969 NYC Coffee — Restaurant in New York

Unprofessional, Poor Communication, Bad Management. Came here 2PM on a Sunday and was really looking forward to trying the different onigiris and sandwiches 969 offered and had my entire order laid out. To preface, this shop is run by one man. When I arrived, he was running around in the back and there was one customer waiting for their order for who knows how long. I stood at the front and waited for 5 minutes. Another customer entered the store and he took her order first, despite knowing I was waiting around. He called me up after, and when I was listing my order, he kept repeating "rice not ready yet" and other things which I couldn't understand clearly, but still took down my order. He also spoke really fast and in a condescending tone. He gaslighted me when I tried to order a sausage onigiri telling me he never made such thing and said I made it up (which in fact I did not). After taking down my order, he told me it would be ready in 20 minutes. I sat and waited for 25 minutes before checking on my order. When I asked how much longer it would be, he told me he didn't start on it yet, and then proceeded to point at the lady behind me with a condescending smile saying she called ahead therefore he was working on her order. I asked to cancel my order and left because I was in shock by how I was treated considering how highly rated this place is. I checked on the one star reviews and noticed some people had experienced the same thing which made me feel a little less crazy. He should've 1) gave a proper ETA after taking down my order by assessing how many other orders he needed to prepare and the fact the rice was cooking instead of complaining to me, and 2) acted professional and patient when taking down my order and in his response when I checked...

Definitely more a cafe with nice food than a food place with nice coffee. Coffee and matcha are very smooth, easily best part of experience. At the time was $3 for a large coffee, definitely worth it.

Tried out smoked salmon with cream cheese onigiri, ramen, pork sandwich, corn croquette. Croquette was 3 pieces served over rice with side salad, quite delicious with the sauce. There is a bottle of spicy mayo around that goes well with it too, or really anything for that matter. Sandwich was small but filling, very tasty but packaging was annoying. Definitely take it out of the plastic wrap completely before eating. Onigiri was well-seasoned though filling was sparse, flavor good and rice fresh. Ramen had decent flavor, though only small amount of pork included. The noodles are plentiful and there is a boiled egg, pretty tasty overall. For a cafe it has pretty good food, nothing mind-blowing but lots of variety to tide you over while nursing a coffee or tea.

There is actually a decent amount of seating for such a small place. Outside there are 3 tables with seats, and by the entrance there is some counter seating with 4 stools. As you enter there are two tables and as you approach the front counter there are two more tables off to the side.

Would definitely stop by again if am in the area, coffee and food are good and service was prompt...

In my honest opinion, it's OK.

The Instagram algorithm tipped me onto this place since it's nearby one of the Blink gyms I frequent, so I figured, why not?

The place is small, felt packed with a number of people here, so the place does get good business. I left unsure of what I wanted to order because there was no menu for food, only coffee and tea, which I had no appetite for at the time. They didn't even have Iced Tea, just a few drinks kinda close to it. I had an idea for a sandwich but didn't know what they had because once again, the place had no food menu, so I just went with the Chicken Teriyaki onigiri. The onigiri itself is good but felt too light, it did not really fill me up at all, maybe I could've ordered something bigger but the place was already packed with customers and I didn't want to wait on more food so I just settled with it and an apple and grape fusion soda with no sugar. The drink...wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't want it again anytime soon.

This place may be a hit with others but, it just wasn't it for me. Nothing bad about that, not everything is gonna be a home run and it's not even a knock on Japanese food as a while because I'm a fan of their style of food. It ISN'T for me for lack of better words. I wish this place the best of business, not sure if I'd return here but they'll be...