Yardstick Coffee | MOA Square — Restaurant in Pasay

First off, I want to say that I like Yardstick's coffee. It has always been a place I can rely on to find a bag of beans that I enjoy or to have good cup of coffee.

I rarely ever write reviews but as a cafe owner myself, I just couldn't shake off the compulsion to share about the experience earlier today.

I am in country for the week, and my family and I stopped by the MOA location around 3pm ish. The cafe was pretty full and there were about 3 parties in front of mine (Our order had 5 drinks).

I almost always order a pourover and sometimes include an espresso. My two brother in laws also wanted pourovers and our wives had 2 cortados. When I got to the cashier to order and told her that we wanted 3 pourovers, she told us to hold on for a second and then proceeded to ask the person who was making the pourovers something while pointing in our direction. She then came back and told us that our pourovers would take 20-25 minutes because they were short staffed, which didnt necessarily seem like it since I saw at least 4-5 employees. I did some quick math in my head and since I know that a pourover should probably take 4-5 minutes max (with setup/brew time), I figured maybe there were like 2 pourovers that had been ordered ahead of my party.

Since that was not an amount time we were willing to wait we switched our order to a single origin espresso, an americano and a cortado instead.

I didn't really want an espresso but I wanted something. As we went over to the table my party had found, I started wondering why it would take so long...wondering if only 1 pourover is brewed at a time, and if so, why can't two be done at once or at least double batch one of them but I understand that shops do things differently so I wasnt trying to read into it too much. But then I noticed that the person who was previously doing the pourovers, now went over to pull the espressos. I was a little confused. I had just assumed that there were other pourovers in front of my party, but that didnt seem to be the case since the pourover guy just left the station.

Long story short, our drinks actually came out fairly promptly BUT another pourover was never made. There were in fact, no pourovers ordered before my party. Our table was pretty much sitting right in front of the pourover area and my daughter was actually sitting at the pourover bar. To be honest, as a cafe owner, this frustrated me a lot.

Unfortunately, I have to assume that the person who was doing the pourovers just didnt want to make all 3 of ours because of the time it would take. But he was there the entire time we were sitting there, up until we finished our drinks and then it looked like he was leaving to go on his break....which sort of makes me think my assumption is correct. This was very disappointing. To think that what we wanted to order...which is ON the menu and obviously available (because I saw him making one as we arrived to the cafe) was not served to us possibly because it was seen as too big of an inconvenience.

Also, I coudn't help but think "Doesnt any other staff know how to do a pour over? There can't only be one person who knows how or is allowed to do it" Like I mentioned, there was someone at the cashier, someone on bar, and another at the handoff station, and the pourover person. Not sure if the pourover person was the only fully trained person since he came over and started pulling shots too. But again, this just added to my frustration because it wasnt busy enough where all employees were slammed with tasks...someone else could have been helping with pourovers or something.

So yeah, this is a very long description but I figure more information is better than less. Like I said, I still enjoy Yardstick's coffee, the espresso I had was pulled well. I wont stop coming to Yardstick when I am in country but the service experience today bothered me so much that I just had to write. I would be disappointed in my staff if this happened at my cafe.

Maybe it was just a bad day/timing. It happens to everyone, but hopefully...

Ordered the Caramel Cortado. It clearly stated in the menu that it's an 8oz drink but they just used an 8oz cup. They just told me there's less milk in it. I'm not expecting it to be filled to the brim, but given the quantity, it doesn't have any value for money at ₱175. I asked for the single origin robusta. Taste-wise it was all right.

I asked to talk to the manager about this and wasn't satisfied with her explanation. I felt "schooled" and I'm not an argumentative type. They were the type who are not willing to listen. She said that it's concentrated coffee that's why there's less milk. Also, there are other staff with her and another asked if I wanted more milk to which I replied no. When I asked to talk to the manager, I was expecting only her but she had backup. Maybe they thought I'm gonna cause a scene or something.

Basically, the message they conveyed was "it is the way it is and we're not changing it so deal with it" I didn't get the warm fuzzy vibes from her too. She probably didn't intend it but I felt they were defensive (that's just my impression).

They should have used a smaller cup to give the illusion that you get what you paid for.

My friend enjoyed her flat white though. She ordered an overpriced chocolate chip cookie that's very small for ₱90 and the taste wasn't exceptional either.

When dining at an establishment, I consider both taste and service because that makes up for the whole impression. Unfortunately, this experience left a sour taste in my mouth. If they were more polite and offered a form of service recovery, I would have given them a chance but since I'm just a statistic and they have a lot of good reviews, they probably don't mind it. That, to me, speaks volumes of how they are not trained to listen.

I'm not looking for a free drink or anything. I'm just stating my experience...

Been here twice this month! Super loved their Sea Salt Latte (and the other one which I forgot the name) when my boyfriend and I went here first. The ambiance is nice but the area is a bit small so you really have to get a good timing to score a table. Our first experience was memorable so we went here again the second time around. Their menu's cute but you really have to ask what are the ingredients for each selection so you're not gonna regret what you're going to pay for. Thought Manila latte is good but it has a pineapple slushie which is kinda ??? meh for me. We didn't like it. It tasted so weird it made me think of bad things about Yardstick (kidding lol but jokes are half meant hahaha). Anyway, we had to order my most precious sea salt latte to not ruin my first impression of Yardstick hahaha.

The staff were really nice tho, but I hope they would step up their game and notify the buyer of what's the 'special sauce' is all about because I kinda think they knew their Manila latte is not the best out there. The customers wouldn't be happy if s/he wants to taste something new and picked this one. I really think it's not something everyone would like.

Anyway, will still come back and try their other...