Gemina Coffee Shop — Restaurant in New York

Gemina is a Turkish family-owned coffee shop, conveniently located in East Village. The space is small but cozy, and I highly recommend sitting at their outdoor tables on cool days.

The baristas are very welcoming and knowledgeable. We had a great chat with them about coffee and Istanbul.

Apart from coffee and pastries, Gemina serves breakfast food like bagels and croissant sandwiches. I always prefer buying coffee from small local cafes. Check them out if you're in the area and support small businesses.

＊Salmon Cream Cheese Bagel While I have high bar on bagels, their lox bagel didn't disappoint. It has a crispy crust and pillowy dough. The smoked salmon, tomato and plain cream cheese complement well with one another. The portion size is just right for breakfast.

＊Grilled Cheese Grilled Cheese looks plain but very tasty. We loved the cheese and the crispy sourdough.

＊Pastel de Nata Make sure to grab their signature pastel de nata!! The egg custard is jiggly and creamy with a nice blistered top and flaky crust. It is very sweet and filled with rich eggy flavor.

＊Orange Espresso This summer special coffee is layered with orange juice and double shots of espresso. A combo that I never thought it would work well! It is a less sweet drink compared to other special coffee on their menu. They also emphasize they don't pour too much ice to keep the balanced flavor.

＊Frozen Pineapple Lemonade Refreshing drink for non coffee drinkers. It tastes healthy and not too sweet, which you can tell they don't add extra syrup or sweetener to the slush. It also comes in...

Now this is a place I was personally looking forward to try because I walk by almost everyday and always wanted to stop when I have to sit and enjoy that lovely little greenish coffee shop either such beautiful nata cakes on display ! Today I did , though I had no time , but I ordered a salmon avocado bagel and a nata of course to try what seems like their specialty. The bagel had white bread only , and if they had other options I wish they offered because they don’t have a selection display . Overall the bagel still tasted fine and the bread seemed fresh which is good because it’s never my first choice . The nata was just ok tbh , I had many in my life and this one lacked crispiness and was a touch too sweet , I think . All this is unimportant if the customer service was good ( the staff was almost rude and I opted for cash tips that I put in the jar which means they saw nothing in the bill . They both kept on checking and giving me the nasty you cheap look , I was so tempted to say I did tip . Overall...

Bad coffee, bad food and dishonest practices. I kept trying with this place because I live across the street and not too many coffeeshops have food. The coffee has been uniformly burned, the food ranges from bad (tuna sandwich) to not bad (salmon bagel), but what finally made me leave this review was the dishonest practices of the space. For at least the last month, they have raised their prices but didn't update the menu nor do they warn you when you order. The prices are at least $2-3 more per item, and you only find that information out if you look at the check. Today, I got $6 croissant sandwich that the owner switched to a bagel (out of croissants) and tried to charge $12. When I protested, he got it down to $8 - still more than the original price. Last time...