KLVN Coffee Lab — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

I actually want to give it 4.5 stars, but since you can’t do that, I’m giving it 4. It scores full point in ambience anaesthetics. Probably the largest cafe I have been to in Pittsburgh size wise, and also very modern and minimalist. The minimalism does get in the way of comfort sometimes, because the seating isn’t exactly very comfortable. The space is super bright on good sunny day. This is solidly in the hip category of cafes and everyone in the cafe, at the same time with us seem to be a working professional, either grabbing coffee with their colleagues or just working in the cafe. I guess this would make a good place to work for if you’re looking to work from a cafe. Now coming to tea coffee itself, it was very average for me. I had an iced latte, which was good. not great, but not bad either. My friend had a cold brew which she liked as well. We also ordered a Pain au chocolate go with it which was pretty bad. It was stale and cold.. I have had much better croissants in other places in Pittsburgh. Also, not getting proper ceramic mugs for a dine in order is a pet peeve of mine, and they seem to only have takeaway plastic and paper mugs for all their orders. If I had to sum up this place, this is somewhere you go when you have to get some work done and not a place you go when you want to just...

Let's start off with the fact that I'm not a big coffee drinker... I'm more of a coffee in my cream kinda girl, so the fact that I ordered a decaf latte and could drink it without any sweetener says a lot. I mean, their coffee is that Good! I went back and tried the Maple decaf latte, and I had to pull over to fully experience it... I went back Again and got drinks for my co-workers, and even with one of them being a straight-up and down coffee connoisseur, rave reviews. The staff? Beautiful. Engaging. Knowledgeable. Patient.. which is important because you might feel a little out of your league with all the options, especially for somebody like me! The vibe in this place is phenomenal, to say the least! Their website doesn't even scratch the surface as far as pictures go to capture the vibe, so you must go and check it out for yourself. Take your work computer, homework, friends or whatever because this place is it! Shout out to my Malibu boo, who recommended this place. It's definitely a game changer! Pittsburgh needs more places like this! Oh! And they make gluten-free goodies too! The...

The coffee is flat-out excellent. My latte was very similar to the Blue Bottle Hayes Valley blend I would have every morning when I lived in San Francisco – chocolatey but complex and the milk temperature was perfect. Unfortunately, KLVN also shares some of the pretentious attitude that Blue Bottle had in its early days, not to mention many other coffee houses that take themselves way too seriously. I was in town visiting my family. We're generally a playful "old style Pittsburgh" bunch and we like to crack jokes and bring smiles to people's faces. I had my niece with me and our efforts were, of course, met with cold blank stares throughout.

Now, I loooove great coffee. Therefore, I'm willing to ignore and/or endure annoying navel-gazing hipsters in pursuit of my addiction. So, I only knocked off one star for atmospherics. Otherwise, it would have been a solid five stars for outstanding coffee. Perhaps I should do more self-examination to determine why it is I gravitate towards these pretentious coffees? Or,...