Telescope Coffee — Restaurant in San Francisco

I dropped by one day while waiting for SOMArts to open up since it's really close by. The reviews are insanely good so I had really high hopes! One thing I hadn't anticipated when we arrived was how small the cafe is, with no seating. I was a little letdown by that because we thought we could have a seat and enjoy the sunny day. The cafe is very cute but it's in a really random location without much around it. We ended up walking over to Trader Joe's close by while we finished our drinks.

My friend and I got two drinks: the honeycomb latte, hot and the London fog, iced. The coolest thing about the hot drinks were that they came in a cup that had a logo on it that appeared when the cup was hot! Temperature sensitive cups are cooler than I thought they would be. My friend said the honeycomb latte was pretty good and not crazy sweet. The London fog was made with a syrup which was a little sad as I hoped they would make it from a tea bag. It was still good though, and I liked that they offered an iced version.

The service was friendly and efficient. I'm not sure I would go back again unless I'm in the area and hunting for...

I only recently realized this was my local coffee shop, and you know what it’s a damn good local coffee shop. The honeycomb latte is actually a p smart drink that changes sweetness as time goes on (which makes it taste better relative to the last sip). It also uses light-medium roast Vietnamese coffee which is pretty similar to an Ethiopian, but with less tartness which works to create a really balanced drink. You can also get a pretty fun picture of it if you want as many others have.

I also got a cheddar and jalapeño biscuit. It was pretty good, and had that nice airy texture. The service was also great.

The only major downside is there’s no seating, hopefully they can move into a bigger location at some point.

The place is also def overpriced, so I probably won’t go again solo, but if I have a friend visiting who wants coffee, it’s...

I really want to like this place because it's close to work, but it just doesn't cut it for me. I have repeatedly gotten the matcha latte, somehow hoping it will get better, but today I realized why it's so weak, lukewarm, and bland. They use a pre-mixed matcha liquid in a transparent plastic container - hello, phthalates! - and then add frothed milk on top. I asked if they could make it a little stronger and they wanted to charge me extra for it - which I'd be more willing to pay if the drink did not need it because it is formulated incorrectly from the get-go. Their baristas are always sweet but they really need to re-think their formula. I did try their latte once and I think I liked it, so maybe I will stick to espresso drinks. Definitely expect more...