The Stoke — Restaurant in Ocean City

My jaw almost hit the floor when I saw how the baristas make ice lattes. They pour hot espresso in the plastic cup with milk+syrup, then added ice. There are 3 main reasons you shouldn’t do this: 1. The espresso would “burn” the milk; 2. It dilutes the drink; 3. It fails to preserve the aroma of the espresso. I’m ok with this if you’re charging 2 dollars for a latte. But when you charge $7 for a small ice oat milk caramel latte, you should do it right. It might be a good investment for y’all to properly educate your baristas. Perhaps they could shadow at another cafe.

Also, the syrup. When you charge that much for a latte, you better give me HOMEMADE SYRUPS. I get that all the syrups are “organic”, but honestly it was pretty disappointing. I barely tasted the caramel in my latte. How about less variety of flavors, but more authentic, better flavored syrups?

My jaw DEFINITELY hit the ground when I saw baristas pulling out the jug of matcha from the fridge. I’m fine with that if I’m going to Dunkin and pay $4-5 for a matcha latte. But when you’re charging $8 for a small matcha latte, you can do better. Come on guys, don’t bulk make your matcha. Sift it, and WHISK IT, one serving at a time. I know it’s slower, and people will have to wait longer. But wouldn’t you want to give your customers quality products, for the price that they are paying? I don’t normally play the race/cultural card, but I genuinely feel like this is such a poor demonstration/representation of the beautiful Japanese matcha culture.

The service? Subpar. It was pretty disappointing based off what we saw online and how it was advertised. How about a nice “how are you doing today” at the register? Pick up was confusing, because sometimes names were called, sometimes they weren’t. And names were hard to hear because the baristas’ volumes were low.

Açaí bowl was good! Fruit tasted fresh. But honestly wasn’t worth $13!

All in all, the cafe was very very very cute. The owners did such a great job renovating the place and setting everything up.

I’m not a coffee expert, just someone who loves overpaying for a GOOD coffee. But I hope y’all read my review, think about it, and decide to do better so you can serve your community with higher...

For a modern cafe, that plays with a surfing theme and has a book about keeping beaches clean on their shelf, I had higher expectations...

But no: the place offers only plastic cups for smoothies and lattes, plastic for bowls, and provides no bins for recycling. The amount of unnecessary waste this cafe and its customers produce is horrific.

For a beach town, that is affected by plastic pollution and will experience the impacts of rising sea levels before others, one would expect to see every organization and person that cares about Ocean City to do whatever they can to be green. Sadly the Stoke is a part of the problem and contributes to over-production and over-consumption of plastic, and thus to plastic pollution and climate change.

Do pay a visit to the lagoon side of the Ocean City, where world famous surfer Kelly Slater and local 2nd graders remind the bywalkers about the need to reduce - not increase - waste. Surely wortwhile ideas also for the Stoke...

This place is a true gem if you need some real food! I can feel the nutrients absorbing into my cells! Much needed after eating in Ocean City!

The place is clean and nice on the eyes. The service is wonderful. I ordered the Golden Latte with oatmilk. It has their signature espresso, tumeric, coconut, rieshi, ashwagandha, and honey. It was delicious! I also got a gluten-free vegan lemon poppy seed muffin. I had them heat it up. It was such a treat! It tasted like it was full of butter! My husband got the Tidal Toast. His eyes rolled back in his head when he tasted salmon. He said it was a perfect balance of all flavors. The kids got the Dogtown bowls. They loved them. The littlest got a gluten-free vegan donut. It was gone before I returned with their hot chocolate. My daughter got Kombusha. It was her first time and she enjoyed it. We all enjoyed this place, and we were greatfull to find it. It also has...