Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters | Powai — Restaurant in Mumbai

A review based on four visits. So, no knee jerk reactions here. Poor design on all fronts. The doors stick, so one wonders if they want to keep customers out or force them to stay in. This fairly new space, just a couple of months old, already looks battered. Materials are sub par. Carpentry is shoddy. The cash counter is so tall customers are unable to see the staff and vice versa. This is from someone who is 5'9". So if you are shorter, you won't see a thing. The long counter behind which staff work is also piled high with products, so if you have a question you have to hope someone on the other side is able to hear and will respond. Most of the time staff do not notice the presence of a customer. You and they have to stand next to the free standing display racks where the bread is to have a conversation. When ordering they don't always pay attention. They will ask if you want something other than what you have ordered. This suggests they are either poorly trained to listen or trained to foist unwanted items on customers. Either way, it's a turn off. Hygiene needs a proper rehaul. The floor looked unswept. On all four occasions I saw staff carry torn, bulging, and half-open trash bags through the shop space, past the tables and seated customers, right through the front door. This ought to be a hygiene violation. Trash should be taken out the back, and lacking a back/service entrance, in sealed containers of some sort. The coffee was just okay. They sent the wrong order on one occasion. On another I had to send back a cappuccino because the froth was non-existent. A surly barista, the one making the coffee, gave me an awful look, as if I had stabbed her in the eye. If I am paying Rs 250+ for a coffee, I expect a lot more than rubbish ambience, annoyed/unresponsive/pushy staff, and compromised hygiene. Also, it would be nice if the manager/person in charge was open to feedback. I tried speaking to someone clearly in charge who was assessing something outside the store. But instead he smiled at me patronisingly. Will I go again? Only if I...

[UPDATE] : As per my earlier review below, the Powai outlet has been highly inconsistent. One moment they make great coffee and another moment the staff will argue and refuse to provide customisation. I wanted to get an ice pour over in seetharagundu estate. This was my second pour over after ordering an unnaki estate. Arjun categorically refused and said that they serve only river sale estate pour over. When I asked how did get the earlier pour over from a different estate he did not listen. He said I can only have a riverdale estate. On my request to check what else is available When the cashier checked they found seetharagundu beans. Arjun kept arguing even then and said “I did not find it”. So he had just denied me an option without checking. This kind of inconsistent behaviour creates dent in any good experience. And so I am back to my orgininal experience that blue tokai has great beans to offer but not the customer experience that will match how those beans are enjoyed in the store

This review is for Danish who made the best pour over today. He brewed a riverdale estate light roast , and unnaki estate medium and both of them were done incredibly well. I have always wished that blue tokai ‘s brewing skills need to match the amazing beans and roasting (as well as packaging). I have found the brewing quality subpar and sometimes quite bad for a speciality coffee. However Danish changed my experience and made my day with two wonderful brews ! Smooth, sweet, with all the notes of each estate...

The team needs to work on their USER EXPERIENCE! As you enter, the staff will ask you to take a seat and how do you know that the customer will have to go and place the order ? Specially when your table has a QR code to scan ? The food quality is just okey!! And the butter croissant has become very bad !( this means I used to have the same from them but certainly not from Powai and I suggest the team to try having Suchali’s croissants) Mocha was BAD, they chocolate stayed as granules till the last drop. The staffs had to improvise it as it had no chocolate taste earlier and it was super bitter. The ambience is okeyishly warm but certainly the seats are stained. Not spacious but understandable it’s Mumbai. Staffs need to be trained that the feedbacks have to be taken positively because the customers are not the enemies and they step in because either they must be familiar with the brand / heard about it/ could be an influencer / could be a professional from the same industry etc! They are not rude but don’t take the feedbacks personally!!

PS: I took time to write this because I used to be a fan of #bluetokai but...