Merit Coffee — Restaurant in Highland Park

I hate to write a negative review about this place because I’ve loved Merit for years, but if I’m going to pay over $6 for a matcha latte (before tip!) I expect it to be made “correctly”. That does not mean putting matcha powder in a blender with water to make your concentrate and then storing it in a plastic squeeze bottle 🤮 Can we all say “BPA” together? It means whisking the matcha together for each drink, truly making a handcrafted matcha. That’s what I’m paying for, after all. I can easily do the blender trick at home and save $6. What’s even more shocking about this is I was literally the only customer in the store when I ordered this drink and when I asked the barista about it she told me that it was “direction from corporate” and all of their cafes are making matcha like this now. Insane. Merit, you’ve downgraded yourself to offering fast food matcha. So...

Merit stays one of the more consistent and delicious coffees in DFW. Good place for working (over 50/50 speeds). Chairs are cushy. Parking in the front and back just fine.

The matcha strawberry drink was quite tasty, the strawberries light and very freshly done as far as I can tell. Not artificial tasting. Props to the matcha for not being super chalky. Oat milk is $1 upcharge, same goes for other alternative milks. Total being $8 and change after tip.

Their drip coffee is actually one of the better ones out there for sure, I normally do not go for drip, but it did a good job. I can't describe it much tho.

Pop Tart was AMAZING. FLAKY warm and perfectly sweet. $4.

Their maple pecan is well balanced! I believe the rest rooms are in the outside of the building so you may need to ask for...

Used to frequent Merit since I started working on the strip, but honestly every interaction I have in here is something left to be desired. Customer service is okay. Coffee isn’t the best. It’s pretty much always busy, great for them, but it definitely shows in their quality. I’ve really stopped going after my prior interaction after I was left waiting on a peppermint tea for ten or so minutes while the baristas talked to other customers instead of making my drink, not a big deal but annoying. However I decided to give them one last shot and I got a completely wrong order for a coffee that tasted like they hadn’t cleaned the machine in a few days.

Definitely won’t be spending anymore of my hard...