Crete Tea Room — Restaurant in Phoenix

First time coming to this spot. Sitting here with my wife. Watching the two young men behind the counter engage in conversation with a female client. Customer next to us has obviously been waiting a while as well. She just stood up and went to attract the attention of the two people talking and slowly working on everyone's drinks. We ordered our drinks and went next door to get Mexican food before the visual that Im describing. Paid, waited and received our food before returning to retrieve our drink order. We just waited an additional 12 minutes before we received our drinks. I'm not unhappy with the drinks but not understanding why service comes secondary at this place. The concrete and natural wood decor is interesting. I wonder how much traffic could come through this spot if they picked up service mentality. Over half an hour to wait for drinks when they paid more attention to a friend than additional paying clients is not a strong business plan. The place doesn't have the comfortable seating needed for a " worth the wait" experience. I'll leave this spot to individuals trying to create that vibe. Definitely not worth the lack of engagement. I was looking forward to the experience described in the reviews. Didn't happen....

I wanted to love this place so bad. Unfortunately it fell short for myself and rest of my group. From the street it doesn’t look like much and in all honesty you’d probably drive right past it without even noticing if you didn’t know what you were looking for. However once inside the minimalist vibe is pretty cool. I could say some may think it “cold”, but with the long tables great for work space or studying as well the little cozier corner area for a smaller group. While there are a few seats at their bar type area it’s not ideal. We ordered the strawberry matcha, taro matcha as well as a ca fae sea salt (Vietnamese coffee). The cashier while knowledgeable wasn’t too friendly and a bit short. Not rude by any means, but didn’t seem to be enjoying her day. We had our drinks pretty quickly. While the drinks were good they were not great. Our matches had a more milky (think cereal milk) taste and not so matcha. The Vietnamese coffee again was ok but I don’t think any of us would order he same thing if we came again. Parking can suck especially during the week as street parking is limited and the lot Nextdoor is for a mechanic shop for the most part. With it being Sunday it worked out for us because the mechanic...

Crete and Slain are two of the best businesses in Phoenix. I've been a customer of Slain for awhile and have had nothing but great experiences. I checked out Crete earlier this year and they didn't have the flavor of Matcha I was looking for available at the time. Months later, Chris (the owner) went out of his way to make sure I got the matcha I had heard so many great things about, and it lived up to every expectation I had! They use a special ceremonial grade Japanese matcha powder, which is evident given the quality and flavor of the matcha.

Chris really cares about his business and it truly shows through the quality and customer service provided. I will definitely be back to both...