Coffeecito House — Restaurant in Riverside

A coffee shop that puts the cart before the horse. I’ve wanted to check out Coffeecito for a while, having heard it has a nice ambiance. However, I hesitated because I’d heard the coffee was unremarkable.

Still, I decided to give it a shot and visited on a sunny afternoon. Coffeecito lives up to its reputation for ambiance, with intriguing outdoor, first floor, and second floor seating options.

The first signs of disappointment appeared when placing my order. I asked the barista about their espresso, and she proceeded to tell me about their different lattes. I clarified my question, but she asked what flavors I liked instead. When I specifically inquired about the beans they use for espresso shots, she had to step away to grab a bag of their espresso blend. I would have expected any barista to have understood the question on first ask and without having to consult the bean bag.

One sip of the espresso confirmed what I’d heard about the coffee. It had a sharp, bitter bite that quickly turned into a dirt-like aftertaste.

Coffeecito seems stuck in the second wave coffee era, where café vibes and fun flavors take precedence over the coffee itself. It’s easy to mask bad coffee with milk and sugar, and based on reviews, my experience with the barista, and the actual coffee, that seems to be exactly the case here.

Looking at the owner’s responses to criticism, it’s clear there’s more defensiveness than genuine consideration of critiques about the coffee.

While I wouldn’t recommend Coffeecito for coffee, I do want to try their food and genuinely enjoyed the ambiance. It’s difficult to recommend their coffee when there are better options in Riverside, such as Condron or Arcade.

Coffeecito has potential, especially as a cozy place to meet. To improve, I’d recommend focusing on making the espresso taste good and training the baristas better. The issue might lie in the bean blend or a bad dial on the machine, but it’s certainly...

Check update on the bottom!!

Hello! I love supporting small businesses, especially Latina owned, so I’m super excited I got to check this place out. The atmosphere is definitely a vibe and a place I would enjoy studying at. There are various seating options, such as upstairs, downstairs, and outside seating. I tried a gingerbread cold brew and wasn’t overly impressed by the drink. It’s a very subtle drink when it comes to flavor. I will say it tastes more as vanilla than gingerbread. The coffee itself doesn’t taste bad but it isn’t strong. Typically cold brews are my go to strong coffee so I was a little disappointed when the taste of the coffee wasn’t there. When you order the drink you can see the coffee looks a little watery. It’s a nice drink flavor wise but not a strong coffee. I would definitely like to try out some of their other coffee options before deciding if this will become my new coffee spot.

Update: sadly this will not be my go to coffee shop. I ordered a Dulce de leche latte and it just tasted like milk. It didn’t have the condensed milk taste and it didn’t even taste like coffee. It literally tasted like whole milk. I really wished I loved this place but it’s the second time I go and this time I was extremely...

I really do love the ambiance of the whole place, and I love their coffee and I would even say their coffee is better then Starbucks however their food is questionable I think they need a new way of sorting and heating as I have received on two different occasions the wrong item and then it was cold on top of that. The first was the Bacon and egg quiche and I received a veg quiche and it was cold, The most upsetting was my croissant ham and egg sandwich, I bit into it on my way to work and the egg was runny and cold! It really grossed me out..... And so I decided not to heat up there anymore and heat up when I get to work, but this time I got a beef burrito instead of chorizo and egg burrito. The service is wat it is with that slow heating device and them not being able to keep up with the order the girls are lovely it really isn't their fault, they just need a new method of heating faster and sorting. I don’t particularly like to post bad reviews but being that it’s the third time and I can’t get a hold of anybody to talk to them about it and every single time I’m there it’s pretty busy and I don’t want people to wait behind me while I let them know what happen so haven’t been able to contact anyone I have tried to call, no...