The Keep Coffee — Restaurant in San Diego

An interesting and fairly new coffee shop and hangout in Kearny Mesa near the intersection of Convoy and Clairemont Mesa. It’s right next to O Zone Billiards. The interior is really spacious and minimalistic, with a grand piano in the center of the room, plenty of seating, and lots of electrical outlets to boot.

Strangely enough, I had a kind of reverse experience here. Usually, I find that coffee shops tend to mask the lower quality (or burntness) of their beans through their fancier espresso drinks.

At The Keep, the straight Supernova espresso shot was absolutely delicious and super high-quality. On the other hand, the latte was overly milky, to the point that I couldn’t taste the Ethiopian espresso at all. I think they need to balance the milk and additives in their drinks to help make their very tasty beans shine.

I’ll have to come back sometime soon to try another drink and a pastry so I have a more well-rounded understanding of The Keep’s offerings. It sure seems like people love it—the place was packed and my latte took about 15 minutes to make.

Update: My second visit to The Keep bumped the cafe from 4/5 to 5/5. This go around, I ordered the Ethiopian espresso I first tried in the latte my first visit. It was delicious! The roasts they’re using are incredible. I like the Supernova a bit more due to the citrus notes, but this one was solid as well.

I also had a cortado with Brazilian beans. It was really good too. Finally, I tried a pastry, opting for the chocolate croissant. They heated it up for me and it was super flavorful and flaky.

I have a feeling this place got stars knocked off from being so hyped up and busy during its opening months, which likely led to a pace of business that was extremely difficult to serve consistently. Now that they’re in the swing of things, I can confidently say it’s in my top 10 coffee shops in San...

When you walk in the interior doesn’t appear to be finished and the menu was not displayed except for when you get to the counter which is a bit of a nuisance but I’m sure they’ll fix these things the longer they’re open. The flavor options are basic: vanilla, caramel, orange (in only one specific drink). The pastries are from the same company that supplies much of sd so nothing too exciting there except for their garlic cream cheese bun and brownie (and also the basque cheese cake which was advertised but they didn’t have)

We got the keep lattes (caramel and vanilla), the garlic cream cheese bun, and the brownie.

The espresso in the lattes tasted pretty good but since they contain like half a cup of whipped cream we couldn’t finish them. This may be a matter of taste but the bun was inedible to us because it was so sweet. Like as sweet as the lattes, but with garlic (shuddering thinking about it). Needless to say we ate one slice and tossed the rest.The brownie didn’t have a strong chocolate flavor and didn’t seem the freshest (may have just been overcooked slightly), so we also didn’t finish that 😅

Overall, would come once for the novelty of the whipped coffee once, but nothing to draw me back a second time unless they got unique flavors and a better pastry selection (especially in the savory...

I love coffee shops with this kind of ambiance. The menu is small, with less than 10 options on it, but the place is beautiful, open, and filled with life. It’s a wonderful spot to bring some work and spend some time - either alone or with friends! I spent $9.70 on my drink.

There are seats that are accommodating to people of all sizes. I’m a plus size person and was able to find comfortable seating for both singular chairs and on open-ended seating. I could comfortably spend time here.

Staff was friendly and when ordering, they had an iPad with beautiful visuals of each food and drink option, with a description of each. It was very accommodating and helpful!

My drink is so sweet and delicious! I’ve never had anything like it and will certainly be craving it in the future. I hope others come and try it!

I didn’t see any flyers announcing local groups or events, but I can see this being a really cute event space for small gatherings and groups. Maybe for karaoke, bingo, or...