The Carmel Coffee House and Roasting Company — Restaurant in Carmel-by-the-Sea

We have been to this cafe a few times over 3 separate trips to Carmel. We generally found the staff ok, today's service was definitely friendly enough and I have nothing to complain about in that respect.

HOWEVER: The coffee we ordered (as each time in the past) was less than memorable. A double espresso, served in an overly large paper cup, tasting about as weak as a watery Americano. I suspect that the coffee beans they are working with are not great to begin with and then the espresso is just brewed too thin.

My partner's Machiato was fine but again the coffee was weak and had no flavour to it (so basically the macchiato suffered the same issues as my espresso).

We ordered a Blueberry cheesecake to share. The blueberries were real blueberries (that's a win) however the general cheesecake was just again lacking in flavour and was basically a large slice of sugary, cream cheese shaped into a calorie dense, flavour-low cake. I just want more from my cake than this cheesecake provided. Overall we spent $10.45 and it just felt like a bit of a waste of money.

The cozy yard area to sit in wasn't really cozy, but then again we knew that, since we've been here before. Just that there aren't all that many other options in Carmel for an afternoon coffee. Not that we know of anyway. One other place is in a shopping plaza that currently has a building site in it, so we didn't fancy that; and another place was closed and there might have been one additional option but it would have meant walking further and we were pretty tired.

Overall: if you are ok with weak coffee and just a sugar bomb for a cake then this is your place. On a quiet day the yard is quite ok, but when we were there today it was busy and uncomfortable. Nobody stayed for longer than a few minuets because it really was not as cozy as advertised. The Italians lasted 2 minutes. Walked in - took one look, walked out! Follow the Italians when you want a reasonable coffee and cake experience. We wish we had.

p.s. once more: the service was absolutely fine. But possibly not great coffee...

Horrible customer service ever. After placing my order, the espresso machine malfunctioned, you would think that they would tell all those that previously placed an order. But there was no communication. I observed the “lead” being rude and condescending to other customers. Then when I inquired about my order the “lead” was ornery and was insulted I even inquired, there was no apology for the delay, instead seemed like she was offended. Then when my order was ready, although we were the only groups left in the establishment, she chose to not communicate that my order which I waited for was ready, again no apology for the delay or even an acknowledgment. Then when I commented about about their lack of customer service she and the other employee were ridiculously rude. This place needs either a new “lead” our some serious customer service training. I have noticed that the owner only comments in the good service. I hope the owner reaches out to me because after reading other negative comments they either don’t care or chose to address or ignore negative comments because they really don’t care about their customer service or lack there off. I hope you,...

Charming patio, great teas, dog friendly, BUT the SERVICE is consistently MEAN!! My husband was telling me he would not go back in the Carmel Coffee House, and I thought he was being overly sensitive. I went into it myself just to experience the same unnessessary rudeness by the MANAGER no less! I simply inquired when they would get their chamomile tea back in since they were out, she actually sneered at me and snipped that she had no idea when she would get it back in, she would have to order it. Seriously, why make someone feel like they are a bother when they are needing a chamonmille tea, who does that? Plus I told her I would leave her a review, and she smiled at me like give me a break, I could care. So if she doesn't care about her customers, why support this cafe? Sad to see someone who thinks they don't need to be helpful when they are in the service industry. Funny thing is is that I'm in retail 40 hours a week, in Carmel and I have never intentionally been rude to a customer in 30 years of being in the business. But again some people don't...