Zeke's Coffee Baltimore — Restaurant in Baltimore

I've visited this place twice now. After the first time, I chose not to write a review, hoping it was just an off day. Unfortunately, after our second visit, I feel compelled to share our experience.

Visit 1: We placed our order, received a number, and sat down. My husband's espresso came out fairly quickly, followed by our food. He got a pastry, and I ordered the breakfast sandwich on a gluten-free wrap. However, my drip coffee never arrived. After we finished eating, I went up to ask about it. I was especially disappointed because they advertise bottomless drip coffee, which I wasn’t able to take advantage of. When I finally got the coffee, it was missing the oat milk I had requested. The breakfast sandwich itself was also disappointing: dry and flavorless.

Visit 2: We decided to give them another chance, but the experience was worse. After waiting 15 minutes with no drinks or food, I asked where we were in line. The woman at the counter told me, “I have 21 drinks ahead of you.” I mentioned we had arrived well before many of those people. They eventually realized our ticket had been tossed and had to reprint it.

My husband got his espresso pretty quickly after that. My drink was forgotten again. When I finally got it, it still didn’t include oat milk. I ordered the Zeke's breakfast burrito, no cheese or egg, with added peppers and avocado, and it was barely cooked, cold, and honestly inedible. In the picture look for the "hash browns". They were way undercooked. My husband ordered the lox bagel, which showed up with no lox at all. He also got a croissant with a brownie in the middle and asked for it to be warmed. The outer chocolate was melted, but the inside was still cold. The chocolate also tasted more like cake frosting than actual chocolate.

While we waited (again, without coffee), we watched the front counter. It was clearly disorganized, staff jumping from register to register, random people running food, and only two baristas trying to manage a long list of drink orders. It was chaotic. They assign numbers to guests but don’t actually use them to call orders, which just adds to the confusion. At one point, a customer received an iced drink when she expected it hot. When she asked about it, the employee rolled her eyes and seemed annoyed.

Before leaving, I asked an older man with a beard, who seemed to float in and out of the employee mix, for a drip coffee refill. He told me, “You didn’t order a drip coffee.” I replied, “Yes, I did.” He responded, “Well, it wasn’t in a mug, but it only costs me 20 cents anyway,” he said irritated as he turned to refil my drink. I checked the menu and saw no mention that drip coffee only counts as “bottomless” if it’s in a mug. In fact, I looked around, not a single person had a mug.

Final Thoughts: The food was subpar, the service was frustrating both times, and the organization at the front is a mess. The staff seemed overwhelmed and, frankly, annoyed at customer questions. I really wanted to like this place, but after two poor experiences, we won’t...

Hey friends! This review is about sustainability only. 🙂

By 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. And over 95% of the plastic that we use does not actually get recycled.

For an awesome, local coffee purveyor in a waterfront city, it made me feel sad to see the sheer amount of single use plastic cups getting used by diners coming to stay and enjoy the space.

It does seem that you offer real, reusable mugs. That makes me really grateful. But it does not seem that anyone knows to ask for them.

I wonder if there are some simple ways you can better promote the reusable option to your customers, so that they have more choice in not polluting our precious planet and our precious ecosystems here in Baltimore.

Perhaps that means putting up a sign by the register, encouraging people to order their drink to stay. Or having your barista explicitly ask. Perhaps it means posting something on your social media, communicating that you have reusable mugs as options. You could also encourage people to bring their own mugs if they are walking over from within the neighborhood.

But it seems absurd to create so much plastic waste in one sitting on one morning of just one weekend.

Thank you for considering some simple ways to ensure we pollute this planet just a little bit less. People do want better options, and it seems that you have some simple fixes available to you now.

And to any customers reading this, you can bring your own mug to use, or you can ask for one for here, if you do not want to create trash that will go straight to the landfill, ocean, or...

I've stopped here a few times now and am consistently surprised with the high-ratings. Each-time I've gone back out of convenience, or under the assumption that the high-ratings must be justified somehow. Though I think my initial impressions were consistent with intense mediocrity.

Zeke's from what I can tells brews excessively mediocre espresso drinks (in to go cups, of course), sometimes decent breakfast and lunch foods and largely older or stale pastries. The Cappuccino I ordered was pulled so quickly that I had it in my hand directly after forking over ($28 - including tip for two coffees and a breakfast sandwhich!) and was under-extracted with the foam typically over-done as is common among poorly skilled baristas. Normally I would just pass over this as I know workers are under a time-crunch to produce drinks in an otherwise stressful work environment, but there was no-line in front or behind me.

The popularity of Zeke's on google reviews seems to derive from (1) a nice, open seating area with quality internet connection (2) a friendly, social atmosphere (of sorts) with people in the shop clearly socially-close to each other. (3) Non-Coffee aficionados who are used to starbucks and thus have a positive impression in relation to otherwise burned milk Drinks

Thus I would consider Zeke's a nice "third-place" coffee shop as a place-to hang out in and work or relax, but I wouldn't assume anything like the coffee you might get from Los Suenos or Onedo (or ceremony at that matter)...