Latente specialty coffee — Restaurant in Ollantaytambo

I’ve been visiting Latente since they opened. I spend about 50% of my time in Peru, specifically in Ollantaytambo. The coffee is good and carefully crafted, the food is ok at best. Sometimes they have cookies, those are pretty good. The artisan plates and ceramics are Impressive and local to Peru. I believe they are Sourced from an artist in Lima. The service varies a lot. I know there have been some staff changes and I have yet to form an impression based on that. In the past and for the majority of the time of operation the coffee shop has been understaffed and the employees overworked and under appreciated. This showed. Over time you could see the burn out. The passionate enthusiasts became overwhelmed and stressed. The wait time is almost always unreasonable especially considering the low volume. If you pay in cash they have only had change available maybe one time out of 25 visits. Most Peruvian businesses will run across the street to another vendor/friend to help make the change. Not the case here. The most frustrating thing about Latente is that they open at 8. It’s like a lazy coffee shop. People come to the sacred valley for adventure and want to start their day early. It would make much more logical sense if they were to open at six. Even if the flow of customers is low it’s all about the one person you are serving in that moment. I imagine many people have been disappointed and not visited because they couldn’t wait until 8 for their morning coffee because they had to catch their train or start their tour. It’s easy to score almost all good reviews when there is no competition in town and everyone is having a magical experience on their adventure in Perú. When you really analyze the situation though, there is much to be improved. ——-UPDATE I visited this morning and the staff is much more pleasant, they seem happy to be working there and they are freindly. It was a nice change and I was happy to see that. The Kimchee sandwich is a delicious option and much better than before. I’m adding one star to the service for the improved attitudes and efforts. They were quite busy and I did have to wait quite a while. They still seem understaffed. With that level of traffic they really need 1 or 2 more people working and an additional brew machine. I’m confident they will continue to improve with time. It was a little odd they ran out of ice in the morning and didn’t restock at the end of business yesterday putting them in a bad position today. As usual the coffee was delicious. The fresh orange juice was also to the level to be expected in Peru, very good. Something I must say, Latente responded to my review and feedback and I think they may have deleted it because I can’t see it now. The response was quite unprofessional. They do not know how to take constructive criticism and reacted as if it was a personal attack. They even told me not to call them lazy. They misinterpreted this previous statement about the shop overall and reacted as if I was calling the staff lazy personally. For Latente, to clarify, it’s a lazy / slow style, this is common in Perú but it’s not something that should be accepted. Especially in a major tourist town in a tourist shop. People have higher expectations and don’t want to wait long periods for their orders. They also commented about not being able to open “when I wanted” it’s not that I want it, it’s simply an honest and authentic review. If you don’t agree don’t bother making changes. However it does no good to be argumentative and defensive on a Google review. Reviews are meant to inform, to be honest, and to provide true opinions of experiences. I stated my opinion both positive and negative and the level of unprofessionalism it was met with was just really odd. @Latente management, you will never like all the feedback you receive but you only need to take what makes sense to you and leave what does not. Please understand that by giving an honest review the intention and hope is to help you improve. If you only hear positive things what will you improve upon? Strive to...

Up to the hype as many of the reviews say but also some downsides.

The latte we ordered was fantastic but the cappuccino was below par, very sour and unbalanced. Ham and cheese sandwich was delicious and well prepared, more filling than expected, definitely a class above what you find in normal restaurants here.

Atmosphere is very chill with simple, rustic, elegant decor, darker downstairs and airy and bright and spacious upstairs offering mountain views. Wonderful place for coffee and work with strong stable wifi, but upstairs had lots of flies constantly flying around.

Overall the team definitely know what they’re doing and striving for a refined speciality experience. Service could be quicker and warmer though. Still, a one of a kind spot in Ollantaytambo indeed with just a few small things to fix up for an even better experience.

Pleasure to enjoy and support a local business...

This coffee doesn’t respect their employees and has terrible treatment to the people.

This lady, Ana, has been very mean to me and I was sitting in the second floor and tried to rush me to get out and got an alpaca skin I was using in my seating. Also was passive aggressive.

Also tries constantly to make contact to tourists to get on dates, very unprofessional.

Now she is mocking a barista she used to work with, saying that she and the team fired him. Lame situation in this coffee shop…

Also Anaís the administrator pushed a cook that used to work there in front of other clients.

They don’t have a well prepared team, and they owe workers their payments and don’t give contracts nor benefits to them.

The owners with the barista the fired .

Also the are pictures that document the terrible of the conditions this...