Pink Owl Coffee — Restaurant in San Rafael

I grew up in this town. This place hasn’t been around for a crazy long time but it’s done a lot better than other business that have come to this plaza. Unfortunately, their expansion onto 4th street seems to have ruined their quality control. When this place first opened, I was excited to finally have a good, cute coffee place nearby that was actually good.

When I went recently, I tried three times and everyday, a different coffee. They were all…not great. My guess? You need an adult with those teens. Because they don’t know how to make coffee. One drink we got was the Shaken Brown Sugar Oatmilk Cold Brew. You’d expect this to taste at least somewhat sweet, especially if it’s properly mixed in and has enough oatmilk…both of the same drink order were bitter and tasted like burnt coffee mixed with like what looked like 2 tablespoons of oatmilk and a very small layer of brown sugar stuck to the bottom. Every with the lack of oatmilk, the coffee tasted worse than starbucks. (I am the type of person that doesn’t go to starbucks). The Ube latte…is a purple version of what I just described, burnt tasting coffee. This time it had more oatmilk added. Tasted zero Ube, it gave nothing but the color purple. I had a Cortado one day. All I could taste was the dark bitter taste of the coffee, which I think is not of great quality, not a lot of that silky milk mix that cartados are supposed to be. Had a pastry, you could tell from the staleness of the pastry bread that it was not fresh and had probably been sitting there for a few days.

I tried my best to give the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it’s someone’s first day. Maybe it was just a fluke but 3 trips there ordering 2 drinks at a time and every single drink was disappointing.

Train your...

I highly don’t suggest this place. I’ve now tried twice and had bad experiences both times. Also want to state that it takes A LOT for me to write a review let alone a bad review..

First is the taste of the coffee, burnt like Starbucks. Second is the price. $1 for a splash of almond milk. Went there again today and asked them to top of my coffee because they left so much room for cream and they didn’t know what to do. So much so that the women had to ask the other women who had to then ask the other guy if it were okay to fill the cup of coffee that I paid for to the top. I hadn’t even taken a sip of the coffee. It seemed to be such a big deal that I in turn became super uncomfortable. I politely just said it was fine and left.

Would honestly suggest Moonlight deli next door for better service and a better cup of coffee. Just an overall bad experience both times I’ve been there and have felt cheated in regards to the product I got considering the price you...

This actually was 5 years ago, I came way late in the afternoon when it's not the best time to check it out (since coffee is a morning drink.) It’s in a discomforting area (parking lot full of hangouts.) Since I was on an errand run in the area, I stopped here out of curiosity due to its relationship with a business more local to my North San Rafael neighborhood. Place is stylistically decorated and the late afternoon coffee girl had a great smile in her eyes and huge burst of energy. .. As I add later from a recent morning visit, the experience is pretty much the same. However, I find important to add the fact that I finally had my first rice milk latte at a hometown Marin County coffee joint...