Surf Point Coffee House — Restaurant in Fortuna

I really wanted to like this place (plus get a good breakfast burrito on my birthday morning). The burrito was $13 to start with. My wife called the order in and was asked if she wanted avocado on it. My wife said yes. Well...with a 10% tip, two burritos turned into $40!!!!!! For what appears to be $5/burrito we got a couple little pieces of avocado each! The burritos were decent, the salsa was horrible, and the overall effect was sadly lacking. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE Shelter Cove and all the "natives" that I met. I really wanted to like this restaurant, and I realize it is expensive to get supplies into such a secluded place (as well as MANY places do not make vegetarian food very well); but I was VERY disappointed in our food, and HORRIFIED by the price. The atmosphere is off the charts, however, and the views from the restaurant sublime. As an addendum, the owner responded to me, attempting to duck all responsibility, and claiming that I must have gone to her competitions bistro, and had a case of mistaken identity!!!!! I usually would not go this far, but her response is so pathetic and cowardly that I would like to set the record straight. I 100% got food from YOUR bistro, no question whatsoever, no blaming this on your competition. Check your 7/22 receipts and if you care to be so honest, you will see my bill there. Google appears to really like my reviews. They are quite honest, as if I were trying to both back deserving businesses, as well as warn against what I have experienced as a bad experience. That is the concept behind a review. Frankly, most businesses when they receive a negative review will have the courage and ownership to try to make things better. The owner of Surf Pointe not only provided VERY mediocre (at best) food at absurd prices (including locale and the expense of getting products supplied), but she tried to throw blame on her competitor, took zero responsibility, then whined about how hard it is to be her, as the owner. Small businesses in the US are made "victims" and money sources by the government; I will be the first to say this; but when your products are found to be quite lacking, and your prices insane, and you accept NO RESPONSIBILITY, perhaps your problems are in the mirror. Shelter Cove is possibly my favorite place on the planet. I love it beyond measure, and perhaps the locals and tourists see a different picture, but I can only relate to what I see, and it was sad, and turned pathetic. P.S. having seen the response I have to say, YES, it was your bistro, not your competition that is being reviewed. I checked your website and it still lists the vegetarian breakfast burrito on both Google search, as well as on the flyer in my VRBO as $13. If you raise your prices and do not have the wherewithal to have it reflected on the world's largest search engine; that problem is in the mirror. I would usually not bother to respond like this, but the response was cowardly, accusatory towards both their competition, as well to the reviewer, and most high quality establishments, driven by customer service look at criticism as a chance to evolve and serve even better; not as a place to hide and try to pass off the blame. I absolutely love Shelter Cove and pretty much everything about it. Sadly the "everything" that limited my experience was this bistros food, but even more so, their response to honest criticism. P.S. Natalie, next time you have a melt down over the tremendous life pains that you are experiencing running a bistro in bloody paradise, oddly, the people spending money in your establishment generally work pretty hard for their living so that they can frequent your restaurant. I have had my own businesses and fully understand how hard it is to run a small business. When I provided substandard services, it was a "me problem", not the fault of the customer for not understanding my life story. I have never seen anyone take less responsibility for a...

Update Jan. 2025: My partner and I returned to Shelter Cove, and decided to give Surf Point Coffee Shop another try. The owner was working, remembered us, and apologized for our previous interaction. I fully acknowledge this takes a lot of humility, which I absolutely respect. I understand everyone has their bad days, and this can be magnified while providing a service to others.

All in all, surf point does have a gorgeous view and great coffee. We also greatly appreciate the staff we've interacted with, and respect that the owner took accountability for something that happened in the past.

My partner and I were in Shelter Cove last weekend. We have visited Surf Point Coffee House before, and absolutely adored it. Beautiful location and ALWAYS had friendly service. However, the last trip was quite different.

I ordered a large plain latte with oat milk (I don't like added sugar in my latte), my partner ordered a medium chai with 2 shots of espresso. The barista at the back handed us our drinks. The first thing we noticed was that they were the same size: medium.

"Oh, I think I got a large," I say meekly (My partner even apologizes, because he's a millennial and that's what they do)

"No you didn't," she said.

"No, I DID get a large, you can check the ticket," I say, pointing to the ticket (I mean, I paid for it after all!). She huffs and takes my drink, no apology. My partner and I watch as she pours it into a large cup and tops it off with milk.

My partner and I leave the shop. I take a sip. My drink is...sweet? Then my partner takes a sip of his "chai." Except...there's no chai. It's just milk and espresso, with a dusting of cinnamon on top.

At this point, we're confused. So we go back INTO the shop and tell the barista that we didn't quite get what we ordered.

She looks us in the eye and tells me "You ordered a vanilla latte."

I politely tell her, no, I did not order a vanilla. She proceeds to say "Well, the ticket says you ordered vanilla."

I pull the ticket from my pocket as she rounds on the cashier: "You wrote vanilla on the ticket!" she says, as the poor cashier begins to apologize profusely for adding vanilla (which she did not do.).

"You can actually check the receipt," I interject, laying the strip of paper down on the countertop, "There is no vanilla on the receipt."

"I don't need to see the ticket, I'll just remake it," she huffs and rolls her eyes. Still no apology or acknowledgement that she's in the wrong. Alas, everyone has bad days--who am I to judge?

The final straw comes when my partner tries to tell her that there's no chai in his "chai."

"There's chai in there," she asserts angrily.

(I tasted his chai. There was no chai. In fact, it was less sweet than my vanilla latte. I know what chai tastes like, and so does he.)

My partner is absolutely dumbfounded at this point--how do you explain there's no chai, except, 'well, it's not here.').

"Ugh, I'll just make you a new one" she says. Which sounded great to us, that's all we wanted in the first place.

However, while he was waiting for his chai, she shouts across the room "DO YOU WANT EXTRA CHAI IN YOUR CHAI, SINCE THERE WASN'T ENOUGH CHAI THE FIRST TIME?"

"No, that's okay," he said politely as possible.

When his chai was finished, he thanked her and we left as quickly as humanly possible. The cherry on top was that his newly-made dirty chai had no espresso in it. We were charged $3 for those extra two shots of espresso, which he never ended up getting.

The plot twist here? We later found out that barista was the OWNER of this coffee shop! It's really difficult to want to continue supporting a business where the owner doesn't appear to care about her customers' experience and does not take accountability for...

Four stars, because of the coffee. "Coffee House" is in the name. I'll start with the venue and food. Amazing location, overlooking Pacific surf. You get to enjoy breakfast, watching the waves. I had the avocado toast. Delicious. They added some pickled onions, which was a new twist, and those went really well. The other pastries looked delicious.

The coffee. It's most of what I came for. Roasted too dark, where the bitter roast notes were prominent. I had a cappuccino, so I was trying to stay light on the milk. It was just okay. As perfect as the food and location are, the coffee was disappointing. A little more attention to coffee sourcing and espresso settings would go a long way.

Reply to Surf Point's reply on my review. My error was in saying three stars when I gave four. Corrected. My coffee was bitter from over-roasting/ dark roasting. Dark roasts can work with some types of beans, and some places use dark roasts to cut through the syrups often used in drinks. I've been roasting coffee for over 10 years, and I've written many reviews. I don't typically find my reviews to be contrarian. I appreciate your feedback, and perhaps my "diagnosis" of cause is incorrect. However, the coffee under the milk was bitter/sour. It's a great venue, the food was great, the coffee disappointing. My wife Yelps, I Google. It is refreshing to see that you're watching your...