7 Leaves Cafe — Restaurant in Cupertino

(Updated 9/24): A good place that could be GREAT with a little more care. Hopefully the owners occasionally read the reviews.

First off, generally good, friendly, hardworking staff. Service is almost always on point.*

(Well, okay, there’s one staffer who’s consistently sullen and unfriendly. But, she’s the exception.)

Secondly, it’s just a nice space— open, airy, some greenery, and (sometimes) well-lit (see ‘Upkeep’).

Third, good hours… open late, unlike most all Starbucks and Peet’s these days. :(

Fourth — TWO restrooms, large and pretty clean usually. Smart.

So, what could be IMPROVED? A few things:

BASICS/UPKEEP: Some of their crews will BLAST their kitchen music so loud that it’s LOUDER in the restaurant than the main room music. C’mon guys… really? Though they’ve gotten better about this lately, and will always turn it down if you ask. Still though, c’mon (no one should have to tell you the obvious).

Also, much of the lighting is dim due to lightbulbs that are nrarly burned-out and need replacing. Why they don’t just do that easy thing? Is the GM AWOL? 💡

TOO MUCH SUGAR in their drinks: Tasty, but what if you DON’T want diabetes? Want to lose weight? Or just don’t want to gain any? Even their ‘E-Z Sweet’ option is still pretty sweet on a lot of their drinks.

Maybe should have an ‘Unsweetened’ option for some drinks. Hot tea would be a good candidate.

‘PASTRIEZ’ — More VARIETY, please. If you don’t like macaroons, it’s pretty much just (very sweet) cinnamon rolls and (very sweet) guava danish. Both are pretty decent, but more VARIETY would be welcome.

One time their order from their pastry supplier got messed up, and they received BLUEBERRY danishes instead. Guess what? They were AMAZING, like 10x better than the (over-sweet) guava. 😯

Why not make them permanent? Or add cherry or strawberry? Not everyone loves guava, yeah? Or they’re just really tired of it.

Oven (to warm up ze pastriez): They have one, but it’s usually off, especially after 5PM. Lol, why so early? They don’t close for another 5 hours. ⏱

Seating: At certain hours they tend to fill up completely with students and workaholics. Could easily fit a couple more small tables in there somewhere, and it is needed.

That’s about it. Overall, definitely a nice place, but could be even lots better with a little TLC and...

Overall I think that this is a pretty good spot to chill and get work done. There is plenty of table space and outlets to plug into to keep your devices charged. I also liked the interior design with all of the furniture being relatively new and comfortable and everything felt pretty clean. Overall the atmosphere was nice to work it, but it was a little nosy. As for drinks, I thought that their milk tea and boba did not stand out. The texture of the boba felt a little flat, like it wasn't very qq. The taste of the milk tea also tasted a little off, I don't know quite how to put it but it seemed a little off. I liked the house...

This is probably the second or third review I’ve ever written, but this was impressively poor service and product quality.

Apparently 7leaves is now only partially filling drinks as part of a “store policy”. Extremely disappointing as a longtime customer, and will have to be going to different boba places like tastea, rose tea lounge, or pekoe in the future.

Also their logic for the level of fill in the drink was that we didn’t order ice. If ice is meant to take up a full third of the drink, that’s a problem on its own. Thankfully not every business...