Rêve Coffee Lab River Ranch — Restaurant in Lafayette

I’ve been to Reve many times before and enjoy their specialty coffee drinks. On my most recent visit, I decided to change it up and order an espresso martini. I sat down at a table and waited about 15 minutes, but the drink never came out.

I went to the counter and told the girl who was making the drinks that I had been waiting awhile for my order. She asked me what I had and I told her an espresso martini. She checked her tickets and said she didn’t have that order. Her coworker explained that those drinks print out from a separate area. The girl making drinks told me she didn’t see my drink order since it printed out from a separate area and it would be out in a minute.

I then waited at the counter and watched as she proceeded to make everyone else’s drinks who ordered after me. If you know there’s been a mixup with someone’s order and that they’ve already been waiting for quite some time, why would you keep them waiting even longer?? After standing at the counter for five to ten minutes as she ignored me, I told her I was going to sit back down and asked that the drink be brought to my table. She said she would have someone bring it. I sat down and waited another five minutes. No one came.

At this point, it had been about a half hour since I placed my order so I walked back to the counter and asked for a refund. The girl at the register went to the back and the kitchen manager (who took my drink order) came out. She apologized and took accountability for the wait, saying that since my drink ticket printed out in a separate location, the person making drinks never got my order. I appreciated her apology since she was the only person that apologized for my wait. However, I explained that the girl making drinks was well aware of what I ordered because I personally told her and she still never made the drink.

They did refund my order but I won’t be back after this experience. A customer doesn’t feel valued if you keep them waiting and ignore them as you continue to make drinks for every single person that comes...

Man. If you’ve been here pre-pandemic, pre-renovation, and have visited since, you are already very well aware of the total loss of identity and quality at this cafe. The only thing that keeps me coming back is that the personnel situation has improved tremendously over the past several months (at the expense of the downtown location LOL but that’s a one star review for a different day).

To put it bluntly, the food kinda sucks now. Pastries are hard. Croissants are clearly frozen and stuffed with equally frozen Sysco quality ingredients. The made-to-order menu is uninspired. And inconsistent. Some days it’s a total waste of $15, and most of the time it leaves me wondering why I didn’t cook breakfast for myself. I don’t want to roast this company too hard, but clearly the dual issues of not being able to hold down a staff and the obsession with cost-cutting measures has been to the extreme detriment of the kitchen.

And while I’m here, I’d like to memorialize the vibe of the old Lab. With its rustic coziness and homegrown atmosphere. The cafe since the renovation has been sanitized of anything that made it unique. Decor ordered off of Amazon. Bare walls, fake plants. I feel like I’m at an airport cafe or a hotel lobby rather than the cafe I used to love.

The coffee is still painfully average. I rarely get a beverage I’m unhappy with per se, but there’s clearly been no incentive to elevate the quality of the roasting and/or barista training. As the standard bearers of specialty coffee in Lafayette, Rêve has decided to keep that post knee-high at best. Their marketing also misrepresents this reality pretty brazenly. If you’ve been to larger cities with more robust coffee scenes, you know that Rêve’s commitment to the craft is all fluff and no finesse.

I take no pleasure in writing this! Kinda tearing up thinking about how things have gone downhill this bad and how I don’t really trust this business to do anything to fix these issues. Alright time to step off the...

Buon Giourno coffee ☕️ lovers. Rêve has a consistently relaxing atmosphere. Better than any other shop in town.

Good quality coffee. Foam on top could be fluffier to last through more than 2 sips. No complaint still a good concoction. But I can see Rêve benefiting from an extra touch of creativity.

There are two servers that make an effort to remember customers name. Today gentleman also remembered my favorite 😍 order. Imagine that novel concept? (Right off the top of his heads)……Tipped him double today. Good guy (Tattooed & glasses; gentleman and a scholar).

Now for a valuable tip on pastries 🥮 🥐 . They need love. Not feeling the love today.

Consistency of blueberry muffin, Bundt raspberry, chocolate banana muffin & peach pastries seem to be made from same batch of dough. Somewhat bland and dry as if stale or extended period on shelf, but I gotta have pastry with coffee despite that. Brittle dough often may result in crumb falling everywhere. Ever consider adding an expect a dash of nutmeg in some pastries or stronger cinnamon.

Moist pastries wud be fantastic ref the Bundt type pastries, assorted muffins and croissants. Fruit topping on peach 🍑cake was dried up on this visit. Banana bischoff also showed a dried up slice of banana oxidized and brown ridges all over. Could be dryness from glass casing environment. BTW, repeatedly witnessing flys inside desert casing. Crawling around having a meal. Can it be prevented?! Would be appreciated.

Rêve crew still rocks no...