Verve Coffee Roasters — Restaurant in San Francisco

A Disappointing Experience at a Supposedly Specialty Coffee Shop

I was excited to visit Verve Coffee with a dear guest from outside the U.S. who is passionate about specialty coffee. Based on the café’s reputation, I recommended it, but unfortunately, the experience was terrible and far below expectations.

Poor Service

The barista who served us was cold, arrogant, and unfriendly, showing no effort to make the experience enjoyable. Instead, she was distant and condescending, as if she was forced to do the job. A simple greeting or professional attitude would have made a difference, but we received none of that.

Lack of Flexibility in Orders

My guest follows a specific diet and uses a particular sweetener that does not affect the taste negatively. In every other café we visited in the city, baristas were happy to add the sweetener to the espresso before pouring the milk to maintain the latte art. However, at Verve, this simple request was flatly refused in a rude and dismissive manner, with no explanation given in a professional way.

When my guest then asked for the café’s own sweetener instead, the barista agreed but responded coldly and with visible annoyance. When he requested three packets, she showed even more frustration and told him, “I got it, you can just wait for your name to be called.” This kind of attitude is unacceptable in any customer service environment.

Poor Coffee Quality

Given Verve Coffee’s “specialty” reputation, I expected a well-executed espresso extraction and properly steamed milk. Unfortunately, the milk was poorly textured, as seen in the attached photo. The presence of large bubbles on the surface of the flat white indicates improper microfoam preparation, which is a basic mistake that should not happen in a specialty coffee shop. To make matters worse, the sweetener provided by the café had a terrible aftertaste, ruining the drink entirely.

Final Verdict

Instead of being a pleasant and memorable visit with my guest, this experience was completely ruined by bad service, inflexibility, and subpar coffee quality. If you are looking for a specialty café in San Francisco that offers high-quality coffee and a welcoming atmosphere, this is definitely not the place.

I won’t be returning, and I certainly won’t recommend it to anyone who values good coffee or a...

I love Verve in South Bay and Santa Cruz, just not in SF. Espresso is good. Food is good from a local bakery. Staff is incredibly pretentious. Been 5x over 1.5 years, with a consistently unfriendly experience. Been in with my kids, been in with friends. You smile politely at them, they stare back stone face. You wait patiently at the register, they mosey on over incredibly slowly after 5 minutes of opening oat milk for no one -- no verbal cue that says I see you, will be right there with a smile. Then you miss the J Church train that was 20 minutes away. You ask for a stronger tea that doesn't look like water, they look at you like you committed a sin for giving polite feedback -- everyone makes mistakes, it really isn't a big deal the tea was slightly rushed, just want some more tea leaves to steep it more. You meet and gab with friends in the corner, and laugh at a joke -- they stare at you for having the audacity to laugh in their cafe. You ask a friendly question of what is the flavor of the donuts -- they look put off for having to spend the time to tell you about the doughnuts -- I should be able to figure out the frosted, with pink is blueberry -- no barista was wrong it is actually raspberry, how dare I ask twice to confirm it is raspberry...

I’m a big fan of Verve Coffee having worked right by their location in Downtown Los Angeles for the longest time. During my last trip to San Francisco, I was excited to see they had opened up a new location in the city. Since I loved hanging out at their LA location, I had to pop in to check it out for myself.

The espresso here is superb, I usually get a Gibraltar. If you feel like cold brew you won’t be disappointed. It’s on tap (nitro) and comes in a fancy goblet which makes it look like you’re downing a Guinness at 9am in the morning.

The food is fantastic. If you’re thinking avocado toast then I’d recommend adding a poached egg. It’s a simple and straightforward take on avocado toast with pickled onions and radishes. Their chia pudding was surprisingly delicious, not snotty and tasteless at all.

There’s no table service here so just head up to the register to order and then grab a seat. One negative is the seating is a little uncomfortable. If you’re not sitting on one of those cushioned booths your next choice is a hard wooden cube. There’s also an abundance of laptops here which can be annoying, but hey you’re in San Francisco so you shouldn’t be surprised. Finally, you need a code...