Better Buzz Coffee Pacific Beach West — Restaurant in San Diego

I have been a loyal customer of Better Buzz for years, frequenting multiple locations on a regular basis. Unfortunately, a few days ago was my breaking point—I will never return to any Better Buzz location again. Consider this a $500/month loss due to extremely poor management.

Better Buzz has made it clear they do not value their customers’ safety or comfort. I came in intending to work and enjoy a cup of coffee, but what unfolded was unacceptable. After picking up my order, I noticed a man seated near the front window who appeared angry and unstable. Within minutes, he began shouting racial slurs and throwing sucker punches in the direction of a young man seated nearby. At one point, when a chair accidentally bumped a plug, he nearly became physically violent toward me.

Several of us—including other patrons nearby—felt unsafe, like he was going to sho-ot up the place, and chose to leave because the situation was escalating quickly. The manager on duty, however, refused to remove this threatening individual from the café. As a business owner myself, I know that when a customer resorts to physical aggression, immediate action must be taken. Allowing him to remain endangered everyone in the shop.

To make matters worse, the district manager has done nothing—no outreach, no apology, no accountability. In the end, five of us regulars left that day and decided Better Buzz no longer deserves our time or money. Instead, we’ve rented an office space, invested in a quality coffee machine, and created a safe environment of our own.

I also couldn’t even retrieve my laptop charger due to fear of being attacked. This situation made it painfully clear that Better Buzz leadership does not prioritize safety, comfort, or customer well-being. They’ve lost my business permanently.

This location:

Pros: Great location, seats, plugs

Cons: Always dirty, poorly managed, no TP, shakes do not get mixed well to be served for the price, unsafe, kids run the shop, lacks multi-generational employees, management is awful & very adolescent. I do not think this is the job for him.

thanks... I am out a PC charger now. Do you plan to mail it or...

Wife ordered 2 separate orders and when we got to the window, only one had been received. Woman on the intercom let us know that they just got the order and they havnt received the other one yet. Okay, no problem. So we roll up to the window, receive the first order and are told by the person that our other order was still not received. Totally understandable, so we asked if we could place the order at the window. We were told that we cant because they have a "timer". I used to work in food service so I can understand that they want their numbers to look good. A little annoying but whatever. So i leave the drive through, and u-turn back into the line and go up to the window. We had placed the other order by now through the app, and when we got to the window we were told that the order was just received and that it would be a couple minutes. Okay cool, no problem. There are NO customers in the drive through line, so we roll up to the window for the second time. We get a different barista who hands us our drink and tells me "Next time you need to wait at the order area until we call you up". I was confused because i literally just did everything that was asked. I asked for clarification because it sounded like she wanted us to go BACK to the ordering window. But no, she just wanted to give us shit and tell us we ruined her "timer" because we didnt do a thing that we were never told to do (wait at the drive through order area). That server was being an asshole for zero reason after we did a bunch of unnecessary shit to get our second order. Also assuming that we would know that her saying "The order will take a few minutes" was to mean that we needed to wait there until she told us to drive up is super silly and completely not worth dying on a hill for. Maybe if you want your customer to wait in a certain area, SAY IT. They say assuming makes an ass out of you and me, but today you just made an ass of yourself. Complete meme worthy angry angsty barista moment. Inform your employees that no one knows about your secret timer and no one is going to assume that they need to wait at spot unless you...

Better Buzz has gotta be my favorite coffee spot in SD. Mainly because I love the products and I adore the aesthetics. Their styling and branding is bold, current and madly popular. The smith's were playing overhead and I sang along to This Charming Man while some cold foam splashed onto my fedora and my sunglasses fell into my avocado toast. Ok.jk that didn't happen but I DID sing along to the smith's as it played. The coffee and other products are great, a little on the expensive side but I feel like you're paying for that strong branding and prime san diego real estate so gladly you hand over your hard earned money with a smile each and every time. Take my money, please, I insist... Their string of cafes all seem to have an open airy feel to them. Quite modern and often functional designed spaces with lots of natural light and chic house plants that command you notice. This time I only had an acai bowl as part of a series-gone-quest to find the best Acai Bowl in SD. While I loved their rendition, it was just basic and not over the top as I would expect from BB. Granted I did order the most Basic B!+ch of the 3 thst they offered.. Full of berries and banana, the portion of granola was generous and added an element of texture and crunch through the entire experience in a way that I appreciated and loved. By basic I don't mean tawdry... no not even. I mean it's simple and predictable and probably very consistent and that's a good thing for when you're just needing to fill a fix. I personally LOVE when there are cacao nibs, mango, pineapple and chia seeds included and this bowl was missing those things. This Acai Bowl is a solid B But the caffe, it's staff and it's Corporation in total get 5...