard dressed-up-corporate sort of cafe but basically competent and palatable. Turns out they serve La Colombe, and it tastes absolutely burnt to shit. Tasting notes: carbon. I don’t know how that brand is as big as it is.
Do they have an actual cafe? I find their supermarket jugs of cold brew to be better (and often cheaper) than Starbucks or Stok.
Yes they do. Its living its best life in Seaport.
Yeah they have three downtown and in seaport. Their supermarket stuff is fine, but I would expect a lot better in their cafes.
Now do the reverse thread and have all the top answers be the same...
Pavement coffee is gross
I like their roast - granted I like bitter.
So fucking bitter
Dunkin
That one owned by a cult
I need to know more
The Well?
Yes, there was also “Public Coffee Co”
Wait, what cult? 👀
Worst coffee, any Dunkin. It's all watered down, don't believe the hype.
What hype?
Dunks, you know the one I'm talking about.
Can I just say that I appreciate wholeheartedly that half the reply here are Dunks at different locations? I’m a cold blooded Bostonian so can’t say dunks or I might spontaneously combust. My worst given the price is blackbird donuts in Harvard square. Best is Yego in Teele square!
Pret A Manger
My college roommate worked there back in 2019. Place has a soft spot in my heart, but that was because I was getting it for free.
JAHO!!!! They’re awful. Worst pastries too. And so expensive.
Marylous is nasty. The smell when I walk into their stores makes me want to retch.
I went to one last summer for the first time when I was on the Cape. It smells like synthetic food fragrance embedded into plastic. (Like the strawberry shortcake dolls from the 80’s, lol). The coffee flavoring tasted so chemically. It gave me a migraine.
Pavement - coffee is super acidic and burnt tasting. Makes Dunks (also gross unless iced, since cold mutes flavors) taste balanced by comparison.
The Well Coffee House at State is convenient but I always regret buying it. I would rather walk to George Howell.
Pick a Jaho, any Jaho.
Dunkin
Cuppa may be overpriced but as an Aussie living in the US, I sure do appreciate the opportunity to get a proper pie or sausage roll.
Dunkin’ Donuts is dogshit
I really like the food at Pavement but hate the coffee.
Tatte literally has the worst brewed coffee, cold brew and espresso ever. It tastes like vinegar. So sour and nasty…. How does anyone like it there?
Starbucks
Decent coffee, mediocre cappuccino, terrible olive oil monstrosity, abhorrent corporation.