Voltaire Coffee Roasters — Restaurant in San Jose

Voltaire has a modern, office-building style feel with tall windows and lots of natural lighting. Here, they offer (specialty) coffee at a steeper price-point..which makes me a bit hesitant to frequent here.

Still, for our first visit here, we ended up getting some coffee to share over a room-temperature liege waffle -- and then more coffee to-go afterwards...

Food & Drinks: Iced Americano: Flavorful, non-bitter taste. Iced. Pretty good! Could still taste the coffee flavor over ice.

Matcha latte: This really hit the spot! I love anything matcha, and despite being mixed with milk, there were still hints of matcha flavor -- a perfect blend of both milk + matcha flavors.

Cold Brews: On the way out we decided to grab coffee to-go, it was an opportunity to try out some more of their coffee. These were iced, and the list of cold brew using different beans varied in price tag. The two flavors we got were distinct in its own flavors, and surpassed my expectations of the cold brews I'm used to getting from chain coffee shops.

Liege Waffle: Wow, this was disappointing. Small in size, room-temperature, stale texture... There wasn't really anything special about this at all. It's entirely hype! Save your money. I wasn't even offered a plate. Don't get me wrong, it tasted "good," but it's not as good as it looks, nor does it meet up to any sort of expectations.

Service: Pretty good, though I've had better service elsewhere. The staff behind the counter wasn't all that warm, and I can't even really remember if she offered help with the menu.

Environment: Clean, empty, quiet, modern.

Final thoughts: Would be back... rarely. Good coffee, but still overpriced despite being "specialty." Liege waffle not...

I was out for a morning walk while visiting San Jose and walked by this coffee house by my hotel. It was around 8:30am and the line was out the door! I was intrigued. It must be a good spot if there was such a long line...right? I didn't want to wait in the long line so I decided that I would continue my walk and see if the line had died down when I got back. Sure enough! About 45 minutes later there was no line out the door so I proceeded in to check out what all the hype was about. I found only one person in line and decided I would order a cup of java to see how it was. I actually ordered an americano with oat milk and decided to enjoy it there. The barista was very friendly and didn't seem rushed or like he was in a hurry to get my order and move onto something else. I felt welcomed and it felt like a homey, small town coffee place to me. Inside was clean with some tables and some bar seating. There was also a roaster in the corner where they roast their beans onsite. The vibe was comfortable and relaxing. I sat at the bar that was in front of the window where I enjoyed my coffee and people watched. The coffee was amazing! It was smooth and had a great flavor. You could definitely taste the difference between this coffee and Starbucks. No comparison. This was more European-like and had a fresh roasted taste. Definitely worth the money! Next trip to San Jose I think I will try their food also. So many yummy looking offerings. Don't...

Small coffee shop and roaster located in the heart of San Jose. Big points for the taste of coffee, friendliness of the staff, the free cookie (awesome), and offering freshly roasted coffee beans! Only improvement suggested could be more transparency about the coffee roasting (i.e. putting roast dates on the bags for sale, and strength of roast Medium/Dark, et) - for those of us that are unnecessarily picky about coffee beans. :p

[The Coffee] The coffee here is great. We got espresso and a cafe latte. What I noticed immediately is that this shop puts heavy emphasis on the quality of the coffee. The flavor here was off the charts. We ordered the drinks without any sugar so we could focus on the taste of the coffee, and we were super impressed! 10/10 for the coffee!

We normally buy bags of fresh roasted coffee from the shops in the Bay Area and found this shop via Google. As I noted above, the only improvement could be a little more transparency about the coffee roasting dates and strength. It would help those of us that are picky and too shy to ask the staff!

[The Location] The vibe here is really nice. Younger staff that seems pretty knowledgable about the coffee, the roasting process, and the coffee offered. I really enjoyed visiting this shop. It's in a neat little location. Parking can be difficult but there is a parking lot nearby for 7$. If it's a quick trip, just park anywhere and have someone watch the car when the ticket...