Koffeteria — Restaurant in Houston

Koffeteria is a coffee shop located in the East Downtown. They offer a wide variety of unique drinks and pastries.

I went on a few occassions and tried a few of their special drinks: Salty Cambodian, Make Ya Halo, and Mazapandan.

The Salty Cambodian, which is recommended hot, was one of my favorites. It was slightly salted but not too much and balanced well with bitterness of coffee.

My other favorite was the Make Ya Halo. It was a cold brew drink with sweet coconut ube cream, and I really enjoyed the ube cream. It was light and did not taste like artifical ube.

As a Vietnamese person, I absolutely love pandan but was a bit disappointed with the drink, as the Mazapandan was very watery with not much of a pandan flavor.

They also had various pastries, and there were so many options. It’s always hard choosing which to eat because everything looks intriguing!

During the different times I went, I was able to try the ham and cheese croissant, peach brown sugar scone, and lemon coffee cake.

The ham and cheese croissant was super crispy and delicious. The peach brown sugar scone was my favorite pastry. It was soft but also crispy around the edges, which I really enjoyed. The peach flavor was very light, and it was also not too sweet. I think it is one of the best scones I’ve had in Houston!

The lemon coffee cake is unique from other lemon ones in that it uses preserved lemons. You can really taste it more at the bottom of the cake. It reminds me of Vietnamese chanh muối. The crumbs on top made the coffee cake crispy and was my favorite part, but the rest of the coffee cake was a bit too dry for me.

The inside is kind of small. There isn’t much parking, and you kind of have to parallel park around the area. However, the staff is super nice and helpful when I visit in the mornings.

Overall, I think their classic drinks and pastries are very unique and special, and I really enjoy everything they have to offer. You can definitely tell that the pastries were made well and with lots...

We live in the same neighborhood as Koffeteria and had been spying it for a while on our frequent bike rides. A neighbor recommended them and then posted a photo of one of their pastries. That was all it took, we HAD to go. On our first trip, we ordered the Tiger Uppercut (Iced Thai Tea with a shot of espresso) and a Cocoa Nib Cold Brew. For pastries, we ordered the limited Martin Luther King Cake and established Double Chocolate Chip Cookie. Immediately, we fell in love with this little coffee shop. The coffees are expertly brewed, especially the cold brew! The MLKing Cake was decadent. Perfectly flakey pastry with the butter seamlessly folded into the crust. The cookie is now a staple every time we go. We are guessing it is baked in some type of cast iron mini pot, the way it comes out perfectly crisp and golden brown on the outside and a warm soft center, topped with salt! Since our first experience, we have been back several times and each time is better than the time before. We have tried the Red Velvet Cinnamon Roll (twice, it's that good and will order again), the Ube Coconut Muffin Top (moist and delicious!) , the Ube Croissant (flakey golden crust with ube folded in), the Ham and Cheese Croissant with Everything Spice (great savory option), and the Salty Cambodian (coffee drink, very filling & energizing). The owners are very kind and thoughtful, after the winter storm they gave everyone who came a free pastry and coffee to lift our frozen spirits. The inside is currently closed for dine-in but there is a bright and cheerful back patio that is open....

I don't think this place has coffee. It's actually a lot of Milkshakes. I would suggest they deserve zero stars but the Kolach actually tasted good so maybe they get one star, but for $7 that tiny thing was not worth it. Maybe if it was $3-4.

Now back to why I went there and spent $20 on espresso drinks. I don't think they actually make any coffee there at all. But their Almond milk was good at least. Usually espresso drinks have a certain ratio to them between espresso and milk. Everything there was 95% milk but just in different sizes of cups.

At the end I decided to get a Tiger Uppercut which seems to be their signature drink. I sat there and watched the "barista" throw one shot of espresso, maybe it was a dopio, from an already brewed big cup of espresso they had just sitting out on to the side, and just hand it to me like they weren't just cheating me out of money. What a absolute joke this place is. In a way, at least it tasted better than the place down the street which I could tell hadn't cleaned their espresso machines since they got them. But that's easy to do when you don't actually use enough or any espresso at all.

Either way, I don't even blame the employees or the customers for letting these places exist at all. I blame the management who clearly doesn't care about their products or to even train their employees. Pathetic excuse of a...