KOS COFFEE — Restaurant in Maitland

This is a tough review to write. The coffee is excellent and the food is pretty great (when fresh, the banana bread is excellent). That said, the shop was much better when they first opened. In the earliest days, the owner/GM (I dunno) was in the cafe and he is awesome. Friendly, knowledgeable, and welcoming. Since then, they seem to have largely left the operations to staff who are less so. Generally, staff are lukewarm-to-barely caring, and it has taken upwards of 15 minutes to make a basic espresso drink—I know it isn’t the quickest thing to do, but I’ve been to enough cafes to know it can be done more quickly. Worse, though, is that it’s easy to get distracted during the protracted wait and, on two occasions where the wait was 20+ minutes, I’ve gone to check in on the progress only to find that my drink has been sitting on the farthest corner of the counter for who-knows-how-long. It’s a small shop. When the order is done, call out the name at a decibel that can be heard. If you see that no one has stepped up to get it, consider calling the name again; it isn’t a huge place. Again, the coffee and food are great, the owner(?) is great, and I want this to be a great cafe. It just...

Pros:

The oat milk matcha latte was beautifully presented and delicious, though a bit strong for my taste. A lighter hand with the matcha would have made it more balanced. My pickled herring toast had fresh ingredients and, while slightly dry, was still enjoyable. Good seating options, both indoors and outdoors, provided a comfortable space to relax.

Cons:

I checked the menu online before visiting to plan my order but the in-store menu was significantly different, with higher prices--especially for food. For example, the pickled herring toast was listed as $10 online but cost around $15 at the café. They lacked Danish rye bread and only served American sourdough instead. Apart from the Norwegian steeped coffee (described as "unfiltered and prepared in a traditional Nordic kettle"), the herring, and the skyr yogurt, the Norwegian influence on the menu seemed minimal. Service was a bit slow. One staff member was friendly and attentive, but another seemed irritated when I asked for extra dill and mayo to accompany my toast, which was slightly dry and a bit...

Came here a couple of weeks ago with a friend. Firstly, we couldn’t find the location-signage is pretty terrible from anywhere except right in front of the shop. Secondly, I do not recall the barista’s name, but they were nonbinary. By accident, I used an incorrect pronoun and corrected myself, but the barista then became unfriendly. No more smiling, some eye rolling. It is frustrating I know, but this experience did not help me feel like giving this place another chance. Thirdly, the shop is very small, I understand being in such an obscure location and being a small business, but there were two other customers there glaring at my friend and I. Because it is such close quarters, they were about 2 feet and 5 feet away from us respectively and made the whole experience uncomfortable. Fourthly, the pricing is pretty high for what you receive. Spending $6 on a tiny cup of iced coffee with a disintegrating paper straw that tasted pretty subpar was disappointing.

Overall, I’m sure this may be a cute cool hipster joint for some people… but there are better coffee...