Haraz Coffee House — Restaurant in Philadelphia

It just opened so I shouldn't be expecting too much. A few problems is that it may be more expensive than most other places, especially locally roasted coffee places with less of an atmosphere but amazing blends and brews. I haven't tried all the haras roasts, but I plan on doing that throughout some months. I first went last weekend and it was exciting to see the place and many people, which in logistics the cafe was not prepared to handle right away. This may have lessened some people's interest to come back until further training and comprehension. I think openings should have like a faux opening day to test the waters and then a grand opening. There was probably complaints of too hot, which forced now Luke warm after my second visit. My first visit was a little more temp higher than like warm, but a girl in front of me kind of burned herself because the lid was not on too tight or not positioned well on the cup. It maybe she tried to lift it from the lid? A good well rounded temperature for espresso drinks is a standard of cafes around the city which can be higher or a little lower. No one really wants a Luke warm drink they paid an expensive price. Places utilize cafe thermometers for this reason, unless you've worked for a bit and know the temperature setting by hand feel. I've worked in cafes before, I got pretty good at making drinks, as other places honor the barista element which compliments skills and latte art but within good timing too. I see Haraz as maybe not trying to be that type of place, which it should strive towards being. Most latte art and care for drinks is what brings people back, also logistics and team behind the bar. It seems a bit shuffled around and no pointed organization. This can take time, but in a team you know how to shift responsibility, like someone taking care of putting drinks out, then switching to making drinks, but you have to have the circular on off organization, probably timed to switch up. Other points being that philly is a climbing culture into environmentally friendly eco responsibility lids and cups. The haras design is pretty awesome, but customers like knowing they're not contributing to too much already pollution- another point is for staff tasting tests on drinks for temperature and taste, if the staff isn't coffee drinkers then maybe they should have some understanding of taste buds comprehending strong to light to medium pour and espresso drinks or teas. I over heard some complaints on watered down or too light. This could be possible, so be sure to taste test drinks or have others that are familiar with tastes to see acceptable amounts to agree upon as strength levels in brews and espresso settings. I'd like to see it do better, so here are...

I’ve been to Haraz about 3 times hoping for improvement but it always carries an air of chaos. The coffee based drinks taste on point but the prices don’t make sense especially for how long it takes for them to come out. Granted the service was much faster my 3rd time around. I’ve ordered the Adani Chai and Qishr and both tasted too strong. I’ve had the Adani Chai multiple times at the Haraz locations in Michigan and they did not taste as strong. I don’t have much knowledge of how the Qishr should taste but there was about 1-2 inches of what I assume to be the drink concentrate just sitting at the bottom. It was an unpleasant experience to accidentally taste it at the end of my drink. They also routinely run out of certain food items past the afternoon. For a cafe with such long hours, I would hope to have more food options available at the later hours. I’ve also seen management publicly chastise the employees. Not a great thing to witness when you’re trying to enjoy your visit. Also each time I’ve visited, I witnessed food delivery orders get botched. Whether it’s a last minute realization that an item was missing or that other in store customers would grab drinks meant for couriers. This seems like something that should be an easy fix so I hope that improves. I want Haraz to get better, but I think the expansive drink menu, high cost, poor training, and low number of staff are really hurting the chances of...

Today was my first time going and I got an Iced coffee with vanilla, a Pistachio cream donut and a Dubai chocolate bar. The total was $24 and change.

The coffee was watery even though I had asked for extra vanilla. You also couldn't taste the coffee at all as if it was made with very a little amount of ground coffee beans.

The pistachio cream was good and the donut was good but it wasn't really exciting. I also didn't like the chunks of pistachio on the donut. (But I know I'm weird, because I don't really like nuts or the texture of them. Pistachios are the only ones I enjoy but I Just wasn't throwing the chunks on top of the cream.)

The Dubai chocolate bar was good. But $12 was a lot for that. And it had a thick top layer of chocolate that somewhat overpowered the filling, so it wasn't very balanced.

Besides that, the staff were really nice and didn't give me a hassle even when I forgot to ask for cream in my coffee. The ambiance was nice. I don't know if the store does have AC and it just was down, but the store was hot and it took at least 20 minutes of sitting still to finally be comfortable in the temperature.

I probably would go back as I'm curious about the biscoff cheesecake and their tea. But I definitely wouldn't go...