Hunter Bay Coffee Roasters — Restaurant in Arvada

Hunter’s Bay has some of the best coffee in Arvada. No doubt they know their beans. The quality is there. No complaints there. My low review is for the automatic gratuity. I think it’s a problem that gratuity is even an option for this commodity when we usually take drinks to go. To make it automatic is criminal especially when the baristas don’t go over and above to earn it if it’s automatic. I truly believe that if you go over and above in your service that you probably could earn .50 cents to $1 as a tip for making coffee drinks. I’ve now gone here on multiple occasions to sit and work and the barista did not bring my drink. No. You don’t deserve automatic tips because you did the very basics of your job. Bring my drink, smile, check to make it taste right to me, ask me my name…You don’t deserve tips when the tables are filthy. I hope the owner pays their people a living a wage and stops charging patrons extra for mediocre service. I also hope the owner makes it mandatory for the baristas to learn names, bring drinks for staying patrons, keeps the tables clean, and have superior service, otherwise don’t charge people. Doing so is criminal as I said above. Only go here if you don’t mind paying extra automatically for no reason on to go drinks or you stay and they don’t bring you...

I hesitated writing this, but after a couple of subpar experiences in less than a week I decided to share my review. The staff here are very friendly, and the company has done a lot to make sure it is safely operating during covid. However, recently my partner and I went in and ordered two coffees, and ended up waiting much longer than expected with only one order in front of us. There were 3 employees, and at one point they were all just talking to each other not making any orders. Not ideal to see, but I attributed this to an “off” day. We went back and ordered the same thing, this time with a breakfast sandwich. The wait time was as expected but then I was told they didn’t have the ingredients I paid extra for. This is understandable, but wasn’t given the option to substitute it for something else until I brought up the extra charge. On top of that, my partner’s coffee tasted rancid and he ended up throwing it away. Especially during this time of covid, we try to be very gracious/ understanding to those serving us (being patient, tipping extra, wrong order? No big deal), however these two instances have made us hesitant of returning. Again, the staff are very nice people, and the coffee/ food is usually delicious. Don’t know what happened these...

These folks appreciate fine coffee. There is a large assortment of options to choose from when simply buying a regular cup of drip coffee, much less looking through the other options on their menu. To top it off, the staff is knowledgeable about the roast and process of each bean.

The location itself is also bright and open (unlike many good coffee houses where space is the trade-off for quality). And it's in a cute part of town that is highly conducive to taking a stroll with your drink

Some people here are complaining about the 15% gratuity - I see this as a way of taking responsibility for paying their baristas a living wage, rather than allowing the customer to decide, in the spur of the moment, whether or not the staff smiled largely enough to earn their rent for the month. However, as it appears that this is an unpopular move for some customers, Hunter Bay may consider simply having a sign that says, "We have built a living wage into our menu prices, and therefore do not expect tips" or something. Perhaps take a community poll?

Bottom line, this place is honestly one of the best coffee shops I've had the pleasure of visiting. They check all the boxes and then some. I'm looking forward to...