Jo's Coffee – South Congress — Restaurant in Austin

Let me start by saying this place is delicious and very affordable while on vacation. We were visiting Austin, Texas just for the weekend and we came here everyday. My reason for the 2 star review was because of our last day here. Which was today. We of course wanted to make one final stop at this very sweet location. My sister and I grabbed 1 picadillo taco each and 1 bottle of water. The woman at the cashier passed us two pre-made tacos and 2 bottles of water. About $14. I hand her a $20. She gives me $6 in singles. I asked the woman with short hair (almost neck length) half blonde/brown bangs, at the cashier for a $5 bill instead of 5 singles. With no expression she proceeds to open the cashier box. I had an extra $5 in my purse and asked for one more $5 please, while the register is open. My sister asks, “why do you need so many 5’s?” I responded, “so I don’t have so many single smashed into my wallet.” This woman with the short half blonde/half brown hair proceeds to interject into our conversation and says “Yeah, less to tip with.” I said, “YES, that too.” She proceeds to go out the back and she took a lap. Probably to cool down. Whatever that woman was going through— has nothing to do. We came everyday and we tipped. The one day that I didn’t I seemed to unlucky to have this woman handle our order. The audacity to think that by simply passing me 2 premade tacos and 2 bottles of water and not saying or connecting with us in any other matter than saying “that’ll be $14”— is insane. It’s obvious she doesn’t own this business. Because no business owner in the world would feel so entitled to a tip for doing almost nothing. She slid 2 waters and 2 tacos across the counter. So rude. So unnecessary. And we tip the 2 other times that we came here. I’m glad she took a walk after her ridiculous comment. She looked like she needed to take several laps actually. Great place, nice location, and just one encounter with an entitled employee there. Other than that we geniunely enjoyed coming here up until today’s experience. Hope that lady finds peace and maybe...

The barista (whose name I didn't catch, he was bald and had tattoos on his arm) was extremely short with me and provided some of the worst customer service I have ever experienced. My friend, whom I came with, got her coffee a little while before me, and told me when she sat down, "The barista was really short with me... that was weird." When I went up there myself to order, I asked for a flapjack cold brew, but asked him if it was sweet, and he told me, "I can make it less sweet." So I said, "Okay, great, can you add a good amount of milk to it too?" he didn't even acknowledge me and rang it up. The coffee came out a terrible, awful color, and I took a sip, and it was the sweetest, most syrupy coffee I have ever tasted. It was so, so terrible. There was practically no milk added, and it was almost the exact opposite of what I requested. People have different tastes, so I thought maybe this was just a misunderstanding, I'll see if he can make me something else. I told him I really didn't like the coffee and asked if he could make me something else, and he was so short with me. I tried handing him my old coffee, and in the rudest tone, he said, "I don't want that... throw it away". I requested just a regular latte with honey, but he didn't acknowledge the honey when I said it. Keep in mind, it is not busy, and I was one of the only people ordering at this time. He placed a coffee out to the window, and I thought it was mine and reached for it, and he goes "that ain't yours, buddy", in a super condescending tone. Then my latte came out, and again, it was not what I asked for. He didn't add any honey, and overall was just not great. I even tipped him, too. Extremely underwhelming service and product, I cannot say I will be coming back here again, nor will I be recommending anyone who visits to come...

Jo’s is the site of that famous “I love you so much” mural. It’s often flocked with people taking cheesy portraits of each other. Most of those people leave without even realizing they were standing next to a great and quaint little coffee shop.

The Iced Turbo is my favorite iced coffee in Austin. It’s sweet, but not Starbucks sweet. It’s a blend of chocolate milk and coffee, so it’s kind of like the darker/chocolate-y counterpart to Epoch’s Iced Mojo, which tastes more vanilla-y or hazelnut-y. I wouldn’t recommend it for you heavy black-coffee drinkers out there, although they do make a less sweet version of the drink called the Belgian Bomber that you guys could try.

Their food is pricy for what you get, but I haven’t gotten anything that I didn’t like, so there’s that. My favorite is the chicken salad sandwich; I die for any chicken salad that has cranberries. Also I LOVE the bread they use, not sure why.

I love sitting on their shaded patio to do work on my laptop (yes to free wi-fi!) or even just to sip on coffee and people-watch. If you want indoor seating, you can head to their location on 2nd Street. I find that location just doesn’t have the same charm as the one on SoCo, though.

Tip: they’ve got live music during brunch on Sundays until around 3PM, and the place usually gets packed. If you wanna attend, come early. If you just wanna lounge around a quiet place with some coffee, wait...