Smoking Tiger Coffee Lab — Restaurant in Gardena

Today I experience the worse service since coming here. There have been others at this same location but today was the last straw.

On this rainy day, I get down from my car with my 2yr old son and walk to the shop. The employee outside said they were closed because it was flooded. Ok. No problem, I walk back to my car. As I’m buckling my son, another person goes in.

Before I take off, I see the person coming out with a drink and bread. Right after this, a second person goes in and he is being served. There are now 2 people that were serve right after I was told they were closed because of flooding. Both individuals were Asian. I am not. I don’t know if they didn’t serve me because I wasn’t Asian, however, it sure felt like it.

I go back into the smoking tiger and ask if they are actually closed or not. The same person who told me they were closed now was ready to take my order.

Prior this today’s incident, I’ve gone to this same location before after they’ve just open (after 8am) and when I ask for my order, they say they’ve sold out. Which didn’t make sense to me because they just opened and had no crowd or line. Experience with the same employee.

And before that, when I went to order another instance, the employees seemed annoyed that I went to make an order when there were three of them doing nothing until I got was going to order.

The drinks are good but the service of the employees are terrible. According to the receipt, the employee who I have had two terrible experiences with is named Ash.

According to her Christine is the manager there. Which, at this point, I don’t even know if it’s true. If it is, I hope she does something about her employees terrible customer...

I’m obsessed with smoking tiger. I typically go to the Gardena location because it’s on my way to work. I also frequent the Cerritos location, as it’s closer to home. However, the Gardena location has officially and completely lost me. The baristas there are all skilled and lovely to interact with, but the baker seems to be on their own timing. On several occasions, they’ve had no baked goods in the morning except croissants because the baker supposedly called out. That is unavoidable, and if this location only has one baker on staff, certainly not the onus of the baker themself. More frustratingly, however, is that they have decided not to make the tiger salt bread at this location anymore. One staffer told me that’s because it’s seasonal, another told me it’s not. When I visit other ST locations, though, they all have the tiger salt bread and staff at those locations have told me it’s not a seasonal item. It seems like the baker for Gardena simply doesn’t want to make them. In general, the selection of baked goods in the Gardena location is thin and inconsistent. What truly broke the camel’s back, however, was that the baker simply “didn’t see” that an app order had come in for the bfast sliders. We had to get our purchase refunded because they were not paying attention. Sad! I wish this location was as consistent as Cerritos and some of the other locales I’ve visited! Going forward I’m going to take a longer route to work so I can go to the Cerritos location where I know I’ll get...

Finally, an amazing coffee shop in Gardena!

This location is pretty fun because it's located in the same plaza as TWO other "sister" shops to Smoking Tiger. So if your friends aren't a fan of coffee, you can head to Podong Seoul Tea for some tea/yogurt drinks instead. Or you can get some great tiramisu at Oncle's Cake Shop.

Tons of pluses here -- there's an underground parking, so you shouldn't have any trouble hanging out here for a long time. There's WiFi and outlets, and a ton of other food options nearby if you plan to work here for a while and get hungry. Their pastries are pretty damn good, especially when it's more fresh earlier in the day. They've got an amazing array of coffee gear for sale, ranging from an Aeropress Kit to a Hario scale. They also sell coffee by the bean if you want to brew at home.

Onto the drinks -- I've only had two drinks so far, and I honestly don't see myself ordering anything else anymore...because I think I already found my order.

The Strawberry Forest on the seasonal menu needs to become permanent. It's very tasty, but keep in mind it's more of a dessert drink than a caffeinated drink.

They have THE BEST espresso tonic I've ever had. Ask for it to be made with the Good Luck Baton beans. Like, I don't know how it's so good -- I've had many and it even beats Nook Coffee's version. At this point I'm making it a weekly tradition to order one.

Very happy with this addition to Gardena, give...