The Giddy Goat Coffee Roasters — Restaurant in Charlotte

(UPDATED REVIEW: See end!)Stopped at Giddy Goat as the last coffee shop we would try on our weekend in Charlotte. Enjoying good coffee is my favorite past time. My wife and I plan our vacations around coffee spots we want to hit. Our weekend in Charlotte was no different. In our 3 days in Charlotte we tried 5 different local shops. Giddy Goat was by far our favorite for many different reasons. First, the customer service and speed of service were top notch! Everyone was kind and even on a slammed Sunday afternoon, we received our drinks and food very quickly. Second, the location was exceptional. Giddy Goat has nice indoor and outdoor seating and the vibe was the best of all of the shops we visited. Third, the food was absolutely out of this world! We tried burritos and empanadas and both were phenomenal! Fourth, the prices were great, especially on the food. Most coffee shops that serve food offer a small selection of items and those items are outrageously expensive (and often not tasty). That is not the case here! Fifth, the coffee was great! Giddy Goat is roasting their own coffee and doing a great job! The coffee was not over roasted and the quality of the beans were great. Additionally, the quality of the drinks they produced were equally as great!

All in all, Giddy Goat was not even on our radar when we arrived in Charlotte, however it is now in our top 10 list of favorite shops we’ve ever been to!

Great job Giddy Goat! Keep up the great work!

(My wife and I had to come to Charlotte for a meeting a few weekends ago. We decided to turn it into a weekend and hit some of Charlottes coffee and food offerings. My wife and I love coffee and plan our vacations around trying all of the local spots. So, in prepping to come to Charlotte, we asked our friends about which places we should hit. All in all we hit 6 places in 2 days. On our final day in Charlotte I had happened upon Giddy Goat in driving to another shop and had come across it in my Google researching. It looked promising but wasn’t on our original list. We made the decision to stop on our way out and we were so glad that we did! Not only did Giddy Goat have the best drinks we tried but they also had the best food and the coolest space!

From each vacation my wife and I take we purchase a coffee mug from our favorite shop to bring back with us. These mugs are memories that provide conversation points for those who drink coffee in our home. They also serve as sweet reminders of experiences we have had together. So, we purchased a mug from Giddy Goat. However, upon arriving home, the mug fell out of the top of our luggage and shattered on the floor! We were devastated. As this was the only thing we brought back from Charlotte. However, we reached out (slid into the DMs) to Giddy Goat and got in touch with Savannah, their social media manager! Savannah was so kind and even agreed to ship us another mug! Giddy Goat, thank you for the great coffee and great food! However, thank you more for being kind and understanding humans! That mug will rest in the front of our display and be one of the first ones that we hand guests so this story can be told over and over for...

My first visit to Giddy Goat was a surprising letdown. I was excited to check it out because they roast their coffee in-house and I thought it would be tasty, plus I had read press about how they wanted to create a nice community space, which I'm all about.

I went on a Friday morning and the place was PACKED, which didn't surprise me too much in our current culture of remote work (I was also going there to grab breakfast and get some work done), but that didn't factor into my poor experience. The space is nicely arranged with a lot of variety in seating and environment: there are quiet corners upstairs and a busy bustling downstairs area, with a busy patio out front and a secluded balcony up top. Overall, the space was more dingy and worn-out looking than I expected of a relatively new business.

Staff was milling about everywhere in the chaos and none of them seemed particularly friendly or happy to be there. I ordered a basic iced mocha and a blueberry scone and stepped aside to wait, but my order was ready within 60 seconds—not sure that's time to pull a fresh shot of espresso? In any case, the coffee tasted like nothing, definitely not freshly roasted, and I couldn't even find the mocha syrup flavor, it was just cold, slightly milky water. The scone was cold, rubbery, and inedible. I threw both in the trash and went to a different coffee shop. Might try it again on a less busy day, but I don't...

Giddy Goat is a wonderful addition to the commonwealth. It is consistently slammed!

Cons: parking. The parking sucks. Since it's always busy here the parking lot is regularly full. Furthermore... the empanadas. The flavor is on point. I've tried every empanada and honestly I love them but sometimes I can't get past the raw dough in the middle and on the bottom. They need a minimum of another 5 minutes in the oven since they aren't fried. Check the bottoms! I would love to see the crust a more golden brown across the entire pastry and not just a few spots on the top.

Pros: coffee! Love that they roast their own coffee. It's delicious. The staff that serves it up is always polite, personable, and kind. The overall environment at giddy goat is amazing. A great sense of community. You can tell that people love coming here. The atmosphere is perfect for meet ups, business, college students, family. I also love that GG does coffee and workouts, yoga and coffee, and dance lessons. There's also live music almost every week and tons of local art for sale.

I come here regularly and will continue to do so. As soon as I see those empanadas not as raw.. the 5th star will come.

I wish y'all great business!

Review update 12/20/23

Asked for more color on the empanadas.. got more color on them. They are glorious! Rich golden brown and crispy outside. As always the flavor...