Gracenote Coffee Boston — Restaurant in Boston

Adorable little hole in the wall cafe!!!! They make the Chai in-house and the Chai latte was fantastic. I got a hot chocolate before leaving to warm me up and it was ehhh to be honest, it was dark-chocolate-bitter, which I normally don't mind but it kind of had a lack of flavor as well, and it was nearly lukewarm, so it wasnt an effective weapon against the cold weather. That being said, the Chai latte was perfectly balanced for sweetness and flavor! 10/10 Chai. Seriously.

The shop itself is super small!! There's a total of maybe 3 or 4 seats, at the tiniest little bars you've ever seen along the wall. If you're looking for a place to sit and chill with a friend, this isn't it. However, it was plenty room for my friend and I to sit down and figure out where to go to lunch. The atmosphere is wonderful-- despite it being a cold dreary day, it was warm and bright inside. The service was excellent and fast, and lids are optional so it's easy to cut down on waste if you don't need one! There's also a variety of coffee products available for purchase, and on the menu is a mocha ball (mochi?) That I didn't buy, but looked unique and delicious. If I ever come to Boston again I'll definitely come back here and try it! Other reviews mention great espresso, so I'll have to try that too. My friend got a hot latte and said it was delicious as well.

Altogether, this is totally 5 stars for my experience except for the hot chocolate. It might have just been a fluke, but I won't know unless I come back. In spite of that, i still give this place 5☆. It was also one of the few places in the Chinatown area that was open on a Saturday morning!

(By the way, the steamed milk on both drinks had impeccable foam. A truly wonderful steamed milk)

Thanks for the great...

Gracenote has a solid ginger chai latte, and I genuinely enjoyed it. A subtle chai flavor combined with a subtle ginger flavor. It wasn't exploding with flavor, but it isn't supposed to. It's simply a nice, soft, warm tea latte with hints of fall spices. (I'd personally like it more if the ginger was kicked up a few notches.)

The hot chocolate was, to be unfortunately frank, not good. Instead of sweet milk chocolate, it tasted more like 70-80% dark chocolate, so it was somewhat bitter. It wasn't thick and creamy, the consistency was watery.

To be fair, Gracenote is all about the coffee. And they know a lot about coffee. By just standing against the wall for a few minutes and watching the inner workings of the cafe, you can tell that everyone involved with this establishment is a coffee person through-and-through. They're considered some of the best coffee in the area.

The baristas are extremely polite, they work fast, and are pretty good at the latte art. Most of the machinery involved with making drinks is hidden under the counter, so the space looks very modern, clean, and organized.

My main gripe with Gracenote is the mismatch between price and quantity. Yes, the quality of the coffee is very high, but $4 for a 10oz drink is steep. (For comparison, a normal can of soda is 12oz.)

The space is very small, just some standing room on one side. More of a grab-and-go...

I really wanted to like this place. The coffee-smells, and quality of taste really live up to the owners desire to make good tasting coffee. It tasted great. I even purchased some beans. If for the beans themselves, I'd give it a 5. But as a coffee shop, it left me and my wife frustrated in our experience. The first thing to know is that this is a TINY shop. There's no space for sitting and enjoying the atmosphere, and as we found out, you will be asked to leave to drink your coffee. This was fairly disappointing in our experience here. Ordering was also an unenjoyable process as well. I ordered off the menu, but my wife had to go through three different requests to finally get a latte with cinnamon sprinkled on it. She had just asked for a latte with brown sugar and cinnamon. He wasn't very helpful in finding her a drink she would enjoy, and it appears they have very few options for latte flavors outside of the menu.

I've been disappointed by coffee quality before, and thankfully that wasn't an issue here, but I've never left a coffee shop feeling as frustrated as I have when...