Volo Coffeehouse — Restaurant in Philadelphia

*Update 12212021: I appreciated the reply. Bumping this up to 3 stars. Hope to chat with the owner at some point. This place does deserve 5 stars. I hope to adjust that soon.

This is really sad that I have to give this place 1 star. I never do this. But the way I was talked at was not ok.

I’ve come here for over 5 years. I moved away and was in town and decided to start my morning at volo!

I came in to get a small oat latte. Waited and was asked by the staff what I was waiting for because it had been sometime. There was a caramel latte that barista called out sitting on the counter. She said that was my drink.

I said oh— he said that’s caramel? She insisted it was mine, so I took it.

Walked out, first sip, caramel. (And it’s fine, stuff happens, I used to work in food service— I get it).

I came back in, was ignored and event walked over to the girl and said, he this is caramel, I don’t want this.”

She asked what I got, which I said it was just a regular oat milk latte. I was walking away to put the coffee I had on their bar and here is the kicker.

She says, “so you going to give that to me or are you just going to walk out with that.”

Maybe she was having a bad day, maybe she is tired of working in a coffee shop, maybe she just didn’t like me.

Either way. It’s really bad when an employee talks to people like everything is their fault. Didn’t say sorry, didn’t laugh about it, just bottom line, a mean response.

Learned my lesson about going here now. Guess places change. I don’t even want to drink this coffee anymore. Honestly left feeling kind of...

DON'T GO HERE IF YOU'RE A PERSON OF COLOUR:

This is a great coffee with excellent coffee and food options, unfortunately the service is terrible if you're not white. We were served by this guy, I don’t know his name but he’s medium height, white and short cropped hair. He was incredibly irritable and rude to me and my family for no reason. There were 4 of us that came in, for two of our party it was their first time. We came inside and shifted over away from the line and told ppl behind us we weren’t in line as we were looking at the menu to decide what to order. We then joined the back of the line and told the order to the guy I mentioned earlier.

He was mean, snappy and absolutely horrendously rude for no reason. It was to the point that I almost felt like laughing because it was just insane. I can literally not understand what we had done to be spoken to like this. Our order wasn’t complex or with random add ons, it was just 2 cappuccinos, a tea and a plain iced latte and a avo toast and sandwich.

We are south Asian and two of our party wore hijab, we did note that we were the only ppl of colour who were patrons at the time. Judging from other reviews at this place this is not a place for POC to enter. I believe I was treated okay the few times I had gone on my own because I'm white passing. This is absolutely...

I stopped at this place randomly just looking for cafe style food near me on Google. I was a little hesitant to stop here because I know how parking can be on Main Street. That’s literally the only issue I would ever have for this place. I found a spot right out front when I went, although it was midday, so I’m not sure about weekends or later. The staff was so friendly! They talked to me the entire time I waited for my food and they were so warm and made me feel like I was talking to people I’ve known for a long time. I ordered a latte and it was the best tasting and most beautiful latte I’ve had, and I was a barista at one time in my life. The latte came out very quickly. I ordered the volo toast to eat and oh my was that delicious! You think it’ll just be a small snack like some other food stops but it’s actually a decent amount of food on a large piece of bread, and was also put together beautifully. The atmosphere is relaxing and quaint, and the entire front is windows so you can enjoy looking outside while you sit. There are plenty of tables to sit on a laptop and just enjoy your time there while you work or study. I believe I saw a sign leading upstairs as well, which may hold even more seating. I highly recommend giving this...