SURGE Coffee Clontarf — Restaurant in Dublin

I was debating reviewing Surge for so long but after going to a really amazing café with great coffee, I wanted to finally do it.

I moved into the area nearly 2 years ago, and found this lovely café the day I moved in. It became my go-to place for meet ups with friends or breakfast for when having guests over etc.

I'm a trained Barista, and I'm sad to say I reccomended this place to the person who trained me, because the coffee went from great to not even having a properly, or even partially trained, in my opinion, barista whom I had 3 times in a row, making me not return.

Firsty, I paid over €4 for a Mocha and it was served in a flat white cup. Flat whites are served in much smaller cups, Mochas are usually served in cappuccino cups.

Secondly, before I ordered my Mocha, I saw the barista serve a Flat White and a Cappuccino (both in flat white cups, again (small ones)) from THE SAME STEAMED MILK. Cappuccino is supposed to have a LOT more foam than a flat white, A LOT MORE. Neither seemed to even have the steamed milk consistently of even a flat white. So, I ordered mine with extra foam and it still came with less than a latte's foam consistency. It tasted cold and not like a mocha, whatsoever.

Thirdly, this happened 3 times before I stopped going, and on the third time I approached someone who came off of their break seemingly and I apologised profusely (because I really don't like being that customer) but said the coffee was really bad tasting and asked if they would mind remaking it. They asked if it was a flat white (because of the cup) and I said 'Actually they're both Mochas', to which they had a confused look on her face. They remade them, and they were pretty good Mochas in the proper sized cups. But that was the last time for me, sad to say, I went.

Finally, this café ONLY has flat white sized take away cups, which is REALLY not okay in my opinion. You're paying a lot of money for extremely small, bad quality coffee from here, now. I used to not think too much into the price when it was good, and then passable but it's actively extremely bad if you have that specific barista.

I actually brought 2 friends on seperate occasions and had to apologise for reccomending it after they had their coffee, because it was the same barista and the coffee doesn't need a trained barista to know it tasted awful.

The sandwiches you can't fault at all though. They are ridiculously delicious. However, on the same day I got the Mochas I returned, they were charred and half tasted bad. The team couldn't handle any type of rush.

Staff are lovely otherwise and the actual place for around summer and winter is beautiful and cosy, I'm so so saddened about the quality going down so drastically.

Was giving a 1 star, but staff, ambience and food made me give 3.

(Edit to say, it looks like I drank a lot, that was after less than 2...

My husband loves to drink coffee here and the coffee shop has lovely view.

The lady staff with black hair and pretty smile this morning was very unwelcoming and this is not the first time she was unwelcoming. Secondly she was extremely nice with other customers welcoming them with her big beautiful smile. She rolled her eyes on my husband. I could have completely let that go if this was first or generally I assume someone might have a bad mood and I move on. If there is no reason, why would I start my day with an energy filled with negativity, unwanted and unliked?? This might sound harsh but I would not like to start my...

The staff are really friendly, coffee is great and it's nice to sit here and watch the world go by. However they charge 30c extra for slimline milk. Really? I don't know anywhere else that does this so because there are a few other coffee places in the area, I don't go here now. Sorry guys.

In response to the reply below. I Googled to see how much Slimline milk is compared to whole milk. The max I found was 41c extra per litre. So again I will make my point. 30c extra for the amount of milk used in...